### Divine Empire: Method of execution

#### 11/05/10 || Daemonomania

First things first, according to Metal Archives these dudes are unhappy because they had to tone down the front cover of this album. I can only sympathize with their deep disappointment: “Dude, the blindfolded guy getting shot in the head, throat, and torso by like 10 machine guns is so fucken NOT BRUTAL ENUFF, dude!” Life just isn’t fair sometimes.

Oh well. So Divine Empire play unrelenting death/thrash and hail from the the third or fourth stop on a hypothetical global metaltour – Florida, U.S. of A. They all may or may not have been in Malevolent Creation at some point. Therefore I’m bound to like them to an extent, though admittedly death/thrash ain’t all ‘tis made out to be. You ever notice two out of every three crews in the subgenre lick the metaphorical balls? There’s a lot of sad, sad wastes of band names in the ranks. DE ain’t one of them, thankfully. These guys are solid, know their shit (especially the guitarist) and obviously love what they do. That goes a long way. Not to mention I get occasional Vader/Krisiun vibes, which is good news indeed.

Production-wise, comparisons can be made to “Assassination” (ala those wacky Brazilians). Deep, heavy, and with an actually audible bass. The low grunts are definitely prevalent, though John Paul lays down some screeches for needed variety. Drum-wise there is technical skill on display but not a ton of personality – I love deathy thrashy beats interspersed with blasts as much as the next guy, but loosening up a bit would certainly add character to yer performance. Still, all the ingredients for a killer Hempire sandwich are present.

Problem is that there’s something missing from the recipe. Something that would go together better than two chunky Alabama ladies, you, and a jar of 200 proof pumpkin liquor. Maybe too many songs. Maybe a few could have been scrapped and more attention paid to the good ones. Like “Impervious deception” or “Incarcerated” or fucken “Storm of hatred” which comes with a free limited-edition Hellhammet solo. Make that two.

So my advice to these violent Floridians is…better quality control. A good death thrash album has no more than 12 tunes. Not including interludes (which are dumb). Maybe make a concept album – it worked for Yyrkoon. I seriously believe these dudes have an “Occult medicine” or maybe an “Issue VI” in ‘em. Believe in YOURSELF (dundundun dunnn). But for now, the cover actually represents the problem at hand. Bit ‘o overkill. Yet I am happy to award a stunning:

Oh wait, just found out the band has had some sort of internal problem and it is only the guitarist is left to carry the DE banner. Carry it proud, friend. Stay brewtal.

- Information
- Released: 2005
- Label: Century Media
- Website: www.metalasylum.com
- Band
- Jason Blachowicz: vocals, bass
- John Paul Soars: guitars, vocals
- Duane Timlin: drums

- Tracklist
- 01. Vowed Revenge
- 02. The Mauler
- 03. Surgical Strike
- 04. Dungeon Mask
- 05. Shadow Of Violence
- 06. Prelude To The Storm
- 07. Storm Of Hatred
- 08. Random Beheadings
- 09. Incarcerated
- 10. Judge, Jury & Executioner
- 11. Terror Zone
- 12. Sanctionized Homicide
- 13. Impervious Deception
- 14. Kill The King
- 15. Murderous
- 16. Reduced To Ashes