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Divine Eve > Upon These Ashes Scorn the World > Reviews
Divine Eve - Upon These Ashes Scorn the World

Get doomed! - 91%

colin040, October 27th, 2017

There’s something about certain bands in a certain time that just deliver the goods. With a limited discography and a short life span, Divine Eve were only around for a little while before breaking up. One of its members did form Crimson Relic shortly after, who I recall sounded similar but lacked the bite of the former band. It really makes me wonder what could have happened if only all of its members were involved in something new.

While bands like Asphyx and Autopsy aren’t far off Divine Eve’s style, the band conjures atmosphere like no other. Listening to these guys feels more like finding yourself lost in a post-apocalyptic environment. The slower leads sound somber but never depressing; they’re stimulating but never steal the show too much. Indeed, both guitarists have more concern about riffs instead. You can tell that both guys have a thing for Celtic Frostian riffs Tom Warrior pounded out loud and proud in his heyday, although not so much as Dream Death and Delirium, who’d probably have aped Hellhammer if it weren’t for Celtic Frost. I hear a bit of Entombed (pre Wolverine Blues) here too, but again I never get the idea these guys were aiming for a worship sound or anything.

From the screaming guitar motif that starts the album to the speedy Sodom cover, Divine Eve prove that they’re on top of their game. With the exception of the two covers, pretty much every song shares a similar theme to be heard; sludgy cavernous passages and furious velocity get melted into one like no other. While pretty much every song on here does it for me, my favorite number on here has to be ‘’Harlequin of the Perpetual Destiny’’, which starts like all hell breaks loose before slowing down around the two minute mark. Normally I’m not a fan of spoken passages, but here they hint the idea of being lost in an abandoned wasteland that the monolith guitar riffs bring to mind. The crude production helps the band too and I wouldn’t change the sound of it a little bit even if I could. It even makes the Sodom cover gain just a little more punch. Grinding guitars are downtuned quite a bit (probably to C standard or so) but never sound deficient. The drummer pounds on his kit with enthusiasm and I love the sound of the thundering double bass and crashing cymbals once things speed up. Finally the pissed off vocals are reminiscent of early Swedish death metal bands: closer to an angry gruff shout than a demonic guttural growl.

Divine Eve’s discography might be limited, but personally I find Upon These Ashes Scorn the World one of the best doom/death metal albums out there. If you’re a fan of this stuff, giving it a try is absolutely mandatory.

The Return to Midnight - 98%

Mortuary_Mosh, July 28th, 2009

There are times when I'm perusing through various bands' pages on this here website and I think to myself, "Why the fuck hasn't anyone given this release a proper review?" This best of compilation from Texan doom/death heroes, Divine Eve, is an example of such a case.

First off, let's just get this out of the way. If you call yourself a fan of old-school death metal, and you haven't ever heard of Divine Eve, kill yourself. You'll certainly want to once you give this release a proper listen and realize that you've missed out on one of the most orgasmic death metal releases ever.

Divine Eve were certainly one of the darkest, heaviest, and most crushing doom/death bands of their time. The only way I can attempt to describe the sound of this release is to take the atmosphere of Burzum, everything about Autopsy's sound basically, some Entombed-esque riffs, and the sheer darkness of Scandinavian death metal as a whole. Now toss it all into a fuckin meatgrinder, and you kind of have a feel for Divine Eve's sound. Sounds awesome, right? This shit right here, although not completely fresh and different, is certainly top-notch and deserves just as much praise as "Severed Survival" or "Mental Funeral". This is a release of all of their recorded material, and although there are some sound changes among certain tracks, it can certainly be treated like a full-length.

Divine Eve were masters as pulling off the "slow-to-fast" switch-up; creating atmospheres of utter gloom and well, doom with slow, crushing riffs one moment and exploding your eardrums with an unexpected but amazing burst of brutality the next. The speed that I talk of is by no means in the Napalm Death arena, but it's fast for the genre itself. Furthermore, there are no blasts to be found here, but the speedier parts tend to carry an almost d-beat pattern. It's intensely cool and it WILL make you bang your head.

The guitars here, as with most metal, create the mood and carry the music. The mood that one can find is INTENSE pessimism, relating to revelations of an eldritch terror long forgotten. As such, the slow sections are dripping with atmosphere and are even, dare I say, beautiful. The musicianship here is more than competent. Astounding even, in my opinion. Plus, the songs sound like they're extremely fun to play.

In conclusion, I love everything about this release. The musicianship, vocals, lyrics, song titles; everything is top-notch. This is the type of death metal that's kind of rare. The slow sections force one to introspectively examine the meaning of human existence, while the faster sections will possess you and make you thrash around like a fucking maniac.

If you're a fan of old-school death metal, this is a complete and total buy or die scenario.