Divine In Sight’s first release is a powerful one. The bulk of well-written, intelligent, and entertaining music on this record stuns me, because I’ve never heard anything so striking from an independant prog group. In this review, I will highlight the many strong points of this album, but I will not neglect to mention the many flaws/weaknesses of it.The Music:
The music style is hard edged, technical prog rock which draws influences from a number of legendary groups. The group must be extremely annoyed by the endless onslaught of Rush comparisons. They do not sound that much like Rush. You can hear the influences of Queen, Dream Theater, Yes, The Beatles, and at times groups like Fates’ Warning and Queensryche.
The music is a great accomplishment for this group. I commend them as writers and musicians. The musicianship on this record is all incredible. Most notably, Frank Ralls’ percussion stands out as the most consistently amazing playing I have heard in a long time. In fact, I believe the percussion, being technical, but not showy, tops the bass and guitars as the best played instrument on the album. The bass is somewhat showy; but must admit that I love it, and it really gives Divine in Sight a voice and personality. The guitars are tight, and impressive, but not flashy.
A big problem with Sorrow & Promise is that the bass and guitars have the same effect throughout the entire paying length. Their lack of musical variety is the biggest hurt to the album, and causes the music to feel monotonous, sleepy, boring, and at times, preachy. Much of the music is incredibly enjoyable, though, the group’s creative genius showing through on Black River, By Leaps & Bounds, Waltz of the Plastic Dolls, Viper’s Brood and Into the Abyss. Unfortunately, much of the music sounds like filler and loses my attention on In A Box, Soul of Mine, and especially Make Me More Like You. The last track, the album closer, sounds somber, accusative, sleepy, and oddly like a finger waving at you to say, “no”, when it should sound joyous.
The Production:
This record is not badly produced. The line 6 effects on the guitar get all mudded up at times, as well as the background vocals, which aren’t mixed well into the rest of the music, and all the effects and tracks in the mix just make the music too big to fit through my speakers. It all just gets clogged up.
The other thing that I’m sure the band has noticed is that there is way too much reverb on the band, but especially on the vocals, which are also way too low in the mix. I have trouble understanding what he is singing. But beside that, all the recording was done fairly well.
All that said, I look forward to hearing the groups next record, O Nox Ultima? (I think), and I recommend that every proghead, especially Christian progheads buy Sorrow & Promise.
