After more than six years, the German act Divine:Zero finally returns with the successor of 2008’s The Day God Left. This sophomore album, The Cold Asylum, was recorded with studio assistance of Achim Kaiser – think Motorjesus, Steele The Score etc. In between both albums, the band was able to play live on stage with the likes of e.g. Born From pain, Fleshcrawl, Motorjesus, Dew-Scented, Powerwolf etc.
The Cold Asylum stands for almost three quarters of an hour of modern and melodic Metalcore with quite some Death Metal elements. The rhythm section is pretty firm, with not just a supportive role, but a prominent one too from time to time. Guitar leads are melodious and sometimes pretty nice – maybe the best thing on the album. Especially when the band uses those atmospheric tremolo leads, or when they come up with crafted soloing, the listener might turn into happiness. The vocals are diverse, i.e. somewhat high-pitched screams and loud grunting shouts especially. From time to time there is a certain Groove / Thrash attitude too, which widens the band’s approach, of course.
But unfortunately not that much is memorable. The Cold Asylum is an acceptable album for sure, but nowadays we do expect more. End of story…