We’ve teamed up with our friends over at One Man In The Middle to bring you regular, unbiased and honest reviews of music albums and EPs from Christian artists and musicians here in the UK and worldwide. This week we have Darkness Divided by Darkness Divided with an overall review score of 8.4 out of 10.
Album Information:
Formed by vocalist Gerard Mora, bassist Joseph Mora, and guitarist Sebastian Elizondo, this group of metal revelers from San Antonio make music not only with a purpose, but with a message wise beyond their young years. The soft-spoken Southerners relay their directives while collapsing your eardrums with a sound so vulgar you’d think it was sent from a less than heavenly place.
With the recent lineup departure of fellow brother and guitarist Christopher Mora, and the addition of heavy-hitting drummer Hayden Allen, DARKNESS DIVIDED has evolved into a four man unit, with Christopher staying with the family to produce the new album.
The vocalist continues, “This new album itself is split up into three parts – innocence, contradiction, and reaffirmation. As I wrote the lyrics to this record, I had the image of a house built of the ideas that others have built for you. As you grow from innocence and leave your innocence, your walls of the home begin to collapse. After you’ve lived and gone through adversity, you find out what really is important in life. That’s when you reaffirm some of the things you’ve learned in your youth though they may have been contradictions you faced in your life previously. This album is about the thought process everyone should take to find truth in their lives. If we don’t question the things we believe, then we don’t really understand why we should believe in them.”
Review:
Let me just say from the outset that if metalcore music isn’t your thing then it’s just possible that this self-titled release from Darkness Divided probably won’t be for you!
A stunning guitar solo rises from the silence, punctuated by a growling vocal and then the brilliant percussion track comes through with the guitar and the vocal is brought back to bring a great sound to your ears – this is “The Point Of No Return”. I have to confess that I couldn’t catch many of the lyrics, so I was pleased to find that Victory Records, the album publisher, list all the lyrics from the album on their website. In this day of the digital download this is a pleasant find. The aid of the lyrics definitely helped me to pick out the stories of this album.
It really is interesting to hear this style that has some a very dark and negative image being used by a Christian band. Once you get behind the growl you find that these guys are singing about their lives, their experience of life and the love of God, it just doesn’t always sound like it though!
There is a lot of energy and passion pumped through each track of this album and the themes will resonate with those seeking more meaning from their music. Not everything is the growling vocal, there are many fantastic musical moments. The guitar provides much of the musical fire for this album and the playing is fantastic, with some excellent riff and licks this instrument is given plenty of space to carry everything along nicely. The drums are tight and there are some clever beats, not to mention a certain amount of punch brought to each track.
Even vocally at times the guys move away from the growl and bring some more harmonious vocals. It’s not exactly a soft sound but definitely makes some of the tracks on this album more accessible. “Wake Of The End” is an example of this and is a much more relaxed affair with a melody that is quite pleasant and vocals that I didn’t need the lyrics to understand! This track builds towards a heavier finale. The chorus of “Misery” is incredibly catchy and really shows that these guys can put a catchy track together.
The metalcore market has been somewhat stagnant in it’s expression in recent years with many bands pumping out similar sounding music. Darkness Divided have not only taken the challenge to bring their faith to bear on their music, but I think they have been progressive in their sound. They have softened some edges to widen appeal but without compromising their core sound. This is a daring album and I think Darkness Divided will not only bring the light of God’s love to the metal community, but also bring inspiration for a new sound too!
For track listing, ranking breakdown and more check out onemaninthemiddle.com
