Dead and Divine – The Machines We Are
There is a sickening trend in the Canadian music industry, where a band who’s sound is played out, and growing tiresome, use their success to go out, start a label and sign equally untalented sound-a-likes and shove them down the thoughts of those who for one reason or another still rely on the radio for music. Example: Nickleback discovers Theory of A Dead Man, and together they wreak havoc on innocent ear drums.
I’ll be blatantly honest, when I say that it was in this vein that I wrote of Burlington Ontario’s own, Silverstien discovered, Dead and Divine. In my own defense, their debut full length, 2008’s The Fanciful did manage to miss the mark by a few feet, but they came roaring back a year latter and redeemed themselves with the release of The Machines We Are.
Machines finds a young band, who with the help of veteran producer Garth Richardson (Rise Against – Siren Songs of the Counter Culture, Rage Against the Machine – Rage Against The Machine) and Eric Ratz, have managed to hone their sound, and craft an incredible album that is leaps and bounds above their previous work.
Vocalist Matt Tobin, finds his voice on this album, perfect the balance between the growl and the singing, while the rest of the band, guitarists Chris LeMasters and Sebastian Leuth, bassist Kellan Lindsay and drummer Kyle Anderson, have all followed suit and put together a tight and dirty (two words you rarely see together) collection of songs.
Creature sways back and force between the power of the howl and the soaring vocals, crafting a song that is at once powerful and passionate, and has some using the frightening word “grammy” in reference to it.
Tracks like Lovely Bones, Teeth and Neon Jesus, show what an incredible band Dead and Divine have become, and what an incredible album The Machines We Are is. I could gush more, but I won’t do it the justice that listening to this album will, so go find it, listen to it, and enjoy this post-hardcore opus of awesomeness.
Dead and Divine – Creature
Dead and Divine – Lovely Bones
Dead and Divine – Neon Jesus
Tags: Aaron Long, Dead and Divine, post-hardcore, Rage Against The Machine, Rise Against, Silverstien, The Machines We Are
That’s why I have to go back to Canada.
This is awesome.