DIVINE HERESY Bleed the Fifth (2007)

16 October 2007
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Comparing Divine Heresy with Fear Factory is inevitable, because the current guitarist of the first band is the legendary former six-stringer of the second one - Dino Cazares. The world awaited his big return for years, and it seems Divine Heresy is exactly this. First thing to notice is that “Bleed the Fifth” sounds very much like Fear Factory from their death metal years (“Soul of a New Machine”) and just to some degree like their industrial oriented period (“Demanufacture”, “Obsolete”). Dino has never been a brilliant guitarist, but his style stuck ideally in the Factory's music. However, I dare say his guitar play is now better than ever. Well, he has not become a virtuoso, but there is some interesting stuff to hear. The bass is in the hands of Joe Payne (Nile), on the drums is Tim Yeung (Aurora Borealis, Vital Remains, Hate Eternal), and… up to now I haven’t heard a drummer that comes so close to the style of the genious Raymond Herrera! It took them 15 years, and finally they managed to copy him at some pretty good level. The singing is the most significant and disputed change. The responsibility falls on Tommy Cummings, about whom apparantly no one has heard, but you will find out that he’s got one of the best voices in the genre. I admire the moments when his singing merges with Dino's guitar. The style has changed towards metalcore, which causes discontent in many Fear Factory fans. For them there are several songs in which can naturally go into a Fear Factory album. The CD is as aggressive and brutal as any metal offering should be. “Closure”, the last song, is the only ballad, but maybe until that moment many of the more delicate listeners will need some tranquility… The reason why this otherwise perfect album won't get the maximum mark is that the year is no longer 1992 and this music is not as groundbreaking and innovative as “Soul of a New Machine” and “Demanufacture” were. On the other hand, don't miss Divine Heresy, because you are gonna hear a lot about them from now on. As they have put it themselves: "This threat is fucking real!"
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