There is a reason why Finnish noise/power electronics scene is being called one of the strongest and most interesting ones in the world. But these compliments mostly goes when talking about S.I.C.K. organization (or how should it be called?) and its members for this is the core of the scene from my point of view. Kriminaaliset Metsänhaltijat is not 100% from Finland (part of the band is from Karelia) and they are not in the "scene", but I liked what they've presented in this release. The band consists of three persons. It is alive for who-knows-how-many-years, but their first release, according to discogs, was published just several years ago, in 2007. Bigger part of their oficially released albums are old recordings, starting from 1997 that reaches wider publicity just now. This record is dated to 2004. And the most important thing when talking about this band that cannot be missed is the ultra left wing anarchist attitude mixed with nihilism. This fact, I'd say, is the main mover of their creations and the main source of inspiration. Dedication of this tape is more or less clear. On album cover - sources of hate of Kriminaaliset Metsänhaltijat listed. And after unfolding the whole insert, a nice painting is revealed. Fat man with roller in his hands rolls it over the pile of humans and a little provocation - "FUCK YOUR POWER ELECTRONICS".
The sound caught my ear from the very first second. It's multilayered, dark and oppressive bulk. NATO is not an aggressive album. It's constant scornful scream in your face. Vocal, though burried deeply under effects and I can't understand a word it's saying, practically does not fall silent for a longer period of time in the whole album. Monotonous dismal tones of synth, episodical feedback, field records, stifling vocal and everchanging array of noises in the background. Despite the fact that sounds are very tightly layered, but they're divided to left and right side so that they don't drown in chaos, but are heard rather clearly. Truth is after some time of listening, this album becomes monotonous. At the moment, after numerous times I've listened to these five tracks, I still wouldn't clearly distinguish which is which. That's mainly because of rather formulaic fundament of sound and its sameness, permanent attack of vocal etc. But all in all I liked the big picture of NATO. Dreary and hateful work. In my plans - to get acknowledged with other works of this band so that I could compare at least. This album is not somewhat exceptional or truly impressive, but it seems that this band has it's strength and so I'm curious what they've managed to record during all these long years.

Format: CS
Released: 2009
Label: Triangle Records
Edition: 60