I bought this album completely by mistake. I thought I had clicked on another album on my trusty Amazon (come on, I can’t find anything anywhere else and Metal Haven moved from Lakeview to the West Side). It wasn’t until the package finally came in that I realized my fatal mistake. “Eh, fuck it,” I mused to myself, opened it, and tuned in. I was pleasantly surprised.

It’s good stuff in the sense that it feeds that craving churning inside of you to have heaviness pounded into your ears. In reality, Divine Heresy is just another version of Killswitch Engage, complete with the ripped African-American vocalist. Heresy is heavier, though, with darker intent and angrier mood. That’s what I would expect, though, from former Fear Factory guitarist Dino Cazares, who’s big Mexican frame birthed the Divine Heresy brain-child. The guy lives for crunching metal, having been a “team leader” of Roadrunner’s anniversary compilation Roadrunner United in 2005.

Listening to this stuff with good headphones is like being relentlessly kicked in the head by one of your best friends. It’s that damn double-bass drum. Sometimes, drummer Tim Yeung goes a bit too slap-happy on the blasted things, making it sound too sporadic. All in all, the guitars are unrelenting, the bass is from the pit of the gut, and Tommy Vext’s vocals are fierce…up until he breaks out of the grind and slides into the singing. The band is at times extreme, at times light-hearted, and at times downright poppy. Wanna branch out and discover new sounds? Skip this one. Wanna get lost in crunching metal riffs and ultra-fast drums? Listen to The Haunted…then pop this one in.

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