Review by Michael on April 30, 2026.

With "Teufelspakt – Perkeleen Tie" the German label Dominace Of Darkness has just released a very interesting split album by German Totensturm and Finnish Alkemisti. While Totensturm (by the way a one-man project by Abdiroth who is also active in Gottmaschine) already has released two full-length albums the Finns are more or less a blank sheet of paper with just a demo from 2024 in their discography. Kicking off with three songs by Totensturm, the listener gets to hear some really harsh black metal that reminds a lot of the Finnish scene such as Sargeist or Satanic Warmaster. Nevertheless there are also some more melodic parts to be found, especially when it comes to the vocals. Although Abdiroth voice is quite rough and guttural, the choruses are quite melodic and almost really sung. If you listen to "In Die Nacht" you will know what I mean. The second track "Ritualsuizid" is pretty much rougher and more hateful than the opener. But also here are some melodic approaches with a catchy chorus reminding of the countrymen Mavorim or all the other ones where Baptist is involved. The third track ("Valon Kuolema") is kept in Finnish and on that the sound is a little bit more unpolished and dirty.

Why is it in Finnish? Well, actually that was a very nice idea by the two bands and also something that you don't have too often on a split release. But let's quote the booklet for the reason: "The lyrics for the third and sixth tracks were written by the other band – born purely from the emotions that arose while listening to the instrumentals. They were then performed by the original vocalists, in the language of mutual connection and spirituality."

Coming to the three tracks by Alkemisti, you can clearly notice a more symphonic approach than Totensturm has. Here we have a lot of synthesizer tunes and black metal that tend to be more atmospheric and reminds (especially from the dense riffing and the vocals) of old Burzum and sometimes early Ad Hominem. The tracks aren't that super fast and on "Valaistus" we even have some quite doomy parts. The production is a little bit more muffled than Totensturm but this doesn't matter too much. "Weltenschlacht" (the track in German) also doesn't differ stylistically but actually I don't get too much from the lyrics. I really needed the booklet to understand the lyrics.

Altogether the two bands have released a cool split album with a quite innovative idea with the lyrics and if you like a lot of diversity on your black metal album, this one is really worth checking. This is pure underground stuff and should be supported for sure!

Rating: 8 out of 10