Album Review: Divided – Light Will Shine (Dunk!records)

Belgian post-metal, hardcore, post-shoegaze quartet Divided will release their debut album ‘Light Will Shine’, on March 29th, 2024, via feted post-everything label Dunk!records.

Well now, isn’t this something quite special? An amalgamation of genres, a wild foray into the creative minds of a band on extremely fine form, and a strong example of where experimentation can take musical styles that, by themselves, are familiar. Divided in name, not divided in nature, nor will anyone find what they’re doing here particularly devise. How could it be, when it is such an appealing listen?

From the start, things feel different. Cinder’s heavy instrumental sound is offset by raw, post-hardcore-style vocals, yet the structure of this track is extremely non-conventional. It, like so much of this album, is haphazard. Yet, like so much of the album, it fascinates.

Early admiration that grows into affection as Days Undone (So Long) brings emotional development with its ‘shoegazey’ elements, Divided balancing cold melodies with emphatic heavy eruptions for seven straight minutes. Then there is Kattestraat, an intermission that drips in atmosphere, before the longest track on the album at nearly ten minutes comes along.

It is The Vicious Loop and what a track it is. Divided start this one off in heavy fashion and keep it that way, for the most part. It’s the layers of bright and brilliant melody that makes this such a winning track though. It’s hard to see anything else on this album being topped, but it’s impossible to not have the utmost confidence in Divided to at least match its brilliance.

Which is very much the case with the following heavy banger Remaining in Limbo, a track oozing in anguish, and The City Slowly Undresses, a track as dramatic as it gets. Which is saying something as Divided’s level of raw honesty is mightily dramatic.

Though, it continues to be a mesmerising listen through and through as the penultimate track brings forth a brash amount of heaviness that hits in all the right places. An especially lovable track because of the bass groove. Before the finale of Sleepers goes big, really freaking big. Not only is it one of the more emotionally effective tracks of all, but it also one of the more melodically charged and melodically diverse tracks of all. A very impressive ending, but being impressed by this album becomes par for the course by the end.

As far making an impression and leaving the listener with much to think about, Divided have delivered on this debut release. Everyone wants to sound unique, but few can mange it. Divided make it seem easy.

Divided – Light Will Shine Track Listing:

1. Cinder
2. Days Undone (So Long)
3. Kattestraat
4. The Vicious Loop
5. Remaining in Limbo
6. The City Slowly Undresses
7. The Warped Loop
8. Sleepers

Links

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