Divinefire - Glory Thy Name (Rivel
Records) 2005
1. "From Death To
Life" (1:48)
2. "The World’s On Fire" (4:09)
3. "Never Surrender" (6:03)
4. "The Sign" (5:07)
5. "Out Of The Darkness" (3:57)
6. "Pay It Forward" (6:01)
7. "Live My Life For You" (3:47)
8. "The Spirit" (10:00)
9. "The Way To Eternity" (1:44)
Divinefire is essentially a side-project of Narnia vocalist Christian Rivel (Narnia). Together with Jani Stefanovic (Renascent) the two put together this European power/speed metal project. Christian also brings along an army of guest musicians: Narnia's Carl Johan Grimmark, Fredrik Sjöholm and Torbjörn Weinesjö (both from Veni Domine), Eric Clayton (Saviour Machine), Hubertus Liljegren (Crimson Moonlight) and Thomas Vikström (Candlemass). I expected this project to sound very similar to Narnia. However, other than the keyboard and spoken word intro (an excerpt from the Book of Revelations), the music here is nothing like Christian's main band. This band combines the heaviness and speed from more aggressive styles of metal with the melodies from classic and power metal. Imagine Dragonforce or even Rhapsody, only a bit more aggressive and you will get a pretty acurate picture of what Divinefire sound like. Christian's vocals are a high point throughout, but there are unfortunately some black metal vocals mixed in as well. I am sure this is done to give the music more 'diversity'. Thankfully they were used sparingly and only to reinforce certain parts of the songs. For the most part the songs are all high energy with hardly anything slowing down. While this may be a selling point to many metalheads, I would have liked to have had a bit more diversity in the tempos and in the vocal melodies. That is not to say there isn't any variety. “Pay It Forward“ is an excellent ballad that steers clear of cheese. "The Spirit“ is an epic ten minute track that offers some diversity as well. Lyrically, Divinefire are similar to Narnia in that they offer a message of hope, while at the same time being poetic and thoughtful.
Divinefire - Hero (Metal Heaven) 2005
1. "Resurrection"
[prelude] (1:56)
2. "Secret Weapon" (4:36)
3. "Divinefire" (4:31)
4. "Hero" (3:46)
5. "United As One" (4:57)
6. "Leaving The Shadows" (4:46)
7. "Open Your Eyes" (4:24)
8. "New Beginning" (4:21)
9. "Cryptic Passages" [instrumental] (5:20)
10. "The Show Must Go On" (4:10)
"Hero" is absolutely stunning, fast and furious, neo-classical, European power metal featuring vocalist Christian Rivel from Narnia. Together with guitarist Jani Stefanovic and bassist Nadreas Olsson, this band creates something that Dragonforce fans would salivate over. The thing I find about Divinefire that is lacking in much of what I hear from a band like Dragonforce is "hook". Christian knows that a memorable chorus is key to a song, especially when the overall vibe of the album is speed, speed and more speed, with only a few exceptions. Something need to hold the listeners attention and each song here possesses a hook of it's own. On top of Christian's clean vocals, guitarist Jani Stefanovic adds some death growls here and there to add spice to the songs. Fortunately these growls aren't overused. The guitar work throughout is fantastic. Besides Jani, guests like Carljohan Grimmark of Narnia/Rob Rock also adds his unique style to the album. (Carl performs leads on songs 2, 5, 6, 8). I also swear that this is the first album I've ever seen someone listed as playing "lead keyboards" but indeed that is an accurate description in some parts with the keys and guitars trading off leads.
"The Show Must Go On" is a Queen cover.