Finland’s Havukruunu ( ‘coniferous crown’) first got on my radar with 2017’s Kelle Surut Soi, but in 2020, they obliterated my radar with 2020’s Uinuos syömein sota, which was my clear-cut favorite album of the year. The funny thing is, we have never actually reviewed them! Well let’s fix that together, shall we?

The word ‘rousing’, ‘epic’, or ‘majestic’ gets thrown around a lot. And I am guilty of overusing it myself. And certainly, those words do fit on occasion, for example, Soar’s fine recent effort or 2024’s The Mist From The Mountains album, but I doubt you’ll a more fitting use of those words here in 2025 than on Havukrunnu’s stupendously good fourth album, Tavastland.

Based on the Tavastian uprising of 1235-1237, where a province of Finland rose up against The Kingdom of Sweden and the Catholic Church, the subject matter alone calls for some rousing (buckle up, I’m gonna use that word a lot), epic, and majestic metal, and holy shit do Havukruunu deliver.

The band’s sound, which still consists of atmospheric/pagan black metal mixed with Viking-era Bathory, and a less long-winded Moonsorrow (though they do have a 10-minute song on this album), a sound they and fellow Finns, Marrasmieli have mastered, has been finely honed and crafted to deliver 53 minutes of sheer, blood pumping, truly rousing black metal, heavy metal, power metal mash-up that could cause you to rise up and revolt wherever you live.

“Kuolematon laulunhenki”, starts off the fracas with a stern, mid-paced stomp rife with rousing, Hammertheart-esque clean choirs which are prevalent on almost all the songs, and it sets the tone for the next 7 tracks of sheer perfection, as it weaves a rousing, majestic path through the marching prose and eventual more urgent black metal pacing.

Going through the next 7 songs, seems mindless, as they are all simply brilliantly written and performed, and you should experience and feel them for your selves, blind, without my blathering. That said, the pure Bathory worship of “Yönsynty”, the more fierce “Talvenvarjo”, the title track’s downright blood-pumping chorus, and the vitriolic melodicism and majesty of “Unissakävijä” and its Iron Maiden ish jaunt/solo about 3:30in, are all just fucking amazing. Then, the penultimate song “Kun veri sekoittuu lumeen” feels like a Bathory tribute or medley/cover song at times, especially the closing choral moments which I think are pulled directly from Hammerheart.

11-minute closer “De Miseriis Fennorum”, gets close to being a little much, considering the album’s already pretty long run time, especially with the final 3 minutes being largely windswept atmospherics and instrumental.  However, I imagine it ends the story of the Tavastland uprising in perfect fashion (my Finnish isn’t that great), and ends another sure-fire album of the year contender from these absolute masters of their craft.

[Visit the band's website]

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