Some years ago I went to see Maj Karma in the legendary Tavastia club in Helsinki. While taking off my jacket, an old friend of mine from the staff came to discuss a little. We talked about the upcoming gig and Maj Karma band which on that time was a pretty unique and artistic band. Soon my friend asked if I had heard about Mokoma. I said I have not and I asked what kind of music they play. “They play trash metal and they are unique, aggressive and furious. You will like them”. I promised to check them out. That was a good decision. I never get bored with Mokoma.
Mokoma is really an interesting trash metal band. They sing in Finnish, which tightens their market to cover a bit more than 10 000 fans, but the guys are not here for the money. They have a great passion to make their music and they are satisfied with the fact that they will never reach a big audience. Why not? The two reasons are that they sing in Finnish and they make aggressive trash metal which is not as popular as many other music genres, such as rap and punk rock. Anyhow, Mokoma plays trash metal that definitely makes you bang your head. Their albums are fantastic, but they are even better on stage. They know how to entertain metalheads.
Mokoma’s first records included only clean vocals, but in their latest albums majority of the vocals are screaming and death metal grunts. Mokoma’s singer Marko Annala is an average singer and therefore his clean vocals are not the best part of their music. As soon as Annala changes to death metal grunts or screaming, he definitely rocks. Marko Annala sings with great passion and energy and it is a pleasure to listen to his aggressive singing.
Marko Annala writes the lyrics that many times are related to his own feelings and experiences. For example, in their previous record, Kuoleman Laulukunnaat, Marko Annala wrote much about his intimate experiences with life and relationships. Marko Annala has become better and better with lyrics, and personally I like most the lyrics of Kuoleman Laulukunnaat album.
Mokoma’s new album Luihin ja Ytimiin is out now. There are few samples available in Mokoma’s MySpace site. The new albums seems to be the most aggressive Mokoma album in which Mokoma experiments with trash, death and black metal elements. Mokoma does not follow any rules which can be realized from unpredictable compositions. This is one of the keys that make Mokoma’s music long-lasting. Nujerra Ihminen begins with a real kick-start and continues with aggressive riffs and fast speed. It is a good example of the new album.
Mokoma does not make mainstream music. Their music includes massive riffs, interesting hooks, energetic drums, furious screaming and helluva lot more details that make their music long-lasting. Mokoma’s music is not easy to swallow if you are not interested in trash metal. If you are, then you might easily get hooked. Check out their albums and make your own conclusions. Mokoma is a great live band who is reaching more and more fans. If you are coming to Finland on next summer, check out Mokoma’s tour dates and find yourself in their audience. I bet you would not be disappointed.
I could write a book about Mokoma, but this time this is enough. Check out the video below. What do you think about Mokoma? Like it or not? Just drop a comment, please. I would like to hear your opinions as well.
Image source: Mokoma MySpace website.






Hell yeah!
I really like Mokoma, and I like the fact that they don’t sing in English.
Hi Garg the Unzola, nice to hear that you like Mokoma, even though they sing in Finnish. They are one of the leading trash bands here in Finland, although they are pretty much an underground band. They have great attitude.