DIVINEFIRE is melodic metal band featuring members from multiple countries. I believe they are now located in Sweden. This is a high quality release and has many different aspects to it. The song, "Unchain My Soul" sounds like death metal at the beginning and is unlike anything else on the album. The songs on the second half of the album are superior to those on the first half. This is indeed a multifaceted band. I am glad the dirty vocals aren't present on too many songs. The guitar soloing is outstanding. When the shredding begins it is awesome. You can hear how fast the guitar pick is striking the strings, and it is simply fantastic, it sounds like something MICHAEL ANGELO BATIO would do. The Bio sheet states that this is a melodic metal band, but they are so much more than that. With the guest musicians involved, the band has so many distinct songs throughout the album that most bands do not. It is hard to pick a highlight of the album when everything is done so well. I would have to go with the soling if made to choose.

The song, "To love and Forgive" has the medieval festival flair to it that I dearly love. It reminds me of BLACKMORE'S NIGHT. Of course it gets heavier afterwards, but it was a nice intro that shows the depth of the band. The band also has a operatic vocalist on some songs and she (to my ears) does a very good job. The music is very memorable. I love some of the haunting melodies. I believe this album has the most up tempo songs of any band ever described as simply being "Melodic metal". Such a term seems that it can mean many different things, which is why I stated it is so much more. There are power elements, the medieval intro I just mentioned and the vocals are intricate as well. Most of the songs have that "epic" element that you hear in the power metal genre, but the dirty vocals in some songs throw you for a loop. There is a lot to love here. The quality of the compositions shows a maturity that many bands strive for but fail to achieve. "Send me Out" is an up tempo song with some killer metal guitar riffing. The drums are up front and center and it really rocks with the elegant symphonic elements dispersed throughout the song.

DIVINEFIRE have proven they can mix it up and do a good job of it too. Some bands use a lot of different elements and proceed to fall flat on their faces. This is most certainly not the case here. Even though there may be a tremendous amount of things going on in a song, it doesn't feel cluttered and I find this a very hard thing to accomplish. Nevertheless, DIVINEFIRE has done exactly that. "Never Surrender" is my favorite song on the album. It is very fast and has great lyrical content as well.  As I said, this is a fast album for something labeled so simply as melodic metal. It really is superb. I recommend this release to all heavy metal fans, and I mean HEAVY metal There is no fluff here. Give it a spin, you won't regret it.