Albums•November 29, 2011•9,776 views

Divine Heresy Bleed The Fifth

01. Bleed The Fifth 02. Failed Creation 03. This Threat is Real 04. Impossible is Nothing 05. Savior Self 06. Rise of The Scorned 07. False Gospel 08. Soul Decoded (Now and Forever) 09. Royal Blood Heresy 10. Closure

2007 Century Media Records

Our score 4

by Michael Gluck

12/31/2007

So Dino's back... in the mainstream, that is. Starting his career in a band that faced its share of detractors following the release of its 1992 debut, "Soul of a New Machine," Dino Cazares would soon become responsible for the nu-metal trend as countless bands emulated his seven-string guitar tones and Burton Bell's once-unique blend of death, power, and hardcore vocals; even Syracuse edgemen Earth Crisis quite openly paid homage to Fear Factory on their last album. Fear Factory's final true album, "Obsolete," was its last legs as Cazares would soon depart and focus exclusively on his cult projects Brujeria and Asesino. With his brand new band, Divine Heresy, just releasing their debut album "Bleed The Fifth," perhaps his credibility would have been better off had he remained underground. Everyone needs to eat though, and all signs point to Divine Heresy existing primarily if not solely for that reason. But if the kids in middle America don't lap this up like those banking on it are hoping for, the band will likely be done in before it hits the starting gate. Unlike Fear Factory, which while now admittedly dated in their sound, were once just as accomplished as Slayer and Pantera for their identity and distinctiveness, Divine Heresy attempt too much too soon in their young career and end up falling smack, middle-of-the-road where they are immediately flattened by bands both half AND twice their age, and then scraped up by tribal-tattooed and nail polish-wearing Chimaira fans mistaking their remains for metal brilliance. But the problem isn't so much Cazares having lost his touch; in fact his other running project, Asesino, which features Static-X's Tony Campos in its ranks and earlier this year released their newest and most vicious full-length "Cristo Satanico" on Odio Records, stands as tall as the handful of cult classic Brujeria albums he created throughout the nineties. Besides the rare uncomplicated and devoid of clean vocals number "False Gospel," Divine Heresy's songs simply shift too cumbersomely from echoes of Fear Factory to syrupy metalcore, and boringly pasted-in, discontinuous death metal blasts. Cazares sees what is hot right now and "Bleed The Fifth" can only be his attempt to regain mainstream status, although succeeding at this may prove more difficult than he imagined. Bottom Line: This is Cazares' new stab at piggybacking on the frail and largely generic American metal scene, whose trends are far too numerous to even follow, and success too fleeting to maintain. So while the drumming (by death icon Tim Yeung) is solid, and the vocals by new face Tommy Vext, a dead ringer for a younger and angrier Vin Diesel, are surprisingly dexterous, a lack of focused songwriting is what does Divine Heresy in on "Bleed The Fifth." Even Fear Factory, who publicly suffer the loss of Cazares with each successive record since his departure, come across as more focused; and that isn't saying much.

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yousuck_ 12/31/2007 11:08:02 PM

1st post. f*ck this band. f*ck you dumbf*cks.

Divine Heresy Bleed The Fifth

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