Divinity – The Immortalist (Self-Released)
Tuesday, 23rd May 2017
It’s wise these days when performing an advanced form of technical metal to deliver product in smaller doses. Over the past five years, Divinity has done just that – releasing a three-part EP series called, ironically enough, The Immortalist. Now that the trilogy is complete, the band saw fit to issue the entire series in one twelve song compilation also titled The Immortalist – delivering over 67-minutes of intricacies, fluid guitar play, insane time signature manipulations, and varied clean/extreme vocal expressions for the consumers to digest.
Mixing up the song flow probably makes sense, as there’s a wide array of arrangements that could be dizzying to many not used to the quintet’s brand of technical, melodic death metal. Some of the far reaching, jazzy-sections of “Hallowed Earth” for instance plot a course for latter day Death, drummer Brett Duncan shifting between a semi-groove nature during instrumental sections while going double bass propulsive during many of the more maniacal, while the swirling winds and calmer opening for the 7:36 “D.M.T.” provides aural reprieve and anticipation for the next enriching melodic death guitar salvos that follow. The vocals fluctuate between semi-growls, screams, and clean/atmospheric spots – bringing everything from Fear Factory and Soilwork to Devin Townsend to mind– giving the listeners another angle to latch upon, which work brilliantly on the rhythmic word patterns for “Psy War” or the relatively straight forward, shorter “The Reckoning” where the chorus veers into modern rock textures.
Those who seek progressive guitar and bass combinations that astound will love “Manhunt” right out of the gate – while “Momentum” satiates the blasting, low-tuned insanity that tech metal mavens crave. Let’s be clear that Divinity do understand the need for hooks and melodic elements to this off-the-charts musicianship on display – because it would all be for naught if the consumers can’t latch onto anything that goes unretainable minutes after passing by. Together since 1999 and still going at things, The Immortalist is ideal for people who love the marriage of Swedish melodic death and progressive/technical metal that doesn’t go far off the rails – dripping with a touch of cyber-orientation to give things that fresh nature to the proceedings.
