Klubi, Turku 2005.
Style: Metallic hardcore
Years active: 1996-2008
Discography:
Down My Throat – Self-Titled 7″ / 1998 / Full House Records
Promo / Demo 1999 CDr / 1999 / D.I.Y.
Building The Legacy (Compilation) CD / 1999 / Full House Records
Step To The Plate (Compilation) CD / 2000 / Thornz Records
Down For Life (Compilation) 7″ / 2000 / Full House Records
Real Heroes Die CD / 2001 / Full House Records
Now And Then CDr / 2002 / D.I.Y.
Through The River Of Denial CD / 2005 / Full House Records, Combat Rock Industry
It was summer of 2002 in Turku and i went to see a hardcore show, first time in our lives with my friend. It was, as we later found out, the last “Beatdown By The Laituri” -show, that went on couple times in early 2000′s. Line up was; Avoid Eye Contact (Turku), Worth The Pain (Lappeenranta), Carpe Diem (Pori) and Down My Throat (Helsinki) and little did i know, my life would be changed forever after that night. What went on, was kids “beating each other up” along every band (how would i know it was called dancing?), singer of Black Betsy took a 2-metre long bench and rushed it into the crowd, nazi skinheads showed up before Carpe Diem played, leaving soon after and beating up Hate Unit‘s singer, as he “somehow” insulted them outside the venue. This is something i remember from that night, but what struck me the most that time, was the last band who played.
TVO, Turku, 2007.
Helsinki has always been important place to the birth of “heavier” brand of hardcore music in Finland, many guys who would be later forming bands like; Down My Throat, Bolt, The Unloved, Past Glories, Cutdown etc., were there from the start, building their legacy from nothing, doing their thing from a scratch. There wasn’t much hardcore, as we know it today, around in early 90′s in Finland, first straight edge bands had emerged already in ’89-91, but it was still more of old school hardcore or punk than “heavy” hardcore. Bands like Down My Throat and Morning After were few of the first bands to start draw heavily influences from New York hardcore, bands like the Cro-Mags, Biohazard and everything in between them. Before that time there were of course other bands such as Endstand, who in the start played pretty heavy stuff (in vein of EARTH CRISIS) and bunch of straight edge bands like: 50×50 and Bonded With Blood, but heavier NY influenced stuff wasn’t yet fully coming up until mid to late ’90′s.
Unofficially Down My Throat was found in ’95 with different name, Surrender, that at the time was thought as bit too “krishna” by the guys, so they decided to look for another name. They started to find their form in 1996 and originally the band had different singer, Sacha and Kristian entered the band when Sacha had to leave to live in England for his studies there. They never didn’t record anything with the line-up before Kristian. Story of Down My Throat is in a way a beginning of also another important cornerstone of Finnish hardcore, cause in need for a label to release their music, Kristian had to start one.
Full House Records was founded in 1997 to put out Down My Throat’s first release, S/T 7″, that was quickly released as the label’s first release back in early ’98. Today, valued hardcore collector’s gem, 7″ demonstrated the birth of their style, uncompromising heavy hardcore, in recorded form, containing four tracks on black and limited blue vinyl. Quickly hardcore started to become little bit bigger in Finland, more bands started to pop up and Full House put out more records, making name with quality release after release. DMT of course released most of their discography through Fullhouse, but let’s continue about them more soon in an later date.
Semifinal, Helsinki 2006.
After DMT put out the S/T 7″, they ventured on fast with writing new material, recording a promo/demo cdr in ’99. Some of that promo’s material was featured on several compilations, Thornz Records (from Chicago) release; Step To The Plate, that was a split release featuring also Denied (NY), Strength For A Reason (PA) and Full Court Press (Netherlands). Other releases they were featured on were a Finnish compilation and scene document; Building The Legacy (Full House Records) and another Finnish compilation, Down For Life 7″ (Full House Records).
Compiled from influences within both, hardcore and thrash/metal realms, Down My Throat blended their unique style of metallic hardcore into perfection on their first full-length, Full House Records released, Real Heroes Die. It really blew everyone away as it took their NYHC influences even further, but was injected with heavy, thrash ridden riffing, creating a sound that still today sounds like no other. So here with Real Heroes Die, their trademark sound was born. Released in 2001, Real Heroes Die marks a major landmark for Down My Throat, as they started to become one of the most known Finnish hardcore bands outside Finland and the record is today regarded as one of the best records in whole Full House Records catalogue. They combined perfectly the sheer force and raw strength of hardcore with heaviness of metal and thrash, songs like; Shattered, Burn, Real Heroes Die and epic ending, Keeping On, Keeping On (feat. Niclas and Sasu “The Monkey Brothers” of Death From Above (Helsinki / Nummela)), are just couple examples why this record is so amazing. Balancing heaviness, they also had included their take of old school NYHC classic, Life’s Blood‘s Youth Enrage. At this point the band consisted of Kristian -vocals, Antti -guitar, Jukka -bass and Arttu -drums and as time went on, DMT played shitloads of shows in Finland and s couple in europe too.
After Real Heroes Die, next release was DIY compilation called, Now And Then, that the band compiled and released by themselves. This record collected together DMT’s early releases on one cdr, with one brand new track. So it featured on one disc, their 7″, promo / demo ’99, compilation tracks and some live / rehearsal tracks (including Bolt/DMT together doing cover of Judge‘s classic, Forget This Time). I’ve had this compilation as mp3′s, but i never got a hard copy of it, as it was already sold out when i tried to order it from the band, back then.
Baarikaappi, Pori, 2006. Feat. Sami of St. Hood.
