Sweden’s Divers delve into the inner-world of demons, mental illness and self-discovery with new alternative rock album, One Million Crystals.
By Graeme Smith
Feature photo by Jonas Andersson
There is chaos and harmony within each of us, and balancing these themes is the crux of Divers’ new album. It’s reflected, lyrically, musically and compositionally in a ten track collection with plenty of emotional highs and lows.
Surprisingly, as the band’s frontwoman Lina Horner explains, the album hadn’t always been planned to run along those lines, but her life experiences while pulling it together became reflected in the music.
The album starts, appropriately enough, with The Opening which is a cinematic, contemplative vignette that tees up what is to come. We then get some early punchiness thanks to the percussive intro of Keep My Mind. The track builds with an eerie atmosphere before we get a first taste of Lina’s hypnotic vocals.
Title track One Million Crystals proves an early highlight thanks to its powerful, understated storytelling. A stripped-back and simmering first verse ramps up the vulnerability of it all before the track reaches a moody groove and, finally, a big finish.
Waking up Slowly ups the tempo during a driving, Bowie-esque number before Longing for the Light rounds off the album’s first half with a simmering number that boils over at a defiant crescendo.
The jazzy and ambient Searching opens the album’s second half which also includes the layered vocals of Destroy the Balance, the noodling, psychedelic guitar of The Fire, and the cosmic expanses of Sparkling Through the Sound That Set Them Free. I’m Not Afraid closes the album with its rockiest number. It smoulders in the first verse before letting loose through a passionate climax.
Divers’ new album is a true experience. Lina leads the band with charisma and their instrumental arrangements give us plenty of texture and atmosphere. I strongly advise you to get lost in it today.
One Million Crystals is out now digitally and on vinyl via Little Low Recordings. You can give it a listen below.
