Saturday 6 May 2017

BENEATH THE DIVINE ~ WICKED RESURRECTION ... review


From Chepstow, a little town in Monmouthshire,Wales, known more for it's racecourse than it's music, come a band who in their own words "Enjoying making noise and keeping life stress free", four guys who collectively fly under the banner Beneath The Divine,  four guys who have just released their first full length album "Wicked Resurrection".


It's hard to name a style or genre of heavy metal that does not, somewhere or other, raise it's elaborately horned head into view over the duration of "Wicked Resurrection's" eight gnarled and grizzled songs. Doom; stoner, traditional and epic mix together with metal; old school, power and proto and are fused together with elements of swampy sludge, hard rock and even a little ferocious thrash, these elements appearing sometimes all in the same song, sometimes separately,  Songs with titles like "Odin's Law", "Swamp King and "Phoenix Rising" are infused with a variety of differing dynamics, tempo's time signatures and tones ensuring that although some of the song's theme's of mythology, witchcraft and the occult, may seem a little generic they never ever sound stale or boring. Guitarist Kev Stait brings a plethora of fuzzed and distorted tones to the table, crunching out saw toothed riffage one minute, the next peeling scorching note perfect solo's from his fretboard, beneath him Tim Evans holds down the bottom end with big grizzly booming bass lines locking in perfectly with drummer Barney Haskey's mix of intricate and brutal percussion. Frontman Jason Hamilton Davies' vocals puts the icing on the cake , the singer deliberately avoids the usual growling, demonic approach that seems to be the norm these days instead opting for clarity over possession, his powerful clean, clear tones soaring and swooping over the perfectly executed grooves laid beneath him, voice and music combining in a heady mix of glorious heavy rock bluster and scintillating metallic groove.


"Wicked Resurrection" is a superb debut from a band who's manifesto  of delivering  familiar themes over diverse metallic grooves has definitely got Desert Psychlist's vote and hopefully will have yours too
Check it out.....



© 2017 Frazer Jones

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