"Divine Facing And Fireborn" is no new material by Stockholm based Black Metal outfit MALIGN. Furthermore it’s a fine re-release (by French underground label NED) of both their sold out vinyl only stuff "Divine Facing" (originally released by End All Life as 10" MLP in 2002) and the "Fireborn" 7"EP (which was unleashed upon this dark world by Shadow Records back in 1998). It’s a great idea by NED to ban the six hymns finally on a silver disc as (in my humble opinion) the material here is really fantastic and outstanding. This Swedish trio, which was founded back in 1994, really knows how to fascinate with their brilliant tunes. The blasphemous horde convinces the listener with excellent riffs, capturing the right feeling and spirit. You can find here the right balance between aggression and brutality on one side and dark melodies and skilfully played, mature Black Metal on the other one. The overall sound reminds more than once on old DISSECTION, especially the four tunes of the "Divine Facing" MLP. The songs are very well executed and are played with passion and a lot of variation in the songs. You get here everything your blackened heart needs… memorable and dark melodies / harmonies, catchy mid tempo parts as well as high speed eruptions… all played with total dedication. I also like Nord’s vocal performance a lot as he doesn’t deliver this typical screaming Black Metal voice. His style of singing is more deeper, darker. The four songs of the "Divine Facing" MLP are very well produced and really capture the dark mood here while the two songs of the "Fireborn" 7"EP are a little bit rougher in sound (the guitars are a little bit fuzzy) but still very good. The CD comes as a thick card board digi pack. Just the black print on the anthracite card board turned out not so well in my opionion. Maybe a silver print would have been better. But that’s not so tragic as long as the music is totally convincing like in this case. If you enjoy listening to Black Metal which is deeply rooted in the underground but you don’t want to miss excellent song writing then you have to add this album immediately to your shopping list. So don’t hesitate to get in touch with Norma Evangelium Diaboli at www.noevdia.com or email them info@noevdia.com and ask for prices etc.