Blood Divine, The – Rise Pantheon Dreams
After making a name for himself in the early years of England’s doom scene as the mournful singer of Anathema (to this day, the first 3 releases from said band remain timeless and godly), Darren White left and formed The Blood Divine… a band with infinite potential on paper, but the few releases I’ve heard have been downright terrible/weak. His voice never evolved and even more shocking, got worse with time as he strained to capture the deep misery he once so effortlessly emulated. Since I misplaced the bio information, I’m assuming that “Rise Pantheon Dreams” is a “best of” collection alongside unreleased, cover and live material. The thing that is the most disappointing about this band is the upbeat punch that plagues their music with obvious riff harmonies and painfully misplaced synth tones. You can tell it’s White singing (with moments of his old powerful self ringing through on the decent track, “As Rapture Fades”), but his clean tone, seemingly scrambled/rambled yelling style and forced attempt to take it to a lower register, is as uninteresting and stale as the music he’s fighting to decorate. There are some great musical moments on here like the middle section of “Vision in Blue”, but as soon as they set a dark groove with memorable guitar work, they switch back into the upbeat Metallica crunch, which dumbs down the overall effect. The mighty have fallen. – Marty
PEACEVILLE
Worm Gear 