It’s always hard to start a review and that’s definitely the case with Divine Empire. Based on the old vocalist of Malevolent Creation, this band continues where he stopped with M.C. I never heard music from this band, but several people where pointing me to it. Finally, I have the opportunity to hear this piece of work for the first time. I don’t know much about this band besides the vocalist, but after some studies I found out that this band started to exist when all three band members where playing together in Malevolent Creation. The current line up isn’t the same anymore, because only Jason Blachowicz and John Paul Soars are left of that line up. Duane Timlin of Sacrophagus and Judas Iscariot has joined forces with Divine Empire on drums and now Method Of Execution, which title sounds very familiar to the new Brodequin record called Methods Of Execution, comes into play.

 

The very first thing about this album I’d like to say is the ultra production. It’s sometimes even too smooth, which I think is a little annoying. I prefer a more raw production like Dismember, but of course, this isn’t comparable. The music is very tight and amazingly well performed. It’s quite easy to hear the imminent Malevolent Creation influences. After hearing some tracks it was also nice to hear that familiar Hate Eternal way of music writing in the track called The Mauler. Divine Empire have thrown a lot of several bands in one big blender and extracted every nice thing of different bands. The third track Surgical Strike has a lot of Cannibal Corpse influences and I don’t mind if things are copied, but copy it well when you do copy. Divine Empire have successfully copied lines and created one hell of an album, which I really favour and listen to regularly. The combination of Prelude To The Storm and Storm Of Hatred, I really recommend because of the real bizarre acoustic prelude and the also bizarre song Storm Of Hatred. Did I hear Metallica here? Another top notch of this album is the last track Reduced To Ashes, which could almost be a song from a stoner band.

 

16 tracks and nearly an hour of intense death metal is what you can expect of this album. They were supposed to play on the Fuck The Commerce festival, but due to a problem with customs they weren’t allowed to leave Florida. I really regretted that, but luckily I have this album to comfort me. Headbang on and have some real listening pleasure! This is a must for every death metal fan that doesn’t bitch about originality and are open-minded to other styles.

 

Track list: 

1: Vowed Revenge

2: The Mauler

3: Surgical Strike

4: Dungeon Mask

5: Shadow Of Violence

6: Prelude To The Storm

7: Storm Of Hatred

8: Random Beheadings

9: Incarcerated

10: Judge, Jury & Executioner

11: Terror Zone

12: Sanctionized Homicide

13: Impervious Deception

14: Kill The King

15: Murderous

16: Reduced To Ashes

 

Line Up: 

Bass/Vocals – Jason Blachowicz

Guitar/Vocals – John Paul Soars

Drums – Duane Timlin