onoring one of our best traditions of the last several years, we packed our gear and headed once again to Tallinn for the 12th edition of Howls of Winter, this year taking place at Tapper in Tallinn on February 14th and February 15th, 2025.
After the mandatory touristic feats of the day visiting a couple of exhibitions—Tallinn has quite a few things to offer after all, especially if you are visiting only a few times/year at most—while many people in town were getting ready for a romantic evening, we were looking forward to be back to Tapper for the first day proper of this year’s Howls Of Winter.
The Lithuanian ANAPILIN were tasked with starting the night with their atmospheric, more melodic take on black metal, introducing the early crowd to their unsettling groove while showing that the Baltics do have something to offer in terms of extreme music. A good band for easing the audience into the festival, setting the stage for ZMYRNA.
The trio definitely has something “urfaustian” to their “medieval black metal,” but also an orthodox element that stirs things up a bit (not in an overly-religious way like some more popular Polish band though). The medieval theme was also visible in the musician’s outfits giving some sort of “executioner” vibes. The more the show went on, the more some riffs brought to mind similarities with other bands like NUBIVAGANT, who performed at this festival last year. The repetitiveness of their riffs and occasional faster tempo brought us eventually to the next show—and some more familiar faces.
Yet another band from the Bosnian Black Plague Circle that has seen a pretty strong presence here in the recent years of Howls Of Winter (OBSKURITATEM, SULFURIC NIGHT, VOID PRAYER, ARJEN…), the guys from IZROD are already well known among the audience of the festival, which helped set up the atmosphere for their show. In fact, IZROD can be considered VOID PRAYER (who played the last show right here at Howls Of Winter in 2022) in its new incarnation, or rather an evolution, with the band releasing their new EP just today. Their evolving and dynamic sound gave some nods to the Icelandic scene, but still with that Balkan twist that many here at the festival came to appreciate. The result was a strong performance that surpassed our expectations, leading us to MONS VENERIS.
Another Signal Rex band, the prolific band – release-wise – has been part of another underground circle we are quite familiar with, the Portuguese Black Circle. Old school black metal and with clear nods to the likes of BLACK CILICE, IRAE, VETALA, to name a few, this is maybe the most bizarre ensemble of the weekend. The vocalist’s outfit reminded us of SABBAT’s Gezol, as he alternated between playing with fire and drinking beer throughout the show. The gig itself played more as a fun, a bit chaotic interlude, and it worked well as the fans seemed to have enjoyed it quite a bit.
The German STYGIAN TEMPLE is a fitting prelude to SARGEIST, with their Satan-worshipping black metal they set a darker tone and overwhelmed the crowd with their no-nonsense, aggressive sound, grim atmosphere and dissonant riffs pervading Tapper. Their show was as dark and powerful as convincing, with the concert hall almost completely full and some of the fans unable to contain the excitement in the front.
SARGEIST was perhaps unexpected among the lineup of the festival, but then again, the band might not have been too present on Estonian soil and it makes sense that they would pay a visit to their neighbors for a display of proper Finnish black metal. In an almost all-new formation since last year, featuring the return of Shatraug at the vocal duties with the help of Spellgoth who joined the band as the bass, they didn’t take much time to get the audience going, with a professional display despite somewhat lacking a strong frontman presence compared to the past. That gave a bit of a strange feeling but also brought back to the origins of the band, long before Hoath Torog first and then Profundus/Hellwind Inferion were taking center stage at the vocal duties.
The evening came to a close almost too quickly, and while some people headed to The Krypt for the official afterparty, others stayed longer here at Tapper or went to regain some energy before the final act of this year’s edition. An interesting night for sure, with still a lot to look forward to on Saturday.
ANAPILIN
ZMYRNA
IZROD
MONS VENERIS
STYGIAN TEMPLE
SARGEIST
