What’s up with Canada? It seems that nearly every act coming from up north is just loaded to the brim with talent. Prime example: Divinity with their debut full length Allegory. This young band shows more technical superiority and diversity than the bulk of bands that could be considered veterans out there playing this style, which is primarily that of thrash and death, with a good serving of melody too.

The closest comparison I can offer of Divinity is of fellow Canadians Into Eternity. Powerful riffs abound, stop on a dime time changes, a rather impressive and diversified vocal approach and equally impressive lead guitar work are all common denominators of the two. But where Into Eternity keeps the accelerator all the way down 90% of the time, Divinity aren’t afraid to brake, and do not rely so much upon a million notes per second. While the influence of Death can be heard in IE’s sound, Divinity make it much more obvious as the Shuldiner-isms are everywhere – most notably in the supreme axe work, but can also be heard from time to time in the vocals of Sean Jenkins. Also, there’s a somewhat choppy, machine like quality to the drumming of Brett Duncan at times that reminds of Darkane.

There’s no point in dissecting songs individually here as there is a common thread running through all of them, but be assured that each is like a rollercoaster ride of ups and downs, twists and turns, frequent tempo fluctuations and multiple variations of growls and clean vocals that are constantly changing. All of this is accented by a Sacha Laskow (and Divinity themselves) production and Tue Madsen mix and master that allows all elements to shine through.

There really isn’t much to gripe about on Allegory, but it feels like these songs are missing just a little something, and I can’t quite put my finger on it. What I do know is that this band can only get better (barring a major stylistic shift) – Allegory is just the tip of the iceberg and a huge show of promise. I have a hunch that their next album will be a total monster and I can’t wait to get my hands on it. But for now, Allegory is a fine album and one worthy of more than just a passing listen.

[Visit the band's website]

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