Label: Independent
Website
This arrival for review was definitely one of those that would be found in the “that’s a band I’ve not heard of before” file. The band is called Divus, hails from Solothurn Switzerland, and the debut release is an album entitled Aureola. There are a few great Swiss bands around at the moment, with Zenit, Dawn and Diaphonic all being featured on the radio show recently, as was a track from Divus recently.
The band themselves describe their music as “relaxing,
emotional, inspiring sound with a touch of wrath.” The music produced by the
band is instrumental and is influenced by many artists, including, Tool, Pink
Floyd and Dream Theater. The result of each of the individual members
possessing different influences produces a unique sound which comes about by
placing those influences into a large container and then letting them mix and
blend together before drip feeding the results out. It is also important to the
band that each piece of music has the ability to evolve through different moods
to be expressed properly, hence the longer track running times. Divus look upon
each track as a musical journey that invites the listener to become immersed in
the aural soundscape that they are serving up.
Divus is a 4 piece band from Solothurn, which is in the
north west of Switzerland. Although only three members were involved in the
production of the debut album, Aureola,
Simon Roth (drums), Sahin Dogan (guitars) and Rob Meroni (guitars), they have
now added Marc on bass.
Aureola is
a 6 track album with a running time of around 69 minutes. The tracks are all
relatively long, with track 6, “Mosaic III,” the shortest on offer at just
short of 9 minutes (8:49) and track 2, “Anima,” the longest, playing for 17:42
minutes.
The opening track on Aureola,
“Vates” (11:24) certainly grabs your attention from the word go. The track is
quickly into some chunky guitar riffing with driving drums underpinning the
sound, and progresses at full speed. Just after the 2 minute mark, there is a
little relaxation in the music, with some terrific playing and then just the
guitar and drums with some exquisite little melodic moments going on before the
other guitar brings in the chunky riffs again and the track has seamlessly
built up in intensity. After around 4 minutes there is a superb guitar passage
which again varies in tempo effortlessly to leave a solo guitar backed by
drums. The drummer then gets a little time in the spotlight before the other
guitar reappears. The track weaves from the chunky riffing to the melodic
guitar work and certainly gives the drummer plenty to do throughout the 11+ minutes.
It is this evolving of the track that maintains the interest, with fast metal
sections, slower superb melodic passages and a distinct lack of “metronomic”
drumming, which for me, is a huge plus point. This is a terrific entry to Aureola, which then moves onto the
longest track on offer.
“Anima” (17:42) has both guitars playing melodic passages
which fit like a “well worn” glove and
the drums just edge their way into the proceedings before the chunky riffing
heralds the driving drums back and the track builds after the opening 1:30
minutes. There are subtle time changes before the guitars get a chance to fly
again and the track starts to ebb and flow from the “full on” to the more “laid
back” approach. All too soon you realize that around 18 minutes have passed and
track 3 is almost on you. “Awakening” (11:41) has the same trademarks that have
gone before with that seamless movement from the light to the darker and back.
The last 3 tracks form a three piece suite with “Mosaic I”
(8:51), “Mosaic II” (11:30) and “Mosaic III” (11:49), which surely nods in the
direction of Pink Floyd, after a really gentle guitar melody backed by
“shimmering” drums starts Mosaic I and then moves into a guitar, bass and drum
building up of the track. This first part of “Mosaic” was featured on the radio
show recently and is simply stunning. “Mosaic II” takes the “theme” up a level
or two, but maintains that link to the “floydesque” sound. The final part of
the suite, “Mosaic III” has a gentler starting point which builds to a whole
band wall of noise before highlighting some excellent guitar work. Some superb
guitar playing, with only a very simple background, brings the level down a
notch and you get a chance to relax a little before the drums become more insistent
and one of the guitarists “lets rip” a little. The track thunders along at full
throttle until around 2 minutes from the end when a superbly atmospheric
passage picks up to take the track out.
Here we have three musicians who are totally in sync and
certainly seem to be enjoying themselves. I found the album superbly enjoyable
as they show stunning skill and have the ability to create such aural paintings
of light and shade that it is impossible not to be drawn in and immersed in the
music. I can even forgive them a few instances of “metronomic” drumming, which
I normally find an instantly irritating sound.
Aureola is
a stunning debut album which gets better with every listen and deservedly gets
both the “One to Buy” and “The Experience will last Forever” stickers on the
album cover and an almost perfect score of 4.5 which leaves them a target to
aim at with album No 2.
4.5/5
Stars
Key
Tracks: Vates, Mosaic I, Mosaic II
Tracks:Vates
Anima
Awakening
Mosaic 1
Mosaic 2
Mosaic 3
Tracks:Vates
Anima
Awakening
Mosaic 1
Mosaic 2
Mosaic 3
June 18, 2014
Review
Provided By Prog Rock Music Talk
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