Havukruunu – Tavastland Review

The forests endure the human experience—life, death, and the pages between. Each river, tree, peak, and valley tells a story. That tale is that of nature’s inevitable victory through it all. And victorious it shall remain.

Now nearly two decades into existence, Havukruunu lather palettes with grim hues using a brush of cold Finnish black metal. What, at times, sounds so hopeless is also music that embodies the spirit of the triumphant. Ten years of demos and EPs culminated in the debut 2015 full-length Havulinnaan and its various successors. Each is a concoction of themes frozen in black metal history: paganism, nature, and misery. While a perfect recipe for stereotypical Finnish, Swedish, and Hellenic extreme metal, Havukruunu’s most alluring quality is authenticity—no gimmicks, just music backed by the music itself.

Nearly four years since the band’s last release, the Kuu Erkylän Yllä EP, they’ve returned with LP No. 4, Tavastland. Still as poetic and spectral as ever, Havukruunu continues exploring many soundscapes and atmospheres. Grand in spirit and delivery, just as you’d find on something like Blood Fire Death, the songs are the backtracks to a heroic demise…or a fine day to die, if you will. Despite these evident influences, Havukruunu is far from a worship band. These claymores clash to the beat of their drum, which sincerely breathes new life into each of their offerings. However, they still hold to a particular radiance that hangs around their discography like a lingering war-torn spirit.  

Havukruunu’s finest release up to this point, in my humble opinion, fell upon ears in 2017. Atmospheric, barbaric, and conquering, Kelle Surut Soi bestowed an apparent sharpening of the proverbial blade. From the acoustics to the choir-like hymns and all the things that make the folkier side of black metal so admired in the underground scene, Havukruunu were as piercing as the edge of a dagger.

Tavastland is a return to a familiar wild, scattered with the occasional trapdoor opening a descent into some of the most intriguing contributions from the Finnish group. While far from sounding anything remotely similar to Finland residents in Moonlight Sorcery, who hodgepodge symphonic power and black metal elements, Havukruunu as impressively dials in the influence of folky-ness and epic heavy metal. The band has stated that Tavastland, thematically, recounts the Tavastian rebellion against the Church of Christ in 1237, with dabs of revealing past sins and “lies of consolation.” But in a more granular sense, the album is somewhat of a commentary on the freedom we lost along the way—driven far from the forests we more intimately treasured—instead prisoners of isolation fixated on the technologies surrounding us. Epic, indeed.

Tavastland arrives with the most in-your-face heavy metal riff of their careers on “Kuolematon Laulunhenki.” Of course, throughout the curtain raiser, Havukruunu wistfully interweaves their trademark choir vocals and breakneck work behind the kit and throws in a killer solo that bleeds the iciness of a ruthless winter. “Yönsynty” presents a similar atmosphere—fist-pumping heavy metal with a traditional black metal guitar tone. But even when they decide to draw back the riffage for more ethereal vocal echoes, each move is laid out to carve the greater sonic narrative.

During the first 12 minutes of Tavastland, Havukruunu display a laser focus on lead-playing, a trend that captured my attention on their previous LP Uinuos Syömein Sota. But on Tavastland, something about it sounds more eerie within the confines of the song. If the leads on the last record were the coup de grace, here, they’re the soundtrack to afterlife transcendence.

You’ll hear the band’s primitive sound on the title track, straddling the duality of melancholy and heroism, much of which is supported by the utilization of the triumphant tremolo riffing you’ve heard throughout their careers. So, fear not if you’ve grown to love their back catalog—it’s as present as ever—the same with “Havukruunu Ja Talvenvarjo.” But then you have “Kuoleman Oma,” a battle march built upon a chugging riff straight from the ’80s before an acoustic break and two throat-slicing solos. Pound-for-pound, it’s the strongest song on the album. More influences land on “Unissakävijä”—back-to-back tasteful nostalgia trips, especially that Tom G. Warrior, ugh.

Tavastland is another black metal album in the epic vein for the Finnish outfit, but it might just be their most well-written, polished, and unapologetically ’80s/’ 90s-inspired offering to date. Still capturing what makes your favorite legacy acts so irresistible, Havukruunu whip together a smorgasbord of them all—the Bathorys, Rotting Christs, and Moonsorrows—but are creating a unique legacy of their own. A must listen, and a superbly enjoyable one at that.