I recently picked up a copy of Divine Heresy's sophomore release Bringer of Plagues, as I was excited to see if it was humanly possible for Tim Yeung's drumming prowess to get any faster/technical. After a couple listens I'm still not sure. Not to say that Tim Yeung's drumming skill doesn't excite me, believe me it does, I just don't think he can possibly force his body to get any faster than it already is. The sheer speed of his blasting and drum fills is enough to keep me happy for a very long time. Anyway, the album is a refreshing yet different record from their debut Bleed the Fifth (which for a long time I thought was Bleed the Filth). There is an actual bassist listed in the band roster now, it's Joe Payne formerly of Nile, and you can actually HEAR the bass on a couple of the songs unlike the guitar-centric nature of "Bleed the Fifth". Their portly guitarist, Dino Cazares, has added a few more technical death metal-esque riffs, most noticeably the one in the beginning of "Facebreaker," which sounds like crazy arpeggio sweeping, but has also kept the hyper-speed tremolo picking for the rest of the album. As for the vocalist, Travis Neal (who currently sings for the Swedish melodic death metal band, The Bereaved), sounds exactly the same as Heresy's former vocalist Tommy Vext, except maybe a little less deep and more raspy. He's not a terrible singer in the least, in fact, some of the songs, although clearly depicting total annihilation like "Redefine", almost sound energetic and happy. But I just can't help but feel weird that after firing the first vocalist they wouldn't consider moving in a different direction just for shits and giggles. In my opinion it kind of defeats the purpose of firing Vext in the first place, but I won't go into that. As for songs, "Bringer of Plagues" is easily their best song off of the album, as it starts with a deafening scream and then immediately pummels the listener with unrelenting blasting and an array of razor-sharp shredding. The chorus is catchy, Travis Neal's vocals fit perfectly with the music, and there is just the right amount of beefy riffage mixed with Yeung's double-kick pedals from hell. All in all, Bringer of Plagues is a pretty solid sophomore album for these extreme metallers, helping them flex their technical death metal-inspired muscles while still keeping that metalcore tinge very much on the surface. It's exciting to think where they may take their music for their third album...
Focus Tracks:
Facebreaker, Bringer of Plagues, Redefine, Letter to Mother, The Battle of J. Casey
