DARK DIVINATION
Unforgotten

DARK DIVINATION are yet another stellar addition to the ever-fertile Finnish black metal underground. Formed in 2022, mainman Dark Divinator quickly went on the attack, releasing two EPs, a demo, and two singles over the next two years. With no slowing down in sight, now arrives the band's debut full-length, Liitto hengen ja veren.

"My journey making this album started from an inner battle between spirituality and hatred," says Dark Divinator. "The endless struggle of life and death has been composed in the album, which translates to 'a trail from light to the shadows.'" Indeed, DARK DIVINATION carry a torch for yesteryear Finnish BM idioms. On first blush, the album bears the unmistakable stamp of Corvus-fronted Horna - thus, cast your mind back some 20 years - with a melodicism at once melancholic and triumphant, emotive and dead inside, leading the rubbed-raw surge. But as Liitto hengen ja veren plays on, a rugged mysticism emerges, with First Spell-casting synths enchanting to the extreme, and that melodicism begins morphing into other, less-obvious shapes. In that sense, DARK DIVINATION more so reignite the flame left behind by the likes of Cosmic Church, Rahu, Verge, Charnel Winds, and PANTHEON OF BLOOD. Any way you approach it, Liitto hengen ja veren spills vital blood into this exclusive canon.