CoC : Divine Lust - Divine Lust : Review

Divine Lust - _Divine Lust_
(Independent, 2002)
by: Pedro Azevedo (2 out of 10)

I cannot believe some of the passages in this self-titled debut effort by Portuguese band Divine Lust. This disc contains some of the most ludicrous clean vocal whining I've ever heard, period. Some prime examples are the choruses of "Alone in the Dark" and "Morrigan", during which my hands seem to gain a will of their own and start crawling desperately towards the stop button. The music is usually driven by simple, mellow guitar riffs and keyboards, with some gruff vocals alternating with clean ones (fortunately not always of the aforementioned low quality). However, neither are the riffs particularly good nor does the keyboard take the music to new heights -- and I've already said enough about the vocals -- while the songwriting is an uninspired mix of gothic rock and melodic doom / heavy metal influences. Song after song, I kept waiting (almost hoping) for something that would make me reconsider, something that would give me a reason to raise my rating a bit. However, the least bad tracks (the doom-influenced but unoriginal "Your Cruel Thirst", or the equally unoriginal violin in "Embrace") are totally crushed by dismal pieces such as the aforementioned "Alone in the Dark" and "Morrigan". It would be unfair for all the better bands out there to give Divine Lust a higher rating than this. It just boggles my mind how they got themselves in a position to open for Anathema and then My Dying Bride in Lisbon over the past couple of years. All I can say is that it must not have been thanks to their music, because there is nothing above average here and a lot of it is at the bottom of the musical barrel.

Contact: http://www.divinelust.com

(article published 31/3/2003)