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Three years after releasing the excellent Kelle surut soi, Havukruunu are back with Uinuos syömein sota ("Languish, thou war of my heart" in English), which sees the band continuing their tradition of being one of the best Pagan Black Metal bands in the scene today. There's not much difference between this album and the one that came before it, but that just means it's more pummeling heaviness, massive folk-fueled riffage, and twisting, epic songwriting that puts modern Moonsorrow to shame. That's not to say that this is just a clone of Kelle surut soi, more that this is a refinement of the sound they were going for there. The song structures are a bit tighter and the grand pagan choirs get more use than before, and that leads to the band sounding less like their influences and more like themselves. I do have to dock points for the last song, which despite being over eight minutes long is really just four minutes of the usual with the rest being drawn-out ambience that stops adding to the atmosphere after about a minute, but overall this is more of the powerful Pagan Black Metal that this band has made a name for themselves making. Highly recommended.