DIABOLI
Wiking Division
Northern Heritage Records
Seventh album after five years of silence for Diaboli, a ‘little’ band with a tragic past and a troubled story. The only man behind the project, the Finnish Petri Ilvespakka, had spent almost 4 years in jail and the former singer Grimn’r kill himself in 2001. The previous albums was a good example of traditional and raw Black Metal, with lyrics about Satan, death and depression. Now Petri changed the mood, turning decisively into NSBM, both about the themes and the sound.
The Wiking Division was one of the division of the SS in WW2; the name Wiking was not random, in fact this division was known for having a lot of volunteer soldiers from Scandinavia, especially from Finland. The lyrics anyway have a look more detached and critic than apologetic.
Speaking about music, the songs have all the typical characteristics of NSBM. Heavy, low, dark and massive distorted riffs, pace usually slow or mid-tempos (even if there are some fast parts with blast beats), deep and cavernous voice. Petri, on the contrary of a lot of NSBM bands, is an expert and talented musician who knows how to built a song, so the result is a very solid album with a fistful of good tracks (‘Destroying the Destroyers’, ‘False Indoctrination’, ‘The Lie of 1948’, ‘Exterminating the Protocols’) that hit the target.
Don’t expect anything of original or outside the box: this is an album tough and straightforward for Black Metal die hard fans.
Pity for the production, totally lo-fi, that debase the drums, overwhelmed by the dominating guitars.
In the end, for sure not a masterpiece but a good work for one of the most enigmatic and cursed band of the Finnish scene.
79/100 (c) Dan Ross
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