Artist: Haavrun
Country: Bulgaria
Label: Hellvetic Carnage Productions
Formats: Digital Demo
Year: 2025
With Todorac you are always in for a surprise. One day he starts a project, the other day he disbands it again, or changes its name. Same with labels, changing names or completely shutting it down. Even disappearing for months entirely. Yet, last year he popped up with a new project called Haavrun, which he started with vocalist Lycanthropus. On the very last day of last year Todorac returns with a new and longer demo, ‘Ensigns Of Evil’. Not only he seemed more or less vanished for a good couple of months, he returns with Haavrun with a new vocalist, Nordsoldat with whom he also has the Löwenblut project (if that’s still active).
While ‘Ensigns Of Evil’ is the second demo and came out about eight months after ‘Transcendental Eclipse Of Inner Darkness’, it seems it was recorded not long after that first demo’s appearance. So, what exactly happened with the change of vocalists is unclear, but on a musical level, ‘Ensigns Of Evil’ is a logical continuation of what Todorac started earlier.
That means that this second demo is largely has raw and rough as its predecessor. Yet, the ruggedness of the music is built on actual riffs, strong riffs even. Admittedly, with the crude production it is not always easy to filter out all the individual riffs or even instruments and layers, but it is unmistakable that Todorac still knows his craft. Due to that unpolished nature of the music, a few extra spins may be required to fully digest everything. But once things fall into place, it is rather obvious that Haavrun is built on the very same fundamentals as lots of the classic Black Metal from the earliest Second Wave of Black Metal. Drawing a parallel with Gorgoroth is really not that far-fetched. Especially in the buzzing riffs, which, compared to both the vocals and the drums, are positioned a little further back, a comparison with those greats of the Norwegian scene is really justified. You can add the slightly more traditional Black Metal rasp of Nordsoldat to complete the picture.
With just over 12 minutes, ‘Transcendental Eclipse Of Inner Darkness’ was a perfect albeit rather short start. ‘Ensigns Of Evil’ clocks in at almost half an hour, offering a significantly more substantial portion, consequently, it gives us a proper idea of what Haavrun is all about. Although a few rounds of listening are required to wrap your head around it completely, I personally wouldn’t want Haavrun to sound any less harsh. So, while this is yet another demo, I’d prefer them to stay in this particular range of crudeness. But whether that is the case, we will only know when the next attack comes, and knowing Todorac a little, that could be next week or a year from now. At the time of writing, this demo is only available digitally, but it should be released on Todorac’s own label (under a new name, though) in a limited edition (66 copies?), although that may still change, of course. Thank goodness not everything in life is so predictable!