Around 2003 to late 2004, the band kept mostly laying low and writing new material and they added another guitar for their lineup, as Jukka L. switched from bass to 2nd guitar and Janne (Bolt, Homefront, Death From Above) stepped in to play bass. During this period, there were rumours about that Krisse had problems with his vocals, which turned out to be true and it seemed uncertain if the band would continue going on. But they took some time off and kept it together, slowly people started to talk about a new Down My Throat record and the band’s return to the stages. In September of 2004, they got back on stage and soon the follower for Real Heroes Die was talked about. It was to be titled Through The River Of Denial and first taste off it was released as mp3′s on their homepage in summer 2005, in form of songs Vermouth Breath and Arms Of A Siren.
Second Down My Throat full-length was released late 2005 and 2006 brought some changes to the line-up, as Jukka N. (TKU Blindside, Back Against The Wall) stepped in to handle 2nd guitar for the band, to replace Jukka L., who left the band. After release of intense second album, that brought Down My Throat’s heaviness into another level, but added a lot melody to songs structures, they again continued to play shows. They hit Europe together with St. Hood in summer of 2006, they had 11 dates booked, but since i wasn’t there with them and it’s a long time ago, i can’t recall how many shows they actually got to play. I remember some shows being cancelled due what it may be, but someone whose memory serves better, might enlighten us?
Full House Records 10-Years, Nosturi, Helsinki, 2008.
Through The River Of Denial introduced even heavier Down My Throat, their hybrid of hardcore thrash metal was here spiced with more melodic guitar parts, while still maintaining that crushing heaviness. They kind of added even more that old school metalcore sound, that bands like All Out War and Merauder so well performed, but had their own more modern take on it. This is how they also widened their audience as a fan of more metal(core) music like; Unearth, Killswitch Engage, All That Remains, could find himself liking Down My Throat, as much as hardcore kid would. Burn My Eyes sends off the album and unrelenting, Vermouth Breath, follows it into the third track, Kiss It Goodbye, where you finally hear how well the melodic parts fit in the mix with all of the heaviness. Krisse is doing a sick job, sounding as furious and desperate as ever and he continues to lay lyrics as venomous as ever. Lights Out, balances nicely between shattering riffage and melodic parts, ending into hard, hard breakdown. Sami (St. Hood) drops in for guest vocals on Grey, that sort of continues lyrically from St. Hood’s song Blessed With Trust, where Kristian did guest part in. Even darker realms and soundscapes take over on Through The River Of Denial, but there’s still bit of hope time to time lyrically, like in the song, Anchor. DMT has always had eye for amazing album ender, since Broken Glass Of Failure / Wake Us Up, does pretty much the same job as Keeping On, Keeping On, did on Real Heroes Die. Pummeling riffs open up Broken Glass Of Failure and it drives down melodic passage into traditional Down My Throat signature hardcore assault and when the song moves into Wake Us Up, you’ll get to hear pretty damn fine leads by both Antti and Nino Lauranne (Thunderstone / Antidote), who recorded and mixed the album.
Full House Records 10-Years, Nosturi, Helsinki 2008.
What ultimately almost turned out to be Down My Throat’s last show, was in September of 2007, when they played in Sweden at annual Deadfest with such bands as; Ratface, Six Ft. Ditch, Have Heart etc. Again i can’t recall why they decided to put call it off after that show, but luckily they decided to do one final show in Finland, to put the beast into rest properly. The last Down My Throat show went on at Full House Record’s 10-year celebration show in 2008, where most of the label’s active bands played a show, in Nosturi, Finland. Down My Throat posted this announcement regarding their breakup on their homepage;
“Due to lack of time and interest we have come to the conclusion that there’s no reason to continue this band in this form. We’re just too busy with other projects at the moment (and have been for a while now) and this band hasn’t been going anywhere for a long time now since we really haven’t had the energy to concentrate on it anymore.
I’m too busy making St.Hood sound bad with my sloppy playing and pretending to be a record producer/audio engineer and making other bands’ records sound bad. Kristian is too busy tattooing his ugly drawings on local kids & lowlifes and living his wannabe “biker/rockabilly rebel” life. Born to be wild…. yeah right… you’ll just make an ass out of yourself and fall down with that bike… again. Visse is just busy ruining Bolt. That band actually used to be quite good before this monkey started writing for them. Good luck to Bolt… you’ll need it! Arttu is busy farting all day and playing drums for Cutdown. He’s actually quite good at one of those things… guess which one? Jukka is busy giving people diarrhea with his “delicious” cookings. Have a good time flipping burgers for the rest of your life mate!
So as you can see we’re still very much around and will be making bad music etc.
Huge thanks to all the people who helped us out during these years of our existence, bought our records and came to our shows. We all had a blast and enjoyed every single moment of it!”
Nosturi show was nothing short of amazing, as they always were in live situation. They played tight set containing all crucial songs from both full-lengths and even some older ones. Down My Throat did leave huge boots unfilled, being one, maybe even the most important, of the first wave of metallic hardcore bands in Finland. Excellent bands that emerged during same era from their city, such as, Bolt and Cutdown, have also done equally amazing work as flag bearers of Helsinki hardcore. Still none have matched sound or style of Down My Throat, since their venomous brand of heavy, thrash-ridden hardcore has always had very special something in it. No question that DMT, one of the few first Finnish hardcore bands i’ve ever seen play live, has been a huge inspiration to me and you have to respect them for having done so much for the whole Finnish hardcore scene. Through all the years they have been here, they have stayed true to hardcore and the scene. They were among the ones who started to build their legacy from nothing, in this small cold country, trying and succeeding to make their mark in the world of hardcore music.
Rest in peace. Down My Throat 1996-2008.
Buy:
Full House Records Store
Combat Rock Shop
Interpunk
Listen:
Down My Throat -Myspace
Down My Throat -Homepage
