Album Details

• Artist: Divinity
• Album: Allegory
• Label: Nuclear Blast
• Year of Release: 2008
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: solitaryman on 2008-05-10

If you ask me, Canada is today's hotbed for great metal. Where once it was the Bay Thrash scene in the states, or the NWOBHM before it, or the more recent and more recently dimished wave of american metalcore, now our neighbors to the north have a stranglehold on a vein of true talent. From the Western reaches coime Divinity, a relatively new group who've managed to impress enough with a series of demos to get Nuclear Blast to release this, their debut album, Allegory. That's quite the feat in and of itself. But does the music truly warrant it?

It certainly does. In spades. Divinity blend swedish melo-death ala Soilwork with more industrial elements that bring to mind the shredding insanity of bands like Strapping Young Lad and Mnemic.  On each of the ten songs, the entire band shows an impressive combination of speed, skill and chemistry, sounding like a band far beyond their years. "Induce" is a great opener, beginning softly before blowing right the hell up in your face. The vocals are a nice mix of rough mid-ranged howls (think most metalcore) and varied melodic spots that add a nice change of pace. The riffs really fly by, and if you're able to stay with them you'll hear all the right notes being played at mostly all the right times; the rhythms are razor-sharp, compacted and high-impact in nature. Percussion is solid throughout, never outshining the music and never leaving it lacking. Lyrics are the only average part of the music; but even these fit like a glove.

So they've hit all the right cords, correct? Not totally. While the album is very enjoyable, none of the songs stick too far out to be considered "Memorable". Plenty of moments that blow youir mind, but somehow no cohesion is felt between the tracks. It's really a small complaint, but it did effect my overall ranking. So if you're a fan of melodic/industrial metal, american metalcore or really just metal in general, it might be worth your time and dime to check Divinity out. 

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