SWARN on the road
Tartu death metal project Swarn has been operating mainly as a studio band since 2016 and has only performed their music live a few times. Things changed significantly in 2024, when the duo Pähnapuu-Lillak was supplemented by the trio Kruxator-Ausin-Traumann and the full live line-up of Swarn pumped up their noise muscles for the UG festival Tarbariitus in Tartu. Since the collaboration seemed to go smoothly and the feedback from the audience also caressed the musicians’ already gradually deafening ears, we decided to go ahead and sign up for a small Latvian-Lithuanian tour at the beginning of March this year. The Swiss-Scottish-German death metal quintet Death Kommander became our stage partner, where our new guitar torturer Mr. Kruxator (real name known to the editors) makes sinister sounds into the microphone. The latter gentleman was also the mastermind behind the entire grand concert tour. In addition, we had fortune and joy of sharing the stage with several tough Latvian and Lithuanian bands. But now let’s take a closer look!
Day One
March 7th was Friday. At around 12 noon, Mr. Lillak, Mr. Pähnapuu, Mr. Traumann, Mr. Ausin and Mrs. Ausin gathered at the Pergerus headquarters to pack all sorts of heavy things and themselves into Mr. Lillak’s car. Mr. Kruxator was already in Riga with his car due to work or some other business, and we didn’t have to worry much about him. One of the rear doors of the car didn’t work and the arrival of the necessary part was still delayed, but it didn’t affect the driving characteristics of the car or the company inside. The weather was sunny and the mood was remarkably lifted by the hope of the faraway tropical south welcoming us with the sun, palm trees, and parrots.
The drive started off idyllically, until we asked ourselves if everyone still had a valid ID with us, with which to cross the border safely. Since one of us (for the sake of personal data protection, we won’t mention who) had it expired, we quickly made an idyllic detour back home to grab something more legally waterproof. And then back towards the south!
Apart from a brief refueling and smoke break in Rõngu, our first longer stop on sacred Latvian soil was at the homely Valmiermuiža/Volmarimõisa. The sun did indeed seem a little warmer. The world-famous Valmiermuiža barley drink is brewed right here, which quickly found a warm reception in the self-made pop-up lounge in the back seat of the car, along with other fine drinks.
Another brief stop took place at the Straupe gas station in the heart of the ancient Ydumea land, but there is probably no point in describing the completely mundane business at length. Let us just mention that we arrived in Riga in the early evening and despite the weekend starting soon, the traffic was very light and friendly. Thanks to Mr. Pähnapuu’s careful map reading, we easily found our venue called Vagonu Hall, where the figures in black jackets and hoodies were diligently preparing for the evening. To our great relief and probably his as well, we also met Mr. Kruxator, who was already in his natural environment, organizing the nuances of the local scene life. As we carried our stuff in, King Diamond blared loudly over the speakers in the hall – a good omen for the upcoming concert.
Don’t let the photo fool you, everything was actually very hygge. We bumped into a surprisingly large number of familiar faces and met new people. Even we, the slow and unsociable Estonians, somehow manage to do it. You just stand motionless somewhere with a completely blank expression on your face and an extroverted Latvian (that’s what they all are, right?) approaches to pull you into their social network. Before you know it, you’re civilized.
Routine soundchecks soon began. First Death Kommander, then Swarn. Latvia’s own artillery was represented by Trencheard and Deodium. Vagonu Hall is an eternally long, wide and high space, and filling it with even somewhat non-echoing sound requires a heroic act of Heracles or Lāčplēsis. The sound engineer didn’t speak much English, and our Latvian would have been barely enough to buy beer in a shop or provoke for getting beaten up at a bus station, but we somehow managed by using body language. It was done by pointing sharply with a finger: “HIS guitar (finger pointed left/right) in MY monitor (finger pointed down) louder (finger pointed up).” That’s basically how Swarn got things more or less sorted out.
The Latvian bands’ soundchecks probably also went according to plan, because the first band, Trencheard, started their furious heat just in time. A pleasantly large number of people had turned up. Death Kommander, who came in second, really got the audience going and proved that even with band members from different countries, it is possible to make a unit march as one. The third band was Swarn. It is difficult to describe this crazy whirling in the middle of a vortex of madness and the merging of the energies of five people into an untamed cosmic element (yes, I am aware that the Kama Sutra could be described in a pretty similar way). Ten hymns were thrown between the bleak walls of the Vagonu Hall with methodical and dull consistency, and since the hall did not completely empty out, we can conclude that it probably went as it should have. By the way, it’s the first time anyone has done a longboat rowing thing during a Swarn concert – but that’s exactly what these crazy Latvians did.
The evening was brought to a worthy finale by the Latvian death-black quartet Deodium. The band has very good musicians, but the drummer made a particularly unforgettable impression, deciding to treat his set with an extreme level of mercilessness. Mr. Lillak bought a Deodium record, which also found grateful listeners on the roads of Lithuania later in the tour.
What do musicians usually do after a show? Those who have parties, champagne flowing like streams, hot passionate women, and all that in their mind, are all wrong. Such things belong to the 80s or, at best, to the band life of the teenagers. A classic 30+ black-death guru finds a hotel, painstakingly loads his instrument and amplifier into the bedroom, and falls into a restful sleep, only to start looking for another country the next morning of a concert tour.
The detailed photo albums from this fun evening in Riga, can be found on the event’s Facebook page.
