Divine Eve

Vengeful and Obstinate

Written by: AB on 17/02/2010 00:20:21

Here is a short one. Divine Eve has been around since 1992, but disbanded somewhere in the mid nineties after releasing a fairly well received EP on Nuclear Blast Records. Then, after a good fifteen-sixteen years, the guys reformed and put together this little EP, "Vengeful and Obstinate". This one got released about a month ago on Ibex Moon Records, the small record company of John McEntee of death metal cult Incantation fame. On top of Incantation themselves, Ibex Moon Records have a bunch of other old school stalwarts on the bill, such as Avulsed, Asphyx, Master and the newly reformed Goreaphobia. So, while Divine Eve apparently don't hang around Ibex Moon Records anymore, their former colleagues there should give everybody an idea of the kind of music is to be found on this EP.

Yep. You guessed it, 10 points. Old school, slow, churning death metal. 17 minutes spread out on 4 songs of it to be precise. However, it is not putrid and rotten as, say, the former mentioned Avulsed or Asphyx, and not otherworldly and dark as Goreaphobia or Incantation. Rather, Divine Eve focuses on a mix of slow, doomy riffs, and some faster, more thrashin' parts. While this might not sound like neither very new, nor shining - indeed, the faster parts are reminiscent of what Celtic Frost did 25 years ago - it is not often I hear death/doom that actually focus, musically, on the doom part. Most doom/death I listen to, is mainly death metal which make use of doom song structure and (lack of) speed - I still call bands like Funebrarum or Coffins for death/doom though some would just name them 'slow death metal'. Anyway, Divine Eve, on the other hand, throws around something which to my ears sound like death metal played with genuine doom riffs. Just listen to the highlight of the EP, "The Ravages of Heathen Men", which should get your head nodding and make all doom fans play some slow air guitar (great use of horn in the intro to the song too!). It works really well in all songs though, and it is definitely in the slower parts that Divine Eve shines.

Sadly, however, the faster bits aren't really up to par. Well, they are actually more mid paced than fast, but it is still generic, if somewhat groovy, thrashing death (not death/thrash!). If I could have my say, Divine Eve should have focused on the doomy death (or, maybe more accurate, deathly doom?) aspect of "Vengeful and Obstinate", which is rather more exciting than when they crank up the speed. That could have turned out way more interestingly, and the EP might have ended up as a cool little gem of death-inspired doom instead of pretty generic-but-with-a-few-interesting-touches slow death metal

Download: The Ravages Of Heathen Men
For the fans of: Celtic Frost, Goreaphobia
Listen: MySpace

Release date 16.01.2010
Ibex Moon Records

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