Finland’s finest, Svarta Havet are back with another incredible single from their forthcoming album ‘Månen ska lysa din väg’, out May 9th via Prosthetic Records.

The long nights of their geographical location has bled into the band’s sound, resulting in beautiful but gloomy black metal tinged post-hardcore.

The band have this to say about their new single:

“Wonderful is the earth,
and everything that ever grew on it” -Lotta

Stream the single at https://lnk.to/SvartaHavet

In the Nordic countries “Härlig är jorden” is a christian psalm sung at many occasions, often funerals. Personally I´ve always liked it, not because of its christian message, but because of its harmonic grandiosity that somehow captures the essence of life. When I heard the track taking shape my thought immediately went to this psalm that I sang all through my school years and I wanted to rewrite it as a simple declaration of admiration and love for life and the earth – with a more specific focus on how fantastic it is that we get to spend time on this wondrous globe. There are some direct quotes from the original psalm but for the most parts the words are completely different. -Lotta

This track was the one that for me would clearly come to set the tone for the rest of the record, we experimented quite a bit with the chord progressions to get something quite beautiful but still rough around the edges. It was the centerpiece that we built the rest of the record around. -Joakim

The video for Härlig är jorden is just a completely unironic love letter to nature, all the little details that make the forests and meadows irreplaceable treasures. -Joakim”

Tour dates:

1.5. Jyväskylä, Kramsu
2.5. Tampere, Vastavirta
3.5. Helsinki, Playhouse
10.5. Turku, Kåren (record release party)
14.5. Tartu, Club Hell
15.5. Riga, Depo
16.5. Vilnius, XI20
17.5. Olecko, Przystanek Skocznia
23.5. Helsinki, Sonic Rites Festival
29.5. Oulu, Tukikohta
6.6. Helsinki, Aivopiha Festival
23.8. Turku, Punk ja yäk Festival
26.9. Turku, Iloinen Härkä
28.9. Helsinki, Lepakkomies

SVARTA HAVET is:
Lotta (she/her) – vocals
Joakim (he/him) – guitar
Anders (he/him) – bass
Jara (she/her) – drums

SVARTA HAVET hail from Turku, Finland. The long nights of their geographical location has bled into the band’s sound, resulting in beautiful but gloomy black metal tinged post-hardcore. 

This single is taken from their forthcoming sophomore album, titled ‘Månen Ska Lysa Din Väg‘, via their new label home Prosthetic Records on May 9th.

The band has this to say about their lead single:

“Alla sover portrays a sort of grotesque party on a speeding train at the potential end of the world.

“Fill up the champagne glasses, let us toast to the final hour!”

It is about most things being pretty firmly on the road to ruin, no climate targets are being met, over 70 000 tons of explosives have been dumped on Gaza since October of 2023. Alla sover describes the feeling of being a privileged citizen of today’s world – someone that has never known true strife because of the luck of being born into privilege in the Global North, but who instead has to live with the fact that we and our lifestyle are a large contributing factor to how the world looks today.  Alla sover deals with this feeling of complicity and powerlessness. The song ends in some sort of collapse where the protagonist lays down on the rails after the last train of partiers has left, making a last plea to the birds to keep singing.” -Lotta

Månen ska lysa din väg, translated in English as “The moon will light your way” and a direct quote from album track Göm dig, was recorded in January 2024 at Waiting Room Studio in Tampere, Finland, with producer Mikael Neves. SVARTA HAVET sought to capture the spirit and essence of their written material, approaching the recording sessions in as close a way to their live shows as possible, with minimal overdubs and studio trickery in favour of organically captured intensity during each instrument’s recorded take.

Mixing for Månen ska lysa din väg was then handled by Matthew Michel of NØ / MAN (with previous mixing credits including Portrayal of Guilt, Majority Rule and Darkest Hour) at Viva Studio in Fairfax, Virginia, before being mastered by Brad Boatright at Audiosiege in Portland, Oregon. The ensuing result is one of a dynamically ferocious edge between chaos and melancholy in songs such as lead single Härlig är jorden and Avgrunden, the latter a plea for humankind’s collective action in the face of environmental catastrophe.

As dark as the subject matter gets across Månen ska lysa din väg’s eight songs the moonlight shines through, this duality is best exemplified by the one-two cascade of Djur and Under staden. Where Djur’s narrative hones in on wilfully ignorance to the perspective of animals with respect to human war and destruction, in spite of humankind’s intrinsic links to the animal kingdom, Under Staden deals in survival of animal and insect species within urban spaces and homogenous cultural landscapes of the city.

With communities residing at the heart of their purpose, on a localised and a broad scale, SVARTA HAVET are not ones to lay idle in their hopes of a better world. 2025 will continue to see the band both touring their home country and beyond, as well as being deeply involved in organizing gigs and events through the collectively-run venue, Kirjakahvila (“Book Café”) – a queer feminist, anti-capitalist DIY community space in Finland. In addition to hosting local acts, the group’s tireless efforts to support international bands will continue to see SVARTA HAVET helping to foster a vibrant underground scene in the process.

Tour dates:

27.3. Uppsala, Femman
28.3. Göteborg, Kajskjul 46
29.3. Lidköping, secret location
1.5. Jyväskylä, Kramsu
2.5. Tampere, Vastavirta
3.5. Helsinki, Playhouse
10.5. Turku, Kåren (record release party)
14.5. Tartu, Club Hell
15.5. Riga, Depo
16.5. Vilnius, XI20
17.5. Olecko, Przystanek Skocznia
23.5. Helsinki, Sonic Rites Festival
29.5. Oulu, Tukikohta
6.6. Helsinki, Aivopiha Festival
23.8. Turku, Punk ja yäk Festival
26.9. Turku, Iloinen Härkä
28.9. Helsinki, Lepakkomies

SVARTA HAVET is:
Lotta (she/her) – vocals
Joakim (he/him) – guitar
Anders (he/him) – bass
Jara (she/her) – drums