Artist: Kerzenlicht
Country: Finland
Label: Signal Rex
Formats: Demo tape
Year: 2025
When Signal Rex teased images of ‘Demo I’ by the new Finnish act Kerzenlicht, I knew to pay attention. Lately, the label has been releasing excellent demos and releases from the land of the thousand lakes and most of these feature members of arguably my favorite of them all, Kratti. And indeed, Kerzenlicht is another project of Haarniska, who besides Kratti also features in Moonstruck. This time, he recorded together with Dark Divinator, who is also part of Valonkantaja and another recent Signal Rex signing, Dark Divination. And to drop the conclusion straight away: the first demo of this new act is another top notch Finnish Black Metal recording.
‘Demo I’ consists of four track that clock in around 17 minutes, and present raw Black Metal in the typical Finnish fashion. Fast tremolo melodies, snarling vocals and an ice-cold atmosphere, this first feat of Kerzenlicht finds itself close to some of the rawer Satanic Warmaster recordings of old as well as their latest record ‘Exultation of Cruelty’. In addition, Kerzenlicht has a distinct French accent, with hints of Mutiilation, Vlad Tepes, Seigneur Voland and Peste Noire contained within the tracks of the demo. Within the riffs is a sense of Pagan and Folk atmosphere, that makes the links to some of the aforementioned French acts a little bit more obvious. But at the centre of the music of Kerzenlicht is rather high pitched tremolo riff style, where the sense of melody seems the focal point. With a similar high tonality of the bass, you can even argue it has a sense of Iron Maiden melodicism to it. Mostly in spirit though, as the thrusting drum pace, the cold and at times somewhat atonal riffs and the razorsharp vocals make this very much a strictly Black Metal recording.
At this point it no longer comes as a surprise that Signal Rex once again delivers. ‘Demo I’ by Kerzenlicht is an icy, catchy Finnish Black Metal recording where the dynamic melodies steal the show. It may read as if they play typical Finnish Black Metal and in essence they do, but somehow Haarniska always manages to add a twist to this music he creates that keeps it fresh and off the beaten path. With only 50 demo tapes pressed, don’t hesitate and support this great band and label.
