Divine Fire - Hero
Metal Heaven - 00013 - 2005
By Philip Whitehouse
This album had a considerable uphill battle to fight in order to get me to uncross my arms, remove the cynical smirk from my features and actually get me to listen properly to it. Dodgy photoshopped cover art. A label with the url 'aorheaven.com'. Band members who are also in bands like Narnia. Yep, it was gonna take something pretty impressive to get me onside with this one.
Luckily, Divine Fire have Jani Stefanovic - responsible for all of the instruments minus bass on this album, and owner of half the trio's hair (singer Christian Rivel is bald). With Jani powering the band's musical output, Divine Fire are raised from the levels of the derivative symphonic/prog/power bands they superficially resemble and reach the status of something altogether more meaty. Driving, forceful drums and quasi-symphonic black metal riffage rub shoulders with prog keyboards and atmospheric arrangements to form an album of surprisingly complementary extremes. Rivel impresses too, able to mix up his generally upper-ranged, powerful clean vocals with occasional death growls and roars when the songs demand.
Not all is perfect - the sheer business of the arrangements and the overbearing omnipresence of the synths and keyboards can contrive to make Hero a somewhat demanding listening experience, and the production, while crystal clear and detailed, leaves the guitars fighting to be heard behind those synths too - which is a crying shame, since there are some pretty damned impressive riffs here, as well as some astonishing lead flurries and solos. Penultimate track 'Cryptic Message', for instance, manages to convincingly blend technical and melodic death metal with a more progressive bent, before a brief bit of Meshuggah-esque stuttering, before spinning off in about four different directions. However, unless you're really concentrating, the lasting impression you'll probably get is that of a Warmen or Space Odyssey style band, which would do Divine Fire a cruel disservice.
6.5/10
Official Divine Fire Website
Official Metal Heaven Website
Metal Heaven - 00013 - 2005
By Philip Whitehouse
This album had a considerable uphill battle to fight in order to get me to uncross my arms, remove the cynical smirk from my features and actually get me to listen properly to it. Dodgy photoshopped cover art. A label with the url 'aorheaven.com'. Band members who are also in bands like Narnia. Yep, it was gonna take something pretty impressive to get me onside with this one.
Luckily, Divine Fire have Jani Stefanovic - responsible for all of the instruments minus bass on this album, and owner of half the trio's hair (singer Christian Rivel is bald). With Jani powering the band's musical output, Divine Fire are raised from the levels of the derivative symphonic/prog/power bands they superficially resemble and reach the status of something altogether more meaty. Driving, forceful drums and quasi-symphonic black metal riffage rub shoulders with prog keyboards and atmospheric arrangements to form an album of surprisingly complementary extremes. Rivel impresses too, able to mix up his generally upper-ranged, powerful clean vocals with occasional death growls and roars when the songs demand.
Not all is perfect - the sheer business of the arrangements and the overbearing omnipresence of the synths and keyboards can contrive to make Hero a somewhat demanding listening experience, and the production, while crystal clear and detailed, leaves the guitars fighting to be heard behind those synths too - which is a crying shame, since there are some pretty damned impressive riffs here, as well as some astonishing lead flurries and solos. Penultimate track 'Cryptic Message', for instance, manages to convincingly blend technical and melodic death metal with a more progressive bent, before a brief bit of Meshuggah-esque stuttering, before spinning off in about four different directions. However, unless you're really concentrating, the lasting impression you'll probably get is that of a Warmen or Space Odyssey style band, which would do Divine Fire a cruel disservice.
6.5/10
Official Divine Fire Website
Official Metal Heaven Website
