The Canada-based
Divinity bring a variety of influences to their vicious debut album,
Allegory, ranging from metalcore and hardcore to thrash metal to death metal to progressive metal. However, some of those influences are more prominent than others; metalcore/hardcore and thrash are the main ingredients, while elements of death metal and progressive metal are a secondary part of the overall recipe. So essentially, this 2008 release falls into the metalcore/hardcore and thrash categories, although the death metal and prog metal elements are certainly present. But however one categorizes
Allegory, there is no denying that this is a nasty, bruising, highly abrasive sledgehammer of a CD. Some of that brutality comes from the vocals; lead singer
Sean Jenkins favors the type of tortured screaming that metalcore and hardcore are known for. At times, there are some death metal-style "Cookie Monster" growls -- and the occasional clean vocals find their way to
Allegory as well. But most of the time, the listener is battered and pummeled by screaming vocals. And another thing that contributes to
Allegory's harshness is the fact that it is so dense. Density, whether it is in extreme metal or free jazz, has a way of making an album really claustrophobic -- and
Allegory is obviously a claustrophobic album. Meanwhile, the prog metal elements are used to make the disc somewhat technical but don't contribute much in the way of melodic sweetening; therefore, listeners shouldn't expect to hear anything that sounds like
Dream Theater or
Luca Turilli.
Allegory is mildly inconsistent; some tracks are more memorable than others. Still,
Allegory is a generally decent debut from this Canadian extreme metal quintet. ~ Alex Henderson