It’s not grindcore, it’s not death metal, but I simply have to write about this album. I stumbled upon the title track completely by accident on one of the black metal YouTube channels I follow.
The video and the music blew me away, and I immediately felt like I was being transported back to one of the most beautiful periods of my life.
I spent several years in Stockholm, and before that, a few months in the very heart of Sweden, surrounded by heavy snowfall and freezing temperatures. Those were days I still remember with a special kind of warmth, despite the fact that the temperatures were often brutally low. Maybe it’s that exact combination of cold and inner peace that immediately connected me with this song, but ultimately, with the entire album.
But back to the review.
Just a few days after watching that video, I received a promo package from a PR agency, along with the full album. To say that I’ve been listening to it almost daily ever since would be an understatement. When I saw that pre-orders for the vinyl were open, there was no hesitation. I had to have it in physical form!
“Tavastland” doesn’t win you over instantly with just its pagan aesthetics, but with subtle details that slowly sink in. The songs are simultaneously aggressive and anthemic, grandiose but never in a forced way. Everything sounds organic, as if the band didn’t set out to create something monumental, but instead, it simply happened. Like they sat down together, picked up their instruments, and just said out loud: “PLAY WHAT’S IN YOUR HEART!”
From the very first track, “Kuolematon Laulunhenki”, it’s clear that this isn’t an album you just put on in the background. Everything here serves the cold northern atmosphere. From the crushing drums to the guitar lines weaving between raw intensity and melancholic passages. The title track, “Tavastland”, the very song that introduced me to a band I had never even heard of before, sounds like something sung by someone who knows they might not see tomorrow but refuses to bow to death. You can almost picture the snow, the dark sky, and figures standing still, gripping their weapons tightly as the wind freezes their faces.
What amazes me the most is how HAVUKRUUNU uses vocals. There are piercing screams full of rage, but also choirs that breathe life into something ancient and powerful, never dipping into overblown theatrics. “Unissakävijä” shifts the dynamics, starting off with relentless blast beats, bringing a chilling sense of loss, while the closing track, undoubtedly the slowest on the album, “De Miseriis Fennorum”, wraps it all up in the best possible way – leaving you breathless, yet with the overwhelming urge to play the whole fucking thing again. I can’t remember the last time an album hit me this hard on the first listen.
I’m not sure what exactly struck me the hardest – whether it’s that crushing sense of battle against fate, the frost in the sound that sent shivers down my spine, or simply the fact that HAVUKRUUNU creates music that doesn’t sound like it was meticulously crafted in a studio, but rather like something that had to be made, something born out of pure instinct, out of blood and snow. Maybe it’s all of that combined.
What I do know is that bands capable of evoking this kind of reaction in me are becoming increasingly rare. Some albums come and go, but “Tavastland” isn’t just something I or you will listen to and move on from. It stays with you, buried deep, as a part of something you’ve maybe always felt but never had the right sound to bring it to life. My opinion (not that anyone really asked) is that this one will mark the year, but hopefully for even longer.
Check it out below and support this band.
