DivineFire: Eye of the Storm

Genre: Symphonic Metal
Label: Rivel Records
Year: 2011

When I first heard that DivineFire was returning, needless to say, I was very happy. When I heard that you could pay 15$ for a signed copy, I jumped on it. Now after taking the time to listen to the album all the way through, I feel I should review it.

At first, I wasn't expecting what I was hearing. I did know that a new singer was coming on board but I wasn't sure how I'd feel about it until I got to listen to it. From what I can gather, the first half of the album, tracks 1-7 are new songs, sung by the new singer Germán Pascual, and the last half of the album, tracks 8-10, with 11 being an instrumental piece, are sung by Christian Liljegren, the original singer.

Returning to handle the instruments is one of my personal favorite people in the Metal genre today, Jani Stefanovic, who also plays for Death Metal band Miseration, as well as a former member of the Metal Super-group Solution .45.

I'm not going to bash Germán for the sole reason is that I like his style. It brings a new vibe to DivineFire that I personally think they never had. Bear in mind that I first heard these guys when their Into a New Dimension was released, but I have also listen to their older stuff as well.

Now lets talk about the songs for a little bit. As I stated before, the first half of the songs are all new, completely original pieces. The last half, however, from my version of the album, is consisted entirely, save for the last song which is an instrumental piece, is all remakes of older songs. My personal favorite of these remakes would have to the the song Never Surrender, original off their debut release record Glory Thy Name, back in 2004. 

The reason I like the remake is because of the original. It's one of my favorite songs by DivineFire, with Eric Clayton of Savior Machine, which is a progressive neoclassical Christian gothic symphonic metal band from LA, California, as a guest/backing vocalist on the track.

From what I can gather by listening to the records, the remakes are all "remasters" instead of "remakes". The reason I say that is they have more "ompf" to them, a little more of a kick if you will.

As far as ratings go, I'm sorry to say that I feel this album deserves only a 7. The reason I say that is because, in my honest opinion, this album didn't have the drive I was expecting it to have. I know it's only a return album and whatnot, but I still think they could have given a lot more drive to it.

You know what they say, beggars can't be choosers.

As always, I'm your host, Wattako.