Day Two
The Swarn crew woke up one by one and started looking for a light breakfast in a nearby cafe (at least most of them; one member mainly consumed cigarettes throughout the tour, but for the sake of personal data protection, let’s not mention who exactly. Don’t try it yourself!). Then we stuffed ourselves and our equipment back into the cars and decided to get to the southern Latvian town of Bauska for lunch. We achieved our goal 100%. A longer stop was at Bauska Castle, which was supposedly built by Votian prisoners of war for the Livonian Order sometime in the 15th century. We also admired the open-air stage behind the castle, where the annual metal festival Zobens un Lemess is held. Mr. Kruxator described the breathtaking beauty that the view of the castle from the stage offered him when he performed here with his second (or seventeenth) band Hasswald last year. We also enjoyed the running waters of the spring and the love life of insects and felt that we had truly become hungry from all this grandeur.
We had lunch next to the historic town hall in Bauska. Otherwise, everything was nice – the food was delicious and plentiful – but we finally started to regret the time spent waiting for it. Therefore, we didn’t want to waste any more time, but continued our holy pilgrimage south, towards Kaunas. This time, Mr. Pähnapuu moved into Mr. Kruxator’s car, because according to the latter, it was a nice but somewhat dangerous tradition for him to fall asleep while driving alone.
No one dared to check us at the Lithuanian border, but we didn’t make a problem of it and bravely continued our trip. It was in Lithuania that we saw the first +15…+16 degrees Celsius of the year. We might have stayed forever in a gas station parking lot near Panevėžys to bask in the sun and photosynthesize vitamin D, but suddenly someone remembered that we are vicious hairy punks and shouldn’t care about daylight and that Swarn was supposed to perform at the Lemmy club in Kaunas that evening anyway. Back to the car, pressure on the gas pedal, and at the agreed time, the Lillak-Traumann-Ausin-Ausin group arrived at Lemmy, where the racing team Kruxator-Pähnapuu were already waiting for them. Death Kommander had also made it from Riga to Kaunas without any problems, using a taxi – perhaps somewhat unconventional choice of transport in terms of a touring metal band. We were joined by the Vilnius band Protocol F40.1.
Again, routine – soundchecks, getting provisions, mindless sitting. We also got accommodated with a place to stay. Mr. Kruxator had found a cozy penthouse apartment for the rest of us just a three-minute walk from Lemmy, although for family (and probably religious) reasons he himself did not stay there with us. In the backstage room we distracted ourselves by looking for Estonian bands on the old posters covering the walls. 4/5 of Swarn had played here before – with Ulguränd, Tankist, Ziegenhorn, or Loits. Protocol F40.1 bassist Mr. Maselis, an old acquaintance of ours from the black metal band Magyla, was sick and dozing on the couch. Their vocalist, however, had been left at home for some medical or other valid reason, and so the set was played almost entirely instrumentally. “Almost” because at one point the guitarist announced to the audience that a free microphone was available. For the last song a guy stepped on stage and pig squealed a bit while the band was playing. But don’t get me wrong: Protocol F40.1’s instrumental parts sounded straightforward and at the same time entirely atmospheric. It reminded me why I started listening to metal in the first place. Mr. Pähnapuu was fascinated by the drum structures and instantly became close friends with the percussionist Mr. Čikarda.
Swarn was next. Mr. Pähnapuu’s Orange amp had shown reluctance to cooperate further during the opening band, but Death Kommander’s guitar wizard Mr. Dure helped him out with his own equipment. There was no more time to stare at the ceiling, the intro started, and we thoroughly drowned into our ten songs one after the other. Sweat was pouring – on us, the crowd, and the walls.
(A side note, especially to myself: in a smaller club, ashes thrown on the crowd and –for fun – on the drummer do not disperse as easily as in a larger room but remain suspended in the air for a surprisingly long time. And afterwards, the club stewards have to wipe everything down…)
Death Kommander rocked as hard as they could, and the Lithuanians liked it. By the way, DK will release their second full-length album “Never To Grow Old” (Warhorn Records) this spring, and I dare say, this stuff is really explosive. After their performance, it was time to pack up our traveling circus again and redeem the last of our vouchers for beer at the bar. We weren’t thrown out right away, so there was still time to chat with people and just relax. But eventually, fatigue and sleep overtook even the most restless…
Day Three
The morning in the cozy penthouse apartment began with the sun and a meal accompanied by Burzum’s ambient music, but we didn’t allow ourselves a long relaxing Sunday, because homesickness was already making our noses bleed. The tough but justified journey back to the bosom of the northern dread began. During 500 kilometers, we only made three stops for food, smoke, and gas, but otherwise we just read the kilometer signs with dull faces, listened to the Deodium album of the Latvians (it was good), heatedly discussed the value of the lyrics of the heavy metal band Herald (a startling number of Swarn members actually listen to this kind of music, but unfortunately there are exceptions) and either stared at the road with a thousand-miles-stare (the driver) or pecked the grains of the Dreamlands (everyone else). Finally, late afternoon Tartu took us back into its motherly embrace and thus we could give a happy final assessment to Swarn’s first Baltic tour.
P.S. Since Riga and Kaunas both left a particularly memorable experience, we will continue to spread our death metal even further. Next, on May 11th, we will head to the southern shore of the Gulf of Finland, where the city of Tallinn is supposedly located…
