There’s a fairly major turnaround in sound here, and it’s a change for the better. Perth quintet Chaos Divine’s debut of 2008, Avalon, was quite a brutal affair: it was pretty much straight-up, in-your-face metal with some progressive elements, boasting mostly dirty vocals. The band have turned the corner with their nee release, and are putting themselves in an excellent position to increase their fanbase by doing so.
In losing some of their heavy edge, however, the quality of their songwriting hasn’t dropped one iota. In fact, they’ve actually stepped up a notch in this department. The increase in clean vocal melody and dynamics in their sound has in turn increased the memorable nature of their tunes. There are only occasional blasts of heavy on the new album, which consequently tend to make more of an impact when they do occur, as opposed to when they’re coming at you constantly and full-throttle.
One Door sets the tone beautifully for the rest of the album to follow, and feels as thought it’d be highly accessible for those people not already fans of the band – showing possible single potential if they cut it down from its six minutes-plus length. Chasing Shadows is also extremely easy on the ear, while still retaining an epic quality, a strong degree of progressiveness and touches of heaviosity in tasteful measure.
And speaking of epic, the twelve minutes plus No Road Home (Solastalgia) closes The Human Connection off magnificently, with its moody intro, off-kilter but catchy riffing and groove. An early contender for song of the year, this one, which is a tough call as this record is chock-full of tasty selection.
This is yet another fine example of just how far Australian heavy music has come in the last decade. The Human Connection is a monumental effort, and if it doesn’t garner them some serious national and international attention, there’s little justice in the universe. Powerful, progressive, interesting and accessible all at once, The Human Connection is a must have for fans of the genre.
