Review by Saxy S for Havukruunu - Tavastland (2025)

My first impressions of Tavastland were not very good and as the album progressed, my impressions only proceeded to get worse. The album started off with an odd sound and I couldn't figure out why. I thought for sure it was the mixing; I thought that maybe it was the bass and that Havukruunu completely forgot to plug the amp in. But then "Yonsynty" began and it quickly occurred to me that the bass was there...it's just impossible to hear it! I have not heard an album in a very long time that sounded this thin from top to bottom. Guitar is tinny, bass is...whatever this is and percussion sounds flimsy. The only decent piece of the record is the vocals which are tolerable and the folk/Viking style chant are the most impactful. The mixing on Tavastland is unbalanced; their will be points where the guitars will play chugging and they come out of nowhere with grit and bass, while the vocals have this really awful sounding stereo effect where the left ear sounds out of sync with the right and it becomes overly distracting every time it happened. This is a record that has aspirations of something really cool, but fails in remarkable fashion by trying to be too traditional in its black metal roots.

Best Song: Tavastland