Sooner than you know, it’s already the 3rd – or 2nd if you skipped the warm-up – and final day of this year’s Howls of Winter. As the temperatures plunged considerably in these days, you could see how slippery the stairs leading to the second floor of the building where Tapper is located had gotten over time, with people walking up and down, and that fine residual icy layer forming on top.
The night again started with another local band, PAGANSARV, which, as the name suggests, has a clear pagan theme to its music. This is, of course, reflected also in the looks of the musicians, or at least the core duo forming the band. More often than not, there has been great enthusiasm from the Estonian audience when their own are performing, but this time the response was maybe a tad more restrained, or perhaps it just felt that way. Because after all, the show was quite honest and the band gave a good display of the material from their two albums, the latest of which came out around ten months ago.
Hailing from France, ABYSSAL VACUUM released their homonymous full-length debut more or less at the same time, although their music, clearly more influenced by the French black metal, is also darker and gloomier. Interestingly enough, each of the songs that make up the record is named with the coordinates of a specific occult site spanning from Russia, France, the US, Belize, and Mexico. This should give an idea of what the band is about, and that’s pretty much reflected by their show on stage, guiding the fans into darkness with those eerie, cavernous vocals, spectral riffs, and tracks with trickling water playing to set the right atmosphere. Certainly an interesting concept.
They so happen to share a couple of members – not really much of a coincidence – with the Swiss TROGNE (not to be confused with BORGNE, even though the frontman performs live with them as well, that scene is probably not super big after all). They have a more doomy approach, and also different subjects in mind, especially visible in the case of intoxication, considering the liberal alcohol consumption during the show, shared also with the members of the audience. This is a very, very young band, being around for not even 3 years, all its members have a fairly long history of playing music with multiple bands, which is clear by watching them perform. This was also the first time we got to see their vocalist in this role, as he normally plays guitar in (various) other bands, and it turns out he appears to have a good knack for it, given how deep he jumped into the role. Easily the most entertaining show of the night.
UK-based, Iranian act TRIVAX, sets itself apart from the rest for their clear middle eastern origins but at the same time has the common tread of the hate towards religion – and religious oppression – a theme that can be extremely sensitive and eventually brought them – or at least the mainman and vocalist/guitarist Shayan – to move out of the country and reform with a new lineup after a very short time from when the project actually came to life. TRIVAX was probably the least “underground-like” of the bands in this year’s entire lineup, given the affinity to bands like BEHEMOTH, with nods to ROTTING CHRIST and MELECHESH (in the more oriental elements of their sound), to name a few. They did engage the audience quite well and gave them a good taste of what they are capable of, in particular, through the songs from their latest effort, “The Great Satan.”
Heading towards the final part of the festival, there was a lot of expectation from many fans for BLACK ALTAR. Also, some people had to be moved away from the actual altar with skulls, bones, and other paraphernalia that traditionally are part of the band’s stage setup, as they were taking selfies and touching things before the show (alcohol can do that). The show was solid and largely matched those fans’ expectations, with the vocalist’s imposing presence being felt throughout in between the smoke covering the stage. Having seen BLACK ALTAR a couple of times over the recent years, we could confirm their delivery was consistent with the earlier shows, even accounting for some lineup changes occurring last year. Being one of the highlights of tonight, they can certainly be satisfied after the gig and the response from the HoW audience.
Closing the festivities was instead CIRITH GORGOR. The first Estonian show of the Dutch act is a special one, as they focused on an older set and performed with two vocalists, joined by the original singer Nimroth. While musically they are much closer to MARDUK in terms of both sound and themes, especially with the reinstatement of Nimroth in their live shows (something that will happen throughout this year) they gave some strong SATANIC WARMASTER vibes in their look and live attitude, which is not at all a bad thing. Like on the previous night, part of the audience started to leave a bit earlier, and so there were actually a bit fewer people watching this final performance of the festival, compared to the previous show. A bit of a pity, but of course everyone is free to make their own choices, and of course there was always the option to visit the official after parties at The Krypt.
All-in-all, this year’s festival flew by really fast and still had the same atmosphere, seeing familiar faces and enjoying the underground with the people from the scene. That makes it always nice to be here and a great excuse for a regular winter trip to Tallinn. The lineup didn’t have any particularly pretentious names, and maybe that meant that there were slightly fewer people in the audience, which, per se, wasn’t that terrible as long as the festival is able to handle that financially. From our side, we can only renew the total support to the organization, which every year makes the effort to bring these bands here and provides the possibility for many people to see shows not easily accessible otherwise (unless people start going to really obscure events abroad, because why not). We look forward once again to the next edition and renew the appointment with Howls of Winter XIV in 2027!
PAGANSARV
ABYSSAL VACUUM
TROGNE
TRIVAX
BLACK ALTAR
CIRITH GORGOR
