Artist: Remains of Ash
Country: Finland
Label: Self-released
Format: Digital
Year: 2025
After two demos, Dark Divinator feels it’s time to take his project Remains of Ash to the next level. With ‘Ikuisuuden Keskellä’, which translates to something as ‘In the Middle of Eternity’, we have arrived at the first full-length of the musician that is otherwise busy with the likes of Kerzenlicht, Dark Divination, Nekromanser, Valonkantaja and Mystic Blood.
The previous demos were clearly used to experiment with the musical formula of the band. The first demo was rawer, overpowering in its thundering drums sound, and featured high-pitched melodies and strongly distorted shrieks. On the subsequent release, the suffocating drums and vocal distortion were largely abandoned elements, pushing the project into a more melancholic direction while also further incorporating haunting keyboards and a good sense of groove. On ‘Ikuisuuden keskellä’ this latter course is maintained, and in particular the first full track ‘Tyhjyys’ stays close to the musical formula of the preceding demo. Raw and uptempo, with high pitched tremolo melodies and barked vocals, the melody and groove certainly are reminiscent of Horna and Sargeist. But the rest of the material doesn’t necessarily follow the same mold. There’s ‘Ikuinen Taistelu’, an overall darker and less melodic track that builds into an intriguing humming keyboard section with soothing melody and plenty of atmosphere before a blasting finale. ‘Hatred’ is then not only different since it is the only track with an English title, but it also is much more centred around an uptempo rocking melodic groove before it shfits into more melancholic directions. Then onwards to the last full track ‘Ikuisuus’, with has a similar melancholic groove that also adds rather epic synthesizers. The way in which the uptempo atmospheric passage slowly decays in speed is a nice touch to end, if you don’t count the distorted distant strumming of the song and the following ‘Outro’ of course. Certainly, Dark Divinator has gone out of his way to make sure Remains of Ash doesn’t sound too much like anything else he’s doing, instead taking a little bit of everything that makes the Finnish Black Metal scene so typical.
A bit of melody, a bit of groove, plenty of melancholy and a cold and piercing pace, ‘Ikuisuuden keskellä’ is an album with plenty of different aspects. There is no short supply of ideas and good riffs, and the atmospheric keyboards are to me what sets Remains of Ash apart from Dark Divinator’s other projects. It does still feel a little bit like a demo where the definitive sound of Remains of Ash may still be in development, but leaving that aside, overall this is certainly a pleasant new recording of the band.
