Publisher's Note: Chances are many of our faithful readers might have missed this one when the band self-released this solid offering mid-late 2007, but with their recent signing to Nuclear Blast Records, look for Allegory to be available in retail and online CD shops worldwide (offical release date is March 25th here in North America). Below is our original review of Allegory, posted back in August of 2007.
From Canada comes Divinity and their debut CD Allegory, mixed and mastered by the famed Tue Madsen, who has worked with such acts as Dark Tranquility, The Haunted, and Aborted. It's hard not to be instantly drawn in by the absolutely stellar promotional materials that this CD came with-I mean, these guys really wanted to knock our socks off from the get-go, and once you get done reading and gawking at this colorful and informative package, the music more than backs everything up. Right off the bat, you can hear influences of Into Eternity, Soilwork, Scar Symmetry, early In Flames, Fear Factory, and Strapping Young Lad, as Divinity combine crushing thrash attitude with complex progressive metal arrangements and brutal death metal overtones. Lead singer Sean Jenkins is all over the map here with his arsenal of growls, high pitched screams, and clean vocals (he has a similar style to Stu Block from Into Eternity), giving each song a nice variety and always keeping things interesting. "Plasma" is a real ripper, as he launches out plenty of classic early 80's styled screams amidst a sea of growls and melodic clean passages, all supported by the backing vocals from guitarist Sacha Laskow and bassist Nick Foster. Speaking of guitar, both Laskow and James Duncan are capable shredders, often wowing with lethal riffs and intricate solos. Other hot tracks on this one include the melodic mayhem of "Methodic" (gotta love the soaring clean vocals on this one, as well as Brett Duncan's manic drum work), the intense 80's thrash meets complex prog-metal of "Strain", complete with some wild guitar work, the majestic and memorable "The Unending", and the guitar hero tracks "Chasm" & "Induce".
Keyboards are splattered on a few tracks for some extra texture, and both Greg Muscrave & Jerrod Maxwell contribute some guest death & harmony vocals on a couple of songs. The artwork was done by the always excellent Mattias Noren, and is a real pleasure to take in and let your eyes feast on. Overall, Allegory is a damn fine debut from a very talented band. Let's hope they can branch out from their homeland of Canada and start to show the rest of the world just how much talent they have.
Track Listing
- Induce (4:40)
- Power Control (5:27)
- Plasma (5:36)
- Methodic (3:14)
- Modern Prophecy (4:04)
- Strain (4:09)
- The Unending (3:58)
- Chasm (3:33)
- The Diarist (3:08)
- NeuroTyrant (3:14)
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