THE AGE OF MAN is the first Divination album I have heard that sounds like the band was not trying to squeeze itself into a genre-specific box or emulate a prescribed collection of bands. Prior to this release, it always seemed like the Reading, PA band was pressured by environmental or personal forces to uphold a standard that simply was not genuine or credibly attainable.
I believe this is the first true and honest album by the band, in which they simply allowed themselves to be. With their influences tattooed onto their hearts, the band has let its members’ abilities flow naturally onto disc. While death metal may be the band’s modus operandi, THE AGE OF MAN wafts of an unabashedly pure, old school thrash metal aesthetic that really hasn’t been explored since the Golden Age of the genre.
The album, at its core, really sounds like the evolutionary link between the time thrash metal became ultra-abrasive and morphed into full-on, skull-splitting death metal. It is an album I would not have been surprised to hear in 1989. This is not to say that THE AGE OF MAN has no place in 2010; the straight-forward riff attack that cuts right to the bone is enough to keep even the young bucks engaged.
Appreciation is also enhanced by the fact that Divination devoutly avoids the trappings of genre trend, so don’t expect to hear excessive finger-tapping or retarded, off-time drum-tracking. The album is strictly about a band, raw emotion, and the unhinged fury of metal.
THE AGE OF MAN is the kind of album that would have fit right in on the rosters of those impassioned labels like Crook’d Records, Combat, or Root of All Evil. If you appreciate the heavier genres of metal to any capacity, there is no reason not to give Divination a shot.
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Check out THE AGE OF MAN at Amazon and Amazon Digital.
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