Review Summary: Divine Heresy try to spread their 15 minutes of fame into two full length albums.
Divine Heresy is a metalcore band that was formed in 2006 by ex- Fear Factory guitarist Dino Cazarez. Their first album "Bleed the Fifth" got them a fair amount of mainstream success in the metal community. They are back, this time with a new vocalist. They are here to drop even more blastbeats on your broken face...
The main thing that seperates this album from their last is the change in vocals. Honestly the new vocalist has the same range as their last. His attempts at singing are horrible though, and throughout the record it seems as though he is trying to imitate the past member's voice, which wouldn't be a problem if he put emotion into it, he sounds as though he is bored while singing throughout the record. This plan falls flat on it's face before the first song is over. The vocalist has great range he could do better if he just completely dropped the singing, and focused more on his screams, which are also average, this could've turned out much better.
Divine Heresy have a very tight, fast rhythm throughout this album, the only problem is they don't change it up enough for it to remain entertaining even throughout the first half of the album. The attempt at a progressive moment in "Redefine" is so random and doesn't even attempt to be cohesive in anyway. There are some fairly catchy moments on the record, take the main riff of "Facebreaker" for instance, but for the most part the riffs are heavy but boring with a few exceptions.
The stop and go style riffing the band uses the majority of the album gets very boring after the first couple tracks they are used in. There aren't too many solos to be found on the record, but when they come into play they are decent and I wouldn't mind them popping up more often. They are a good break from the constant unrelenting chug style that is played.
The softest song featured on the album would be "Darkness Embedded", the song features sung vocals throughout which are weak but overall the song manages to be one of the better tracks on the album. Clean guitars are quickly interrupted by the machinegun style chugging that Divine Heresy is known for, but somehow this is all done in a cohesive way. The before mentioned song is the only attempt at something new on the record, which still winds up sounding like something you would hear on your local rock station, but at least they tried. This album is just what most probably expected it to be a rehashed version of their first album with different vocals.
The bottom line is that if Divine Heresy don't make a drastic change by their next album they will be on the *** list of metalheads across the land. Overall I'm giving this a 2.5 out of 5 due to the fact that this still remains semi-entertaining. Divine Heresy have certainly proved they can be brutal but until they come up with something new I'm simply not interested. "Bringer of Plagues" just furthers the thought that as a band, Divine Heresy is a one trick pony. Hardcore Dino fans may like this but for anyone else I say stay away, if you simply have to hear Divine Heresy pick up "Bleed the Fifth". Hey, look on the bright side we still have the new Fear Factory to look foward too...
