What lies ahead of us?
Last year was filled with many positive events but as you may understand, organising a festival means channeling a lot of time (and energy) into one project and thus many of us were focused solely on bringing it to life. However, we haven’t been inactive but used 2024 to play some selected shows, record music and ensure that the outcome is desirable and not a half-assed product which would anyways drown in the vast sea of new releases.
Looking around, it can be observed that the Estonian scene is far from inactive; for example this year there are already new releases announced by Lein and Soerd, who already delivered pretty decent debuts. Additionally, Tallinn’s Goatsmegma will breaking out of Estonia and unleash their bestial riff machine in Columbia.
In the previous years we had a lot of new projects springing up, which was quite often followed by the steady “why the hell can’t you simply release a second album?”. Well, there are reasons of course (even though members often overlap, the philosophy and musical direction is usually rather different) but at the same time the critics have a point as it might not be the best idea to end up with 10 bands instead of fewer bands with a wider range of releases.
Thus, it delights me to announce the return of already well-known names to start the releases of 2025. The list has already started with Hasswald’s second EP “… der Waldgang”. The next release will be the second album from the Põlva scene actors going by the name of “Pagansarv”. After I’ve listened to the new album I must say that it is definitely a worthy successor of the debut and it should also be mentioned that the sound is pretty heavy because it was mixed by the same person who worked for Whoredom Rife.
Another long-awaited release is the second full length from the international (SCO/CH/GER) Bolt Thrower worshipping Death Kommander, who have lined up gigs in at least 5 countries for this year.
The three previously mentioned releases all have in common that the sound quality is rather professional – therefore they vastly differ from another release of a further known Estonian band whose album we might be honoured to release. However, let’s first of all see when the album is going to be finalized and then announce it.
Apart from that, we will hopefully continue to play and record music in the year 2025 so that we have something to look forward to in the years to follow. It looks like Estonian music is getting more attention abroad because there will be a couple of possibilities to show to outsiders that this country indeed has musically something to offer. One of the already announced events is the Barther Metal Open Air, where a couple of Estonian bands (Ziegenhorn, Thou Shell of Death, Loits, Wolfskrone) have had the honour to perform in the years prior. This year, there will be even 3⅕ (if you allow me to partially count in Death Kommander) bands to hold the Estonian flag high.
What about live shows?
Hm, indeed. Keep in mind that putting up gigs and even a festival means a lot of time and effort, which is in turn missing from our private life and musical activities. In the first half of the year we will be involved in 2 concerts on our home turf and that’s enough for that period.
First, Tenebrae Aeternum together with a German Atmospheric Black Metal band named “Moor” will return to Tartu on the 22. March. The concert will be opened by the appearance of Karachay, a band who stems from the underground circles of Tartu.
Two weeks later on the 04.04.2025, there will be a special concert with Lein and Pagansarv – both bands are releasing their new material on the same day! The concert will be flanked by Bestia who are also celebrating 25 years of band history.
As chance will, Langenu is posed to represent their Setoniq Metal on the very same day in another city, namely during the Tallinn Music Week.
What about other bands?
Swarn and Death Kommander have teamed up to invade our Baltic neighbours in March, flanked by the local Deodium, Trencheard (Latvia) and Protocol F40.1 (Lithuania).
Ziegenhorn will be headlining the Dustant Fest, which will take place on 12.04.2025 in Vilnius, Lithuania.
A recently announced concert will display a selection of three of the finest bands Estonia has to offer: Loits, Swarn and Humanity will be performing together with veterans from the Brazilian Black Metal scene: Ereshkigal.
Regarding another bigger event towards autumn… yes, we have decided to organize Tarbariitus again! After all the positive feedback we have received, we thought that the festival should not die yet. The location will be the same, the content similar, only the bands will be completely different. More in the weeks to come…
Warhorn Records will celebrate its 5th year of existence and despite lots of labels dying out, we plan to continue. For us it is simpler because the label was never thought of as a source of income and thus we can “survive” even though it becomes harder with ever-rising shipping and production prices. Let’s see for how long we can offer CDs for 8€ a piece but I am strongly opposed to participating in the vicious circle of making everyone’s life more expensive.
Another important project is a small one-off zine which was initiated over 2 years ago. It is not what you would expect from a zine at all (e.g. no interviews) and has been in cooperation together with different actors from the Black Metal scene. Currently it looks realistically that you will be able to locate a copy at Tarbar(ii)tus…
Summing up, 2025 is a year we can certainly look forward to and it will definitely give a boost to put the Estonian Underground Metal scene on the European map.
