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Album Reviews : Chaos Divine – Legacies

By on October 21, 2020

A decade and a half and four albums into their career, it is obvious that this classic Perth heavy act is still fresh, hungry and inspired, and putting out slammin’, crowd-pleasing melodic progressive metal.

In fact, listening to Legacies, it seems they’ve been guzzling rocket fuel, such is the sheer volume of quality material they have produced here and the engaging exuberance with which they deliver it. Apparently they have been working on this record for over four years, and it shows. No less than 13 tracks and over an hour’s worth of music, and not a weak link to be heard from those 13 cuts. In fact, there’s nary a weak moment in earshot.

Mid-paced opener Instincts kinda eases you into proceedings, although it still pummels you with its power when the mood takes it, before the album kicks you squarely between the eyes with the relative chaos of No Saviour (Rise and Fall). It’s a great track, one of the keys cuts of the album. Rising up out of the frenzy is one of the best choruses they’ve ever created. It’s triumphant stuff.

But the quality does not drop from there. Far from it. Unspoken, Guarding Gravity and Dead Rivers Flow are all exceptionally strong Chaos Divine tracks. Behind the Seal kicks all manner of arse with its grindy but groovin’ verses and towering chorus. False Flags is intense. Seriously, I could take the name of any track and hold it up here as a highlight. As previously stated, it’s incredible how they have managed to sound creative and energised for the entire span of such an epic journey, utterly avoiding weak spots, eschewing filler and shunning excess, right through to the epic, eight minute closer Into the Now. Even the ambient, sub-two-minute title track gives you shivers as it sooths you into the album’s climax.

Special mention must be given to vocalist David Anderton. Always a dynamic singer, he is in particularly fine fettle here. The way he switches up from cathartic melodic lines to blood curdling howls is a joy to behold, and the band locks in like a clenched fist behind him, playing with the economy, skill and immense power they are known across the globe for.

Legacies is an absolute winner, another superb chapter in the long, storied and a little underappreciated career of this classic Aussie melodic heavy act. Should feature prominently in many top 10 lists at the end of this funny old year we’re having.

Band: Chaos Divine
Album: Legacies
Year: 2020
Genre: Prog-Metal
Label: Independent
Origin: Australia

About

Rod Whitfield is a Melbourne-based writer and retired musician who has been writing about music since 1995. He has worked for Team Rock, Beat Magazine, themusic.com.au, Heavy Mag, Mixdown, The Metal Forge, Metal Obsession and many others. He has written and published his memoirs of his life and times in the music biz, and also writes books, screenplays, short stories, blogs and more.