Hmmm.  I'm thinkin' "No". 

I didn't like this CD the first time I put it on. So, I listened to it again a few hours later in the car, and still didn't like it.  So, I waited a week and put it on and I still didn't like it; I think it's safe to say I'm giving this one a hearty thumbs down.

The question of "why" the thumbs down happened is a little harder to describe.  Divine Rapture have all the right ingredients, but somehow I just don't dig the way they're mixed.  Well, no, I'm not even so sure about all the ingredients.  It's like this:

The death metal drumming and guitar work blaze.  Wonderfully done.  The Biohazard sounding nu-metal rappy stuff mixed in is probably an interesting addition, but not one I care for, even remotely. Throwing in the Graveland-type "kindling and screaming" audio scenes is getting the soup pretty full of ingredients, but then that dash of Rush prog-rock kind of stuff just makes for _way_ too many textures working against each other.

If Divine Rapture would just focus on the straight updeath metal, I'd dig 'em.  This album would be great without all the hokey "let's throw this in" stuff. Let hip hop be hip hop.  Death metal ain't broken. Don't fix it!

Track Listing:
1. The Kindling
2. Your Time Has Come
3. Severed
4. My Demon Your Dove
5. The Defying, The Sorrow, The Awakening
6. Funeral Mist
7. Affliction Of Faith
8. Black Moon Harvest
9. Spirit Storm Serenade
10. No Future, No Past
11. The Smothering

On Listenable Records
http://www.listenable.net/

Divine Rapture is:
J.J. and Mike Hrubovcak, Babak Davodian, and Ryan Moll.
http://www.divinerapture.net
 

09/21/03