Divine Element - Thaurachs Of Borsu (EN)

True, the guys of Divine Element need a bit longer for an album. They founded originally in 2005, the debut "Divine Element" was released in 2010. Now, 2017, the second album "Thaurachs Of Borsu" appears on the market.

The lyrical approach is rather ambitious here. The album tells the story of the soldier Borsu according to a story by the guitarist Ayloss, which will also be released as a book.

Well, the music is the most important thing. They serve really melodic death metal, at least that's how I'd call it. However, here will be the parting of the ways. Apart from the very Johan Hegg-heavy voice (Amon Amarth), there is a lot of folk tootling, which contains little Greece but all the more Scandinavia.

I'm not sure yet how I'd rate that. For death metal the level of heaviness is settled in a very low area and black metal might flash up in the blas passages most likely. You can hear this exactly like described in the track "On The Trail Of Betrayal". And that's actually a bit too little harshness.

On the other hand, the absolute epic-club is unpacked during the mid-tempo passages, which has a certain charme in combination with that voice. If the guitars are really melodic, play at a fast pace