Non-Divine - Asylum 45 - review
Non-Divine - Asylum 45 - review
Tracklist
01. One Man, One Soul02. In Shame
03. New Die-hard Vampire
04. Sleep
05. Breathe
06. Mended Doll
07. Love Loss
08. Return To Zero
09. Visions
10. Sympathy
A review by
Marcel Hubregtse March 06, 2007
It's hearty, exotic and along the lines of modern day cooking? fusion of many a style. To my palate at least it is nothing short of divine.
Rusty Cage Records have managed to surprise me once again with a very good and solid debut, or dare I even say it? great debut, by a promising Dutch band. However, Non-Divine aren't an unknown entity in the Dutch metal scene having won the Metal Bash 2005. Okay, it did take them about a year to unleash their debut concept album upon the world, but it was certainly worth the wait. Superbly produced by Jacob Hansen (Raunchy, Mercenary, Communic amongst others) we are overwhelmed by, easily, one of the best debuts to come out of The Netherlands in quite a couple of years.
Asylum 45 is a concept album. It covers the lives of several patients in a psychiatric hospital. It's not so much a chronological story but more of a book consisting of ten short stories.
As can be gathered from the opening of this review it's musically a hotchpotch, but never loses track of the central red sound line. Every song I did however have that single moment of: "Hey that reminds me of?" but never in such a way that it became annoying. Clearly there are influences popping up, like some vocal melodies in some choruses reminding me of King's X/Galactic Cowboys and in the verses of later Sentenced and later Amorphis. The instrumental Love Loss interlude possessing those Queensrÿche acoustic qualities, Sleep being characterised by the subdued tension which is also present in Metallica's version of Turn The Page. Metallica's presence is omnipresent throughout Asylum 45 in the groove of the guitar. All in all, Asylum 45 is a great piece of melodic metal which captures one's attention for start to finish due to the many variations in sound, and already possesses a clear Non-Divine signature making it hard to pinpoint all the influences present. It grooves, it rocks, and it swings. Can't wait to hear and see how this come across live.
Damn, the 40 minutes are up already. Okay, put the stereo on repeat and enjoy again.
All in all, I think I have just heard THE debut album of 2007 already and well established acts in the melodic metal scene will also be hard pressed to top Non-Divine's Asylum 45 this year. Releases such as this one make me proud to be Dutch. I know that I might be raving like a madman here, but it has been a long long long time since I was this enthusiastic about a debut album (be it Dutch or from any other country in the world) and especially about a melodic metal debut album. With the right sort of promotion this band can become big. Hopefully the band can capitalise on the impact which certainly will be generated by this album.
Stand-out tracks: all of them?
but depending on my mood swings One Man, One Soul, Sleep, Return To Zero.
Rating breakdown
| Performance: | 9 |
| Songwriting: | 8 |
| Originality: | 8 |
| Production: | 9 |
Written by Marcel Hubregtse | March 06, 2007
Comments
Comments:
6
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Posts: 8902
Great Review. Maybe one of the best you have written. The music from these guys I heard was fantastic. You are so correct in the King's X aspect of their music. At one point I thought Ty Tabor was going to start screaming something in the background. Still, excellent sounding band (Still need to tracj down this album) and great review!
---- (space for rent)
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Posts: 264
i didnt read the review sorry but what is melodic metal please?if i had read it i would know probably but i wanted to get the attention to that...black?death?.."a - check out this band,b - what they do?,a - they are melodic!!! b - but what are their style?there isnt a genre as melodic,a - melodic!!!,b - ok..."
---- i'm super, thanks for asking
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Posts: 40071 Written by dancingdecember on 07.03.2007 at 00:11 They don't play one specific genre they play a mix of different melodic genres, hence they play melodic metal and not extreme metal.
---- Member of the true crusade against European Flower Metal Yesterday is dead and gone, tomorrow is out of sight Dawn Crosby (r.i.p.) 05.04.1963 - 15.12.1996 
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Posts: 264 |
Posts: 264 Written by Marcel Hubregtse on 07.03.2007 at 00:14 but when it comes to make a band profile every band gets a genre right?for example metal archives says they are heavy metal..they are not the first band to mix many genres.anyway ive been such a pain in the ass  its like im a cranky old man :
---- i'm super, thanks for asking
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Posts: 9720 Written by dancingdecember on 08.03.2007 at 01:26 Listen to the songs on their Myspace and try to pinpoint them yourself. If you're forced to put a tag on this kind of music, you'd surely call it Heavy Metal; that's what we had to do when nominating the latest Amorphis, which is quite similar to Non-Divine, for the MS Awards. And do you know what Metal Archives calls the latest Amorphis? Yep, Melodic Metal 
---- All life begins with Nu and ends with Nu... This is the truth! This is my belief! ...At least for now. - The Mystery of Life, Vol. 841 Ch. 26
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Posts: 264 |
Posts: 264 Written by Promonex on 09.03.2007 at 22:11 hahahaha i didnt know that well well..horns up for melodic metal then!!! 
---- i'm super, thanks for asking
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