DIVINE HERESY SUCK ONLY AS MUCH AS YOU THINK ON BRINGER OF PLAGUES
Thursday, July 16th, 2009 at 3:00pm by Sammy O'Hagar
Divine Heresy get a lot of somewhat undeserved hate: calling the band out for not being very good would be like calling this writer out for not hitting .458 for the Dodgers. This isn’t to say that the band necessarily deserve defense; in fact, I can’t imagine a solid argument for their existence. But their brand of technical nu-deathcore works surprisingly well, in that it’s not so much awful as it is awfully bland. And while perhaps it’s not fair to commend a band for not being as terrible as they could be, it’s not fair to decry them for not being amazing. If you were expecting them to be a slightly edgier Fear Factory, Bringer of Plagues, their latest album, delivers exactly what you’d think: 42 minutes (strangely enough, to the second) of surgically precise mechanical riffs, big yet terribly obvious grooves, pretty bad nu-metalcore vocals, and nothing particularly memorable.
As someone who thinks Fear Factory are unfairly maligned (say what you will, but they serve as a gateway for a lot of people from nu-metal to actual, decent extreme metal), I can say it’s interesting to hear guitarist Dino Cazares shift back and forth between big dumb grooves and riffs that owe a surprising lot to technical death metal. Or at least it’s interesting at first. The riffs don’t do a whole lot after the first few times you hear them, and blend together after a few songs. On top of that, Cazares is the only distinctive member of the band: the drums are triggered to the point of soullessness, and Travis Neal provides terribly bloodless stadium metalcore vocals to sprinkle on top of the beige thrashing beneath. Divine Heresy are basically Fear Factory Premium, but the band sacrifice the personality of original FF drummer Raymond Herrera and the mongoloid soul of Burton C. Bell for the sake of more extremity. At least Fear Factory had a flavor, even if it wasn‘t one you preferred: if you’ve been to a big metalfest in the last 5 years, you’ve heard Divine Heresy, even if they weren’t actually there.
The band go from bland to bad a few times over the course of Bringer of Plagues: “Undivine Prophecies” is an instrumental segue that serves absolutely no transitional purpose whatsoever, and “Darkness Embedded” is a ballad so fucking mangled and cringe-worthy that one longs for the warm, douchey embrace of Staind. But this doesn’t ruin the record; in fact, the bad moments are even more jarring considering the tasteless riff mush that surrounds them. But to set Divine Heresy aside because they’re shitty isn’t fair: they’re just fine for what they are. However, what they are is bland filler between listening to or seeing bands about which one can actually be passionate. Bringer of Plagues is far from the worst album you’ll hear this year: it’s ably performed and certainly doesn’t rival Brokencyde in ways not to spend your time. Unfortunately, there’s not a moment where the album justifies itself. It’s not necessarily awful, but is also in no way necessary.
(1 ½ out of 5 horns)
-SO
Wow, wasn’t expecting it to be that bad…guess I’ll have to decide for myself
Liked the first album being a big FF fan. The new vocalist sucks, sounds like a poor version of Philip Labonte from All That Remains when he sings. Needless to say it doesn’t fit the style of the band like Burton clone Tommy Vex. It doesn’t help that the riffs got really generic too. It’s almost like Dino was trying to take the band more mainstream.
Buying their first CD was a mistake, but the song “Bleed The Fifth” is quite badass and I listen to it frequently.
I guess Tommy Vext was the glue that held the band together.
this band blows w/o tommy vext
The first CD was pretty ok, no fireworks but quite solid playing .. have to check out the new one.
Hahahahaha-
I’ll be sure to check the album out.
I assume the skeleton in the middle is Dino? ‘Cuz… um, it’s awfully skinny.
.
#obviousjokes
No. The skeletons belong to people that Dino ate for breakfast.
Ah. That makes much more sense.
Not enough doom/grind to warrant a listen.
I’m a big fan of the first album, but so far this one has made no impression on me at all.
I liked the first album and I liked what I heard from this so far. Im def gonna check this out.
Wow… I’m kinda surprised. I didn’t think DH would be a victim of the sophomore jinx; so much for that!
