The Blood Divine – Awaken (1996)

March 18, 2022
The Blood Divine – Awaken (1996)

These guys are like the Audioslave of the mid 90s doom scene. When the Principle Of Evil Made Flesh lineup of Cradle Of Filth left en-mass, they teamed up with the ex-Anathema vocalist Darren White to produce what (I thought) was initially a very similar, sombre doom metal outfit. Joined by a new bass and drum section, the six piece wasted no time in dropping two albums a year apart. The first, Awaken, is an extremely well crafted piece of metallic work, although I must say it sounds a bit dated now, if only in the production style.

Not to shit on anyone else who performed on this record, but my favourite parts are the keyboard lines by Ben Ryan, whose work in proto and early Cradle I always heavily appreciated, and despite enjoying the direction Anathema took without him, I feel that the band lost a tour-de-force in Darren White. The man is an incredibly strong frontman, with a distinct and powerful voice which lends itself enormously to this mournful compositions.

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