Havukruunu: Tavastland
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Andy Brown reviews Tavastland, an album of epic black metal from Havukruunu. He raises some devil horns for Louder Than War.
The days may be starting to get a little warmer but you can count on Havukruunu to deliver some reliably icy riffs. An album filled with history and mythology, the album title – Tavastland – refers to a Finnish tribe called the Tavastians. Guitarist/ vocalist Stefa elaborates, describing how the Tavastians rebelled against the church and, “drove the popes naked into the frost to die.” It’s an album about a bloody past and an isolated, utterly disconnected, present. It’s also an album filled with cold yet decidedly epic black metal.
If you’re wondering just how epic Tavastland is then you need look no further than opening track, Kuolematon Laulunhenki. A brief atmospheric introduction gives way to an almighty onslaught of blast beats, guttural vocals and huge metal riffs. Oh, and there’s a choir. A fucking choir! This isn’t black metal for isolated cabins and misanthropic musings, this is music far more suited to standing – triumphantly – on a snow-capped mountainside. It’s been a while, but I may have to break old the old air guitar.
Yönsynty continues to bombard us with unashamedly massive black metal; blackened guitars break out into heroic solos as the choir ensure it all feels satisfyingly cinematic. While some of their peers prioritise sheer brutality, Havukruunu aren’t afraid to open things up a little. Rest assured; the vocals remain harsh and reassuringly demonic. The words are in Finnish but it’s worth looking up the translations for beauties like, “Thou knowest Sorrows of man/ Thou knowest of ephemeral time.” I’m not sure what it means, but it sounds undeniably METAL.
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While some black metal embraces a decidedly lo-fi aesthetic, Tavastland is a record that strides out of the speakers on horseback while carrying a guitar and screaming about Valhalla. This is sizable and symphonic metal with a sense of scope. It’s around the middle of the LP where I feel like the band really start to show their teeth. The blast-beats and riffs on Havukruunu ja Talvenvarjo hit like a landslide while the relentless pace and heightened drama of the title track is damn near overwhelming. It’s kinda sunny outside but I feel like I’m wading through a snowstorm.
Kuoleman Oma begins with some acoustic, medieval-sounding instrumentation. As you might expect, this soon gives way to a huge, juggernaut of a riff. The title translates to Death-Doomed and contains lyrics about heathen gods and “chasms of death.” A gloriously over the top bombardment of metal. Unissakävijä then delivers an impressively dense and impenetrable wall of fist-pumping, Viking-like metal. Nice! Kun veri sekoittuu lumeen goes full Game of Thrones with lyrics like, “Clad in Black/ Bearing Mighty weapons/ Crown upon his brow/ the king in the mist.” Winter is coming folks, best break out the studded belts and devil horn-worthy riffs.
The band go out in a blaze of black metal glory with the 10-minute De miseriis Fennorum. The track encapsulates and expands on everything that’s great about the album: the riffs, the blast beats, the sense of scale and that fucking incredible choir. The lyrics speak about old gods and nature and describe the tech-obsessed modern world as a “fake-ass electric-light asylum.” If you ask me, Jeff Lynne really needs to start a metal-inspired project called Fake Ass Electric Light Asylum. Who wants to start the petition?
While I’ll admit that I have soft spot black metal that sounds like it was recorded on a Dictaphone in a freezing cold basement, it’s hard to deny the albums well-produced and unabashedly epic charms. I won’t be throwing it on every day but Tavastland is an admirably committed and uncompromising slice of larger-than-life metal. If you want some pagan black metal with a choir, brutal vocals and humongous guitars – and let’s face it, who doesn’t – then step this way.
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You can find Havukruunu on Facebook, Instagram and Bandcamp.
All words by Andy Brown. You can visit his author profile and read more of his reviews for Louder Than War here.
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