As the Angels Weep

The interesting thing about Divine Eve was that they were an old school death metal band, trying to sound like a really old school death metal band. These guys were late to the American death metal party. They formed in 1992, recording this material later that same year (I think this recording is the same as the band's demo, “The Last of the Sunset Faded”). The band showed little interest in making 'typical' American death metal. These guys wanted to reach back into death metal prehistory and splice with some European death metal influences. At its core, "As the Angels Weep" is the sound of Celtic Frost, Master and Autopsy hacking chunks out of each other with primitive farming tools. There are some Swedish death metal embellishments (some of the riffs sound like Nihilist), and a little bit of that old crusty death/doom feel (i.e., bands like Winter and early Paradise Lost).

Put simply, Divine Eve had good taste. This is evidenced further by their intriguing band-name (avoiding the usual death/splatter nonsense), and by choosing a Hieronymus Bosch image for the cover artwork. These guys were playing a 'retro' sound of death metal a decade before it became half-fashionable. This EP came out almost eight years before super-groups like Murder Squad, The Ravenous and Bloodbath began mucking around with these sorts of sounds. Divine Eve sounded much more convincing than any of those bands too, because these guys are playing from the heart, not rehashing former glories. This is hellish, sick death metal, and anyone who likes these vibes will want to investigate further.

Each of these four songs are strong despite the lack of variation between them. The drummer uses a standard punk beat throughout, similar to Swedish death metal bands (Macabre End in particular). American death metal hadn't been as punky as this since the days of Deathstrike. The occasional death/doom sections lend the songs some extra weight and depth. The vocals are excellent; a foul bellow that sounds somewhat like a harsher, deathlier Tom G Warrior. The guitar solos bring Entombed to mind. They have a similar exuberant, bluesy style despite their brevity. The final song ("Harlequin of Perpetual Destiny") is the most savage and extreme song here. The first part is much faster than anything else on the EP, but it also delves into the slowest, most mournful death/doom section later on (with some clean-sung, gothic sounding vocals).

The production is awesome, perfect for this kind of death metal. This is the sort of sound you can wallow around in like a pig in shit. The instruments have a bruising, spiteful sound that is beautiful to behold. It isn't worth highlighting particular instruments because everything sounds like a unified whole. This is the ideal organic death metal production, much better than anything you will hear on a modern 'old school death metal'-style record. It fits the spontaneity and the raw aggression of the music itself. This kind of production is surprisingly difficult to achieve, otherwise everyone would be doing it.

This EP may not blow your mind. It isn't at the "Mental Funeral" level in terms of song-writing, atmosphere and melodic subtlety. Divine Eve was standing on the shoulders of giants, and were unashamed about it. The EP format plays to the band's strengths. I wonder whether a whole album of this material might fare worse, these types of songs have the potential to become samey over a longer run-time. Still, in an era when this kind of crusty death metal is popular, why not return to Divine Eve? This EP needs more recognition.

Texans Divine Eve are another veteran of the old school that never really made it off the ground. Their debut EP ‘As the Angels Weep’ may have been released in 1993, but it sounds like it belongs to the previous decade. Celtic Frost is the clear influence here, with primitive but playful powerchord riffs that seem to have their hearts in doom metal, but their minds in death metal. By that I simply mean that many of the riffs have a fun quality to them that would be at home on a more bluesy unit such as Cathedral, with the meaty guitar tone to match, but the music itself switches from hyper simple punk and d-beat tempos with the aggression to match, worked together with that aforementioned playfulness of older doom metal.

Although barely a quarter of an hour in runtime, ‘As the Angels Weep’ is a mixed bag of derivative but highly competent punky death metal mixed in with some genuinely novel doom metal riffs that showcase the germinal of something more. A combining of the simple building blocks of death metal with the more epic potentials of doom metal, something that Asphyx were excelling at during this era as well.

Although this release is hardly bursting with novelties, it does offer an interesting study in how the melding of two opposing schools of thought within metal of the 1980s was achieved. One was the aggressive and simple extreme metal that grew out of hardcore punk, and the other was the epic and esoteric form exhibited by classic heavy metal. Although thrash metal is defined by this melding, ATAW in all its simplicity takes this approach a step further. The faster passages are even more sloppy and primitive than old school thrash, and there are hints of the longform doom epics of a Candlemass. However, this is one of those rare occasions where I would make an argument for a longer runtime, simply because the more drawn out doom metal that Divine Eve are aspiring to requires more time for the ideas to fully develop. But if we look at in microcosm, as a series of examples from each style and how they might be blended into something new within death metal, then ATAW weep remains a curiosity nonetheless.

Divine Eve exhibit the marriage of two well established philosophies in metal in 1993 – the epic and the primitive – and further offer hints at how to blend them together under a unified work.

Originally published at Hate Meditations

I don't really actively seek out death metal, but I do enjoy slow stuff, and anyone who likes their metal will quickly realise that the combination of crushing death metal riffs and slow tempos is probably one of the best things out there. It's a shame the whole "slow death metal" thing remains so obscure; the releases along these lines in the early 90's were of an incredible quality. Divine Eve may not have gravity blasts, but I'd take this over crap like FleshGod Apocalypse anyday.

The music played on this release is simple enough; dirty swedeath type riffs of the Entombed and Unleashed type and d-beat drumming of the hard hitting variety mixes with some truly slow and crushing doom sections. Bolt Thrower also seem to be quite the influence; there's certainly some of BT style melody in here (especially when things get a bit faster). Is it death/doom? Perhaps, but whereas most d/d generally goes for the epic structures and perhaps keeps things a bit more melodic, Divine Eve approach their music in a shorter and far more concise direction. The usage of slow, pounding riffs throughout (like in the excellent middle section of 'Harlequin of Perpetual Destiny') are less there for the purpose of making the songs more dynamic or grandiose, and more so your head can get crushed that little bit more; very much like the way Asphyx went about things on their "The Rack" album.

Not a great deal more needs to be said- it's a short EP, it's not very complex. When you get down to it, this is great slow death metal (or perhaps death metal with slow parts, as there's plenty of speedy moments). All the right things within this genre are done right; there's some brilliantly executed tempo changes, competent and passionate musicianship, and one hell of a production job that matches rawness, thickness (the guitar tones!) and clarity with disturbing ease. A really excellent release and it's a shame Divine Eve never really followed this up.

On one hand you could view this Texas band’s output as being as useful as the sonic output of a meeting of the USCFAS (United States Celtic Frost Appreciation Society). But I choose to focus on the band’s weighty, willfully sloppy and skilled execution of elder death metal influences. Plus, the band generally avoid falling into the trap of playing really fast just for the sake of it (known generally as the Suffocation wannabe syndrome) and instead, pound out some truly massive mid-tempo riffing. This is heard to best effect on the sordid “A Somber Blossoming (Soulsflight).” I defy you to not head-bang, at least modestly, to this one. Anyone who relishes the old school of morbidity (Asphyx, Massacre, and Pentacle among many unshaven others…) will lap this brief but bottom-heavy mini-LP up. And for you nerdy completists out there (of which I am one), the band appeared in fine form on Dwell records In Memory Of Celtic Frost tribute album, and some recklessly strewn compilation cuts are also out there (Death Is Just The Beginning 3, I believe).