Havukruunu : " Uinuos Syömein Sota"

After enough viking metal I finally decided if it is not Scandinavian it's cultural appropriation. Thanks to the Vikings tv, all kinda of corn bread eating Americans are going around with Thor's hammer around their neck. These guys have a legit enough sound. Being from Finland this is not what I think of when I think of black metal, it has nothing to do with Horna. The do have sung vocal choruses and shredding solos. Their over all sound makes me think of Moonsorrow. The songs are a reasonable length. The do have a uniform sound to their triumphant gallop. I would put them closer to pagan or folk metal as they are too happy to really be black metal. The band's name means coniferous crown, so not very dark there at all. The guitar solos are pretty impressive though. I think if they do not swtich it up a little by the next song I will begin to get bored.

It is a mixed bag as they blast into the third song faster and more furious, but speed alone doesn't be much for me. Then midway into the song they break down into a folk part before the dazzling solo section sweeps in. Even when they come in blastng hard I am not convinced they are black metal. They come close to nailing the sound, but I do not feel the darkness. They do kick into a cool riff before the triumphant solo section. But the rule here is cool riffs alone does not a good song male. Sometimes the frolicing in the snow gets to the point that it sounds like X-mas music. Well at least for me, if you are into folk metal then this will seem pretty heavy to you. I think if the bass came up in the mix and the drum got more love in post production this could have sounded heavier than it does now.  This trend of x-mas metal continues as the album progresses.

This is a guitar players album for sure. The drumming is not bad. There are moments when they hit harder, but they are not consistent. This is not a negative trait as they at least care about their song more than giving a relentless pounding. There are some interesting choices with atmosphere that are more space age than what you would expect from these guys who sound more like LARPers. I will give this album an 8 , while it's mood might not be for me, these guys accomplished what they set out to and fans of this kind of thing are going to dig it.