Artist: Dark Divination
Country: Finland
Label: Signal Rex
Formats: LP / CD
Year: 2025
Earlier in 2025 Dark Divination made their first appearance on Signal Rex with the release of the ‘Unforgotten’. With that EP, the band consisting of sole member Dark Divinator, showed it has a rightful place amongst the excellent contingent of Finnish acts signed to the Portuguese label. Now, both partner up again to bring forth the debut full-length of the band, ‘Liitto Hengen ja Veren’, which translates to ‘a trail from light to the shadows.’ And, damn, does it exceed all my expectations.
‘Unforgotten’ was released pretty much alongside the fantastic debut demo of Kerzenlicht, a band that Dark Divinator is also involved in. Both bands had this typical Finnish sound, raw and inspired by Satanic Warmaster and Horna with high-pitched guitar melodies. While both didn’t sound exactly the same, there was a bit of overlap between the two bands. With ‘Liitto Hengen ja Veren’ it feels as if Dark Divination has taken a large step into a more distinct direction. Certainly, the influence of turn of the century Horna, Sargeist and Satanic Warmaster is still draped all over the record, with plenty of subcutaneous melancholy, meandering melodies and a production that’s delightfully raw. But on this debut album the overall pitch of the guitar melodies is a little bit less high, and the keyboards have taken a larger role. This draws the atmosphere closer to the earliest recordings of Gehenna, or to stay within the boundaries of Finland, the collective work of Cosmic Church. Catchy, cold and melancholic, ‘Liitto Hengen ja Veren’ is nothing but a triumph for those that love Finnish Black Metal.
There is just the right amount of rawness to the guitars, giving the record a primal and cold atmosphere. Yet the production is balanced, giving room for melancholic guitar melodies to levitate between subdued and more overt. The keyboards are rather basic, but add so much to the atmosphere. The rhythmic section has a propulsive force to it and gives the sound a pulsating rawness. And the vocals are top notch, hoarse and snarling, with a somewhat commanding delivery. The tracks range somewhere between 3 and 5 minutes, and Dark Divinator masterfully has crafted them with plenty of versatility, often ranging from more intense tempos to midpaced grooving sections or more atmosphere-minded melancholy. Take for instance opener ‘Selvännäkijä’, a gritty and pumping track that turns into a more atmospheric and cold direction. Or the passionate delivery of ‘Pride of Victory’, the hateful coldness of ‘Hymn of Hate’, the excellent play with dynamics of ‘Kohti Ikuista Tuhoa’ or the catchy keys of ‘Katse Menneisyyteen’. Without exception the record blitzes by, not as mere background music, but as catchy Black Metal of the finest sort. It’s a record that simply immediately clicks and entertains from start to finish, time and time again.
One drawback of channelling boundless creativity into multiple new bands can be that too many bands are starting to sound the same. With Dark Divination’s debut album, it feels as if Dark Divinator came to that realisation, purposely drawing the band into a slightly different direction compared to his other projects without forsaken the shared roots… with great success. While I thoroughly enjoyed the EP the band released previously, ‘Liitto Hengen ja Veren’ is on a whole different level. The music based on Horna, Satanic Warmaster and Cosmic Church might by itself not be extremely original, but the execution is nothing less than exquisite!
