The Divine Romance
You're Already Dead
4.9
Synopsis:
I’ve reviewed some decent Christian metalcore/deathcore/hardcore releases this year, but The Divine Romance is unfortunately not one of them.
Review:
Taking a nod from the likes of the on again/off again The Murdered, The Demascus Intervention and With Blood Comes Cleansing, The Divine Romance attempt to give their particular brand of preach-core some death metal heft amid the usual hardcore/metalcore tones, but apart from the rather enjoyable guitar tone and dual death metal vocals, The Divine Romance are just mired in mediocrity.
Almost Stockholm-ish death metal guitar tone aside, The Divine Romance just don’t have the songwriting chops to fill out their production. Throw in some pretty weak clean vocal moments that come across as horribly cliched and piecemeal, and the whole record comes across as contrived and generic.
I tried to give the record a chance, seeing as I have enjoyed rather a lot of Christian deathcore/metalcore this year, but You’re Already Dead just never 'clicks' or delivers anything beyond crunchy mid paced lumbering (“Open Your Eyes”, “Sorrow Reigns High”, “So That Every Mouth May be Silenced”, “Betrayed With A Kiss”) the occasional dual harmony melodic sweep (“You’re Already Dead”. “The Wayward Journey”), the rather wimpy clean vocal segues (“My Angel”, “The Wayward Journey”) and of course an acoustic moment of yawn inducing grace (“The Unfaithful”). Whereas the aforementioned bands and even War of Ages glossed their message with either solid songwriting or obvious, but at least well done homage, The Divine Romance have neither to convey their conviction, and as a result the entire album is just flat.
Back to church kids. Keep the guitar tone, but it's time to seek a higher power for your songwriting...