I really liked Bleed the Fifth but just listened to Bringer of Plagues. Other than the first track that’s up on their myspace, this album kind of drags. The new singer kind of sucks, Dino’s guitar playing is boring, and without Tim Yeung this band wouldn’t be that interesting, and all he does is play fast.
Bummer, I dug the song on their myspace and select songs on the first record. Tim Yeung is incredible
The first cd was boring and i’ll be skipping this one all together.
Arkaea isn’t that great either due mostly to the annoying vocals.
Technical nu-deathcore ? Who comes up with these labels…
e dis band is shit me breda
“Jacob, since the day I met you, I haven’t understood a word you said.”
It’s better than Arkaea or whatever it’s called
That’s EXACTLY what i was about to say
Linkin Park Choruses…Yay!! The new singer sucks. This is terrible due to the vocals.
Fuck this, they were only good because of Tommy Vext, Dino should just go back to being fat in his columbian bands
wow, 1.5/5
I downloaded it days ago. Thankfully, I haven’t opened the zip file yet…delete it right now…
That’s pretty sad that you just let this review determine your opinion for you. But you also stole music, so I guess we all already know that you’re a shitbag anyway.
Nope. It depends. I don’t let reviewers determine my thoughts on the bands I like. (And I do support them!)
I enjoy looking for new music, metal, non-metal, which is kinda overloaded now. So, I definitely need reviewers like Sammy to judge something in order not to waste time. Likewise, if an album gets 4.5/5(or even higher) on RYM, I might give it a listen even if I never heard of that band.
DH won’t care if they lose a cd-buyer who actually is not their fan.
They should be proud I at least gave their last record a try (if they want a piece of Asian market.) lol
Singer ruins it…. nuff said
I voiced that this album/band was pus a month ago when it got leaked.
It probably will sell 10 million units due to it being sofuckenbad.
Do yourself a favor and get Asesino/ Christo Satanico instead.
I second this, Asesino was fucking awesome !
i like it
Completely agree. Fucking awful record. Rather listen to Bone Rott…
…ok, maybe not. But still a painful piece’a shit.
Revolver MAg gave this album 4 stars. 4.
not saying that magazine has the biggest cred, but most of the time they have some good honest reveiws,
but giving new devil driver 3 1/2 and this crap 4 is just crazy.
last album sucked too
also,
hopefuly this isnt the kind of songwriting dino is going to bring back to the new fear factory
I agree. This is pretty terrible/boring.
Really annoying record.
I do, however really appreciate Deathcore and Metalcore. But I’m pretty amazed with how bad these guys treat it, like. Ex-members from Nile should actually have a lot to show.
I loved the first album. Loved it. I was so pissed to see Vext leave and it looks like I was justified in my anger because this new guy is uninspiring. Maybe Dino should just keep a revolving door of singers, y’know, a new one for each album. That would be an interesting gimmick anyway.
This is what happens when you mix Linkin Park and Necrophagist together. You get Divine Factory. The worse band ever in existence, and Dino is so fat he might eat for dissing his shitty gimmick band.
This is some of the worst horse shit that i have ever heard.
I would rather perform abortions all day than listen to divine horsey shit.
The singer is beyond terrible, just listen to that excuse of a song darkness embedded.
With all that said i actually enjoyed the first album.
First, I’m so sick and tired of hearing “Dino’s fat” jokes. That’s the kind of digs people take at each other in middle school. And obviously, being fat has no bearing whatsoever on his guitar playing abilities.
Second, I’m really bummed that Vext left the band because DH was quickly becoming a new fave of mine. BUT, the new singer holds his own, and although it’s not as good as the 1st album, it really is growing on me. Half of the album I love, the other half might take some repeated listens to appreciate.
Third, why are the only metal bands that get any love the ones where every song sounds the same: guy screaming like a drunk Cookie Monster, wailing speed guitar, duoble-bass drummers breaking their feet, etc. I like a little dynamic in my metal and if that makes me a n00b or a poser, well, so be it. Have fun breaking your neck to incoherent noise and being a TRUE metal fan. :P