Some bands shout. Some scream. But Kosto? They strike. Hard. Clean. Surgical. The Finnish nu metal outfit channels rage, sorrow, and personal reckoning into something bigger than genre or sound. And with the release of their debut EP kiitos., they’re not just making noise…

Founded in 2021, Kosto (Finnish for avenge) is built on the ruins of pain. But this isn’t about bitterness. It’s about reclaiming the narrative, reshaping trauma into something oddly beautiful. Something brutal, sure, but also poetic in its honesty.

Kosto’s EP kiitos. landed recently, and it wasn’t a soft launch. The band has sharpened its teeth through singles like “Kipupiste,” “En ole,” and “Pahanilmanlintu,” each tackling heavy themes like narcissism, depression, and substance abuse. But the EP’s opener, “Haaska,” is an unreleased gut-punch that makes it painfully clear: this is not background music. This is confrontation.

“‘Haaska’ is based on a real case, a kind of cult that manipulated its members,” Jarno added. “It’s about how people get drawn into these groups and how hard it is to recover.”

Guitarist and founding member Sami Selei tells me the band was born from personal chaos: “We started this as revenge against all the crap we’ve experienced. This EP is our ‘thank you’ to those who made Kosto necessary in the first place.”

“The lyrics have to mean something,” Sami says. “Otherwise, why scream at all?”

Nu Metal. Crossover. Hardcore. But in Finnish.

Kosto’s sound hits like early 2000s nu metal, but it’s layered with a particularly Finnish melancholy. That somber beauty you only find in long winters and short tempers. It’s an approach that feels both familiar and new, a genre revival with distinctly local flavor.

“We grew up with Limp Bizkit and Papa Roach and stuff like that, so I think it’s kind of built in us. It’s our DNA,” Sami says. “We’ve always liked the groove, the bounce, and I think we’ve never heard that in Finnish. So we just wanted to try to bring that into our own music.”

Now joined by like-minded players, Kosto is evolving into something raw and cohesive. Something that pulls you in and then demands you stay.

Beyond the Music

Jarno isn’t your typical metal frontman. He used to be a professional football player. Then came theatre. Now, he’s channeling it all into Kosto.

“There’s a kind of structure in both,” he says about the similarities between football and performing live. “But what makes it real is when you feel it, when you stop thinking and just are in the moment.”

Jarno’s personal journey reads like a script: early dreams crushed, confidence lost, depression creeping in. But then came theatre. Then music.

For Jarno, making music isn’t just about the sound, it’s rather a deeply personal outlet. “I think when you are in a band and you start to create music and you write lyrics and you go into the studio, you perform live… it’s really about telling your story,” he explains.

The Poetic Kind of Pain

So much of Kosto’s music revolves around vulnerability. Jarno, who lost his mother in 2023 after a long battle with Alzheimer’s, turned grief into lyrics.

“Some of the lyrics were written after my mom passed away in 2023. She was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease for the last two years. I was processing my childhood and the feeling of letting go. ’kiitos.’ has a lot of loneliness in the lyrics. I tried to find those places of loneliness in my life and make poetic narratives for those moments.”

And that’s the paradox of Kosto. It’s aggressive, yes. But it’s also intimate. There’s rage and ruin, but also gratitude. The name may mean avenge, but the intent? It’s much more human.

Everything you do in art is political. Listeners take the art as they see it. We make the music we like and lyrics tell their own story. And sometimes the lyrics aren’t straightforward. You can write about alcoholism but someone hears it as a breakup-song or something different. You cannot completely control your lyrics or the way people hear them. Our goal is not to be political but we make sure everybody in Kosto stands behind our lyrics. We share the same kind of view in life. – Jarno