Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Divine Empire - Doomed to Inherit (2000)

I came across this thrashy slab of Floridian death at Bookmans about two years ago. I didn't know that it was a Malevolent Creation offshoot. I didn't even know it was death metal, I surmised as such from the cover, but didn't know for sure. I bought it cuz it had a cool cover, which is a pretty good shopping method for death metal. I figured it would be some C grade death from Poland or whatever. While it loaded on my computer it checked it out on Metal Archives, and found out they're made up of ex members of Malevolent Creation. Once I gave it a listen, it turned out it was not C grade death but solid B grade death/thrash.
Malevolent Creation is one of my favorite Floridian death metal bands, haven't listened to much of their newer stuff, but fuck me if Retribution don't kick a ton of ass.

Divine Empire may not be Malevolent C back in '92, but then again no one is. Doomed to Inherit is an adequate substitute. Its not as good as the Pepsi to Malevolent's Coke, but it ain't Diet Malevolent Creation either. Divine Empire is a bit thrashier, has some cool melodic leads and some groovy parts. But still, they are never gonna live down their roots in Malevolent Creation.  Jason Blachowicz's vocals are deeper than Brett Hoffman's and a little bit growlier but still he sounds like a human. Lyrically its just as tarded as you would expect a Malevolent Creation offshoot to be. Production is decent, with pretty loud kick drums. 

Bottom line: Doomed to Inherit is some decent and entertaining thrashy death that is able to stand on its own merits. Sure to please, but not to impress

You stay classy, Divine Empire 

Bred and trained to kill, hate begins to grow/No more Mr. Nice Guy, no mercy on your soul
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9 comments:

  1. Shelby CobrasNovember 8, 2011 at 9:27 AM

    Aesop has a personal vendetta against these guys, if I'm not mistaken...

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  2. AnonymousNovember 8, 2011 at 10:13 AM

    Solid band

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  3. Ambassador MAGMANovember 8, 2011 at 4:57 PM

    Hey I used to work at Bookman's in the music department. Small fucking world...

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  4. Judge ShreddNovember 8, 2011 at 6:53 PM

    You lucky bastard! I really want to work there and tell the hipsters that whatever they're buying was better before they sold out.

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  5. GHB TornadoNovember 8, 2011 at 7:38 PM

    You have the patience to find shit like this in Bookman's CD dept. Crazy. Speaking of FL death metal, a post should be done on Isolation in Infamy.

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  6. AnonymousNovember 9, 2011 at 10:33 AM

    Divine Empire played with Witchery, Borknagar and Emperor down in Tucson back in the day. 'Was a hell of a show. Next day they played the Mason Jar in PHX before it became a gay disco. Good times.

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  7. AnonymousNovember 9, 2011 at 10:35 AM

    Hey, Does Mike with the thick glasses who used to work at Dag Nabbits still work at Bookman's? That dude is a veritable living encyclopaedia, and nice as all getout. Find him. Buy him a drink. Get schooled.

    Wrap your head around this:

    Lamb of God once played the little club at the end of the Mad-I, before the Mad-I was a two story monstrosity. True story.

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  8. AnonymousNovember 17, 2011 at 3:37 PM

    Shredd-- Here's a homework assignment for you:

    http://michaeldgriffiths.wordpress.com/2011/02/25/the-history-of-flagstaff-punk-rock/

    Every name you ever need to know, to know your Flag history, is pretty much there, from Alex Bone to Codpiece and all points in between.

    As for metal... it'd prob'ly pay you to do a little digging into the metalheads that once thrived around Rata Tattoo/Doc Julien's/Holepunch, and the little stage at the end of the Mad-I long before the Mad-I became... ridiculous.

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  9. AnonymousNovember 17, 2011 at 3:46 PM

    Oh, and in case it's not clear... Michael D Griffiths IS "Alex Bone".

    Another thread I dunno if I mentioned, which is the "missing link" between metal and punk I guess, is a dude named Todd Taylor aka "ReTodd" who went on to work with Flipside and Razorcake. Editor and writer par excellence.

    Somewhere, somebody's got to have photos of the amazing painting he did inside the skatepark that used to be where Sam's Club's parking lot is now.
    It was breathtaking. It was all torn down, and is likely rotting away in the landfill.
    What a loss.

    Anyway, glad people are still keeping the flame in Flagstaff. Things sure went to shit after they tore the lumbermill down and turned it into a prison. Phoenix yuppie fucking scum then took over.

    ReplyDelete