Kuwait-based symphonic metal quintet
Divine Disorder formed in 2010. Prior to their debut full-length record, the band released a couple of singles in
2012, "
Children of Menace" and "The Puppeteer." In late 2014, with the help of multiple guest musicians from different bands from all over the globe,
Divine Disorder would release their first full-length album entitled "
Garden of
Dystopia."
The band's musicianship itself sounds very solid, at least for the most part. For starters, both the aggressive vocals and the clean singing sound really potent and, while nothing groundbreaking, they do a great job of playing their part in delivering the music's emotion. The middle ground, or the half-screaming, half-singing (i.e. "Enciphered III"), however, do sound slightly iffy and forced (To be fair, this vocal style is quite difficult to be on-point; very few vocalists such as those from bands like
Gojira,
Cattle Decapitation, and
Dirge are the only success stories that come to mind). Similar things can be said about the instrumentation, as both the guitar and drum work are mostly what one would expect; Very energized and fast-paced, as well as nicely performed with lots of impressive melodies and dynamic. Overall, while not much of the musical performance shouts innovative or fresh, it is definitely carried out with rather impressive results.
On top of that, the synthesizer/orchestral effects add a lot to this album. They do a great job of giving the music the epic and theatrical atmosphere that the band is clearly yearning to achieve, sounding quite realistic and powerful. The sound production and mixing are also very well done, giving the music an overall nicely-polished and somewhat industrial sound and further brings about the sort of cinematic ambiance mentioned earlier.
Both the mixing and any other post-production effects do wonders in this album in terms of tone and atmosphere, and are ultimately the major highlight of the entire listening experience.
As stated in the first paragraph, there is a large array of guest musicians that make appearances in it, some of them even being from very renowned bands in the metal genre. The roster includes
Karl Sanders from technical/brutal death metal trio
Nile (Guitars in "
Children of Menace" and "The Arcanist"), Paolo Rossi from symphonic death metal quintet
Fleshgod Apocalypse (Clean vocals in "Theatrical
Demise"), and
Oliver Palotai from melodic power metal group
Kamelot (Orchestration and programming in "Theatrical
Demise" and "
Rusted Libra"). The vast majority of these musicians are incorporated well into the songs, having their talents carried over into these tracks without causing the album to lose its identity (Although Rossi's strained singing still does grate on the ears a touch).
Just like with the musicianship, "
Garden of
Dystopia" is not all that innovative in the progressive/symphonic/melodic death metal department when it comes to its writing and formula, but in terms of the execution, the music is carried out well. There is a lot of good speed dynamic and song variation that helps in keeping the audience's attention, as well as a lot of memorable and especially well-orchestrated and performed parts scattered that grip listeners even further. Album opener "
Pandora's
Codex" is a great way to kick off the record with high velocity and vigor, and songs such as "The Gambit" and "Theatrical
Demise" both make grand entrances with some really instrumental layering between the guitars and drums and the synthesizer effects. Although the songs themselves are generally rather predictable, thus taking away some of the music's energetic momentum about halfway through, there is still enough to them to stay engaging and leave a significant impact on the listener.
"
Garden of
Dystopia" is a solid debut from a rising melodic metal act. It might not be anything that new, when it comes to the progressive and symphonic metal genres, there is still plenty of substance to be found here. The musicianship is demonstrated very potently, the production and mixing further reinforce the music's cinematic ambiance to further immerse the audience, and there are parts of the orchestration itself that definitely latch to the memory and resonate even after the music subsides. Though it does tend to be very predictable and formulaic of the modern melodic and symphonic death metal genres, not bringing that much new to the table, it's still certainly worth recommending to anyone in the mood for an energetic and well-balanced specimen of said genres. All in all, this album is a promising effort.
Originally posted on: http://metaljerky.blogspot.com/
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