I’m not quite sure why a band from Italy would want to include a couple of track titles in German as is the case here, but this band’s pedigree can’t be denied. “Unextinct” is Hideous Divinity’s fifth album release and apart from this, the band has toured with notable death and black metal names including Vader and Kampfar, presenting their brutal and technical take on “an engulfing sea of chaos”.

After an epic intro, Hideous Divinity launch into furious blackened death metal. Impressive in its intensity and forward-moving, it is a mark of the genre. Sparks fly from the drums and guitars. “The Numinous One” is the first big song on the album. You get plenty of death metal for your buck. So it continues. Brutal death metal is interspersed with technical thrash. The structure, as you might hope and expect, is strong. Forward it goes furiously with drums triggering, vocals roaring and guitars providing menace in all round atmosphere of fire and rage. “Quasi-Sentient” has a darker mood than what has gone before, growling and pounding on through dark clouds before stepping up into technical death territory. For me this didn’t take off, where previous songs had taken me to new territories.

It’s then time for the mood, lush and dark interlude “Time Hair Mud”. The darkness, which is never far away, is taken into “More Than Many Never One”. It’s another heavy death journey, broken up nicely with step-downs and technical and atmospheric explorations. I’m not sure why there was a need for a mysterious cosmic diversion, but this is what happens with the next interlude “Der Verlorene Sohn” (The Lost Son). “Mysterium Tremendum” takes us back to flamboyant, moody and rapid-fire death metal. A break leads to quiet and melancholic reflection for a moment before the inevitable build-up to more explosive heaviness. Nine minutes of “Leben Ohne Feuer” (Life without Fire) closes the album. Hideous Divinity exploit their creativity well and come up with an explosive technical death metal piece which is loaded with drama and tension. This brought about a powerful end.

Whilst enjoying much of this album, I never really got into it fully. It’s heavy, technical and features changes of tempo, overlays and atmospheric intensity but I found it difficult to follow progress, either because I was sensing there wasn’t any or there was an independence about the songs and I didn’t have a sense of flow. Yet there is much to appreciate, and although I would say that technical death metal appeals to me normally, there may well be others out there who will appreciate the undoubted structure and intensity of “Unextinct” more than me.

(6.5/10 Andrew Doherty)

https://www.facebook.com/hideousdivinity

https://centurymedia.bandcamp.com/album/unextinct-24-bit-hd-audio