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Ukrainian Black Metal act, Diagor, is a completely new acquaintance to me. Atmospheric, haunting and keyboard-ridden Black Metal is the name of the game here, done with enough conviction and talent. The balance between mean blast-beat exploiting, and melodic, mid-paced parts are used well within the songs, often reminding me of the same ferocious intensity one can find from Emperor's albums. They also use their Belarussian language to get blackened and murky messages through, so I have just no idea of what they are singing about. But that's completely fine with me because it's their nicely crafted, keyboard and bass-infested Black Metal assaults that do all the talking for me. There are plenty of cool and truly enjoyable moments on Hatred of All the Living that won't leave a casual listener cold, no matter how hard you'd try to ignore some of their musical creativity and greatness that they have incorporated into this debut album. Diagor's Black Metal sounds surprisingly rich and big-sounding, as much as they manage to sound ominous and ice-cold, music-wise. Both Immortal's and Emperor's names are the ones that you will surely notice popping up from this record every now and then.