Album Review: Diviner - Realms Of Time

Either I have fallen out of 'the know', or the first half of 2019 has been terrible for power metal. Other than Avantasia, which at this point isn't really power metal, I can't think of a single power metal album that has made any sort of noise this year. I've been feeling the genre's stagnation for several years now, but the tide is so far from the shore right now that it's hard to remember when the waters were drowning us. That resurrection of the genre has since passed, and now we're faced with two types of power metal, each becoming insular and self-referential to the point where nearly none of the albums are able to feel special.

Diviner is in the heavy power metal camp. They use the heavier, more modern take on the sound, which is the one that theoretically should feel less played-out at this point. That sound, however, has shinier gems to live up to. Considering the albums Orden Ogan and Nocturnal Rites have put out lately, heavy power metal is where the competition is.

Opener "Against The Grain" storms out of the gates with a riff that is more old-school thrash than power metal, which sets an aggressive tone. It's plenty heavy, and the vocals that bear a slight similarity to Hansi Kursh are interesting, but the song lacks any sort of hook whatsoever. Power metal, even of this kind, is still all about the big choruses, and the first statement this album makes is a weak effort.

Things get better as we move along. "Heaven Falls" is just as heavy, but with a much stronger melody, even if the backing vocals should have been on the chorus rather than the pre-chorus. I think I know why they went that route, but it winds up making the main thrust of the song sound smaller than what came before it. That's not how you properly build drama. The climax of the plot can't come in the first act, and the chorus of the song is what needs to be the high point. It's 'Songwriting 101', and it's surprising how often bands don't understand it.

Diviner proves a point I've argued for a long time; writing songs is easy, but writing great songs is hard. From a musical standpoint, the band is giving us some solid heavy metal. It isn't nearly as hard to crank an amp, play a few riffs, and call it a song. What is difficult is crafting melodies, whether vocal or guitar, that are memorable. Diviner doesn't give us many of those over the course of these ten songs. They will scratch the itch if you want to hear something heavy, but not if you want to hear great songs.

All you have to do is look to Nocturnal Rites' "Phoenix" to see my point. That album, like this one, was modern and heavy power metal, but it was bursting with huge choruses and sing-along hooks. You could listen to that album once and start singing the choruses by the end of each song. This album, however, you could listen to several times without being able to pick each song out from the others. "The Earth, The Moon, The Sun" stands out head-and-shoulders above the rest of them, and is quite good, but the remainder of the album blends together into a wash of decency.

Diviner has a good sound, but so do a lot of bands. They need better songs, because this record is only ok.