Monday 17 August 2015

Album Review; Darkness Divided - Written In Blood


Released Via Victory Records
Genre: Metalcore


Track Listing:

1. Severance
2. The Shepherd's Hands
3. A Well Run Dry
4. The Hands That Bled
5. The Descent
6. Eternal Thirst
7. Withering Kingdom
8. Remnants
9. The Will Of Man
10. Interlude
11. Divine Mercy


There are two sides to this album. On the one hand; their metalcore style has been done to death! Everything from the overall tone of the songs to the bounce-along drum beats and chugging breakdowns. The vocals are mostly uninspiring and predictable. Almost every clean melody is even in the same key as the bands that come before this. The song structures are tired and do nothing to get you interested, ‘The Hands That Bled’ being a prime example. A lot of what is on show is shameless repetition of things we have heard since the turn of the century and is more likely to invoke a sigh of exasperation than anything else, especially when the short interlude tracks come into play. Every trap that metalcore bands can fall into, Darkness Divided fall hard. There are plenty of flourishes that are clearly a product of clever studio tricks, and the overall mix of the album is very pretty and pristine, but this doesn’t make up for the bulk of the material itself.

On the other hand, there are scattered amounts of interesting guitar lines and the odd breakdown here and there are genuinely heavy, showing a Slipknot influence on tracks like ‘The Will Of Man’, which has a quirky sound at the breakdowns. There’s occasional proficiency shown in the guitar lines that is frustratingly underutilized. These few points are needles in a poorly packed hay bale, and it’s albums like ‘Written In Blood’ which show metalcore is on its last legs.
 
Rating: 2/10
 
           https://www.victoryrecords.com/


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