Few bands keep the same lineup throughout their entire career, and a change in personnel is always a great opportunity to evolve the band’s sound. With new skills to call on, new attitudes and inspirations to be infused, and new visions for what a band can be and where they might head next, you find exciting new flavours, sounds, and directions of travel being ushered in and embraced. Exciting times.
And that is where Divine Martyr now finds itself. With Kassandra taking over vocal duties, “Resistance” serves as a first taste and teaser of this rebranding, not to mention a sampler for the new album to follow.
What is clear from the single is that they haven’t lost any of their grandeur; in fact, they have stepped even further into the anthemic and, indeed, the realms of symphonic metal, with the various moods and movements, dynamic ebbs and flows, that the song employs.
But, as always, it is metal with a kick… literally. At its most ferocious, twin bass pedals drive pummelling beats, guitars rage and roar, basslines pulse and power, and synth lines soar gracefully above. But this is more than an exercise in volume and velocity; it is the dynamics that set it apart from the competition. Space and understatement, relatively speaking, help shape the song, allowing delicate guitar cascades, tribal drum patterns, and heavenly choirs to be revealed. And as always, those drops to the lower eschelons of the sonic spectrum are what make the climbs back up to the sky-searing, sonic highs all the more impressive.
This is the sound of a band rejuvenated, a band with renewed vigour, a band setting out on a new sonic quest, and it is a quest that any discerning rock and metal fan is going to want to join them on, believe me.
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