August 2007, City of Kannus (Osthrobotnia, Finland.) At the terrace of a local pub, in the midst of some nice beverages only suitable for adults, a decision of forming a new band is cast in concrete. The participants in this unholy train of thought are former Incarnate members Löytynoja (drums) and Kiviniemi (bass) and the plan was to continue the work of Incarnate but in a way more brutal approach. When Incarnate was sort of thrash metal with death metal influences, new idea was to head towards extreme and technical death metal. Name for the band had came up earlier the week almost by coincidence: KOMPOST.
So begins the rehearsing under the new Kompost-banner and songs are coming together almost by themselves. In rehearsals, Löytynoja still beats the drums but Kiviniemi plays guitar which eventually becomes his weapon-of-choice leading the band in finding new members in vocal, bass and 2nd guitar departments. What the dynamic duo is unaware of is that this completion of the band’s lineup would turn into somewhat pain in the ass in the years to come…
In the late spring 2008 the band is ready to hit the recording studio for the first time. Coffin Studios was given the honour to be the place where the first Kompost recording was meant to be put on tape. The band dives into the smoky pits of Coffin, and after a while returns into daylight with three recorded songs. On these first recordings, along with the drumming, Löytynoja takes also the duties of a vocalist and Kiviniemi handles the stringed instruments. Musically, the original idea of making brutal and technical death metal is achieved way beyond belief when the music sounds something like the musicians had never done before. The lyrics are written in English, blessed with the names like Born in a Compost and Experimental Suicide. For reasons whatsoever, the recordings are never published for wider audience. The bands “to do-list” is still stained with the same topics as before: write new songs and search for more musicians in this jolly, but retarded group.
Fast forward to January 2013. Kompost is still running as a two-piece. Several musicians have come and gone during the years never leading into something stable. The band has recorded yet another three track demo but left it so unfinished that it was again put to shelf and was never released. After getting frustrated and bored with playing and writing music as a duo the band had also experienced a lengthy period of hibernation. It was all about to change when Kiviniemi ran into Bister, a vocalist of a Ylivieska-based death metal band Ydin. Bister was already on familiar terms with both Komposters, especially with Löytynoja who played the drums in Ydin in the first few years of the bands existence. It was Ydin’s turn to hibernate at the very moment when Kiviniemi popped out the question if Bister was willing to join Kompost, which Bister was.
The rot-stenching activity in Kompost camp was burst into flame after Bister joined the force. A new dimension was found in the rehearsals when these hellish voices and grunts were roaring through, and sometimes above the wall of sound the drums and guitar were creating. From the early on, Bister took also the duties of writing the lyrics for the band. In the beginning the language of the lyrics was remained in English but it was to change eventually in the band’s own native language, Finnish. When Kompost’s earlier songs were about something and anything ultra-violent, new lyrics were of a more realistic grounds; the downsides of the life around us and, pardon the language, things that are so fucked up that it’s nauseating. Most of the old songs were thrown in the garbage for reasons varied, mainly because the band was determined to be able to write much better music and so some of the old tunes weren’t even close to the idea of what this band was capable of.
Finally, in the summer 2014 came the time of the first actual Kompost-release. The brand new spawn was named Harhavasara and it consisted of three new Kompost tracks, recorded in the Coffin Studios again. The demo was released only in digital format and gained moderately good reactions and feedback. The band’s music had developed into an evil combination of technical death metal and grind core and something more undefinable, yet still forging the extreme territories of death metal. The song titles, such as Rangaistuksellinen ylilyönti and the title track tells a cruel story of the world of shit where we are forced to live.
April 2017, Kannus, Finland. Kompost releases their 2nd official release. This putrid excrement is entitled Vastareaktio and this time the demo consists of five new Kompost tunes, the best up to date. The recordings of the demo were once again taken care of in the depths of the Coffin Studios. A totally new level has been reached music-wise as the most extreme parts are something that really troubles and daunts the listeners not so familiar with this kind of death metal. As before, the songs contain only the parts that seem relevant to the song itself, nothing more, nothing less which is the main reason the demo in its entirety clocks in around 11 minutes, one song usually around 1-2,5 minutes. This is proven to be somewhat the ideal length of a Kompost-song; the beating and the brutality is so severe that a normal listener is clinging on to life by the skin of one’s teeth after this time spent, you can say it’s easily compared to a one round of a boxing match…
Lyric-wise the songs have basically stayed in the same regions as previously, telling stories about the world gone insane and most of all; the humans gone insane. Stories so extreme and brutal as the music they are written onto, only these stories are from a todays “normal” life. Vastareaktio, Tuomio, Sietoraja and Vainoharhakuva are titles that tell you what they’re made of, Valon säteet may be a title that sounds promising and positive in the first place, but the lyric itself is all the opposite.
Vastareaktio is a product the band is extremely proud of and why not; it’s one hell of a record in any ways considered. The band is also determined to push it forwards no matter what, to reach new levels not only artistic, and is going to take an active role in social media and maybe the good n’ old print media too if possible. The Vastareaktio-demo is released only in a digital format at first but some different accessories will also be put out to promote the release in the near future. The first gig is under heavy planning, and also the chronic shortage of the band’s lineup is about to be resolved so the world of Kompost is worth the following still in the days to come.
Vastareaktio-demo can be streamed free in its entirety in the following www-address. https://soundcloud.com/kompost-deathmetal . The previous Harhavasara-demo is also streamable for free in that address.
Lyrics can be read (only in Finnish at the moment) in http://kompostdeathmetal.blogspot.fi/ . Contains also some extra stuff, comments etc.
Official Facebook: www.facebook.com/kompostdm/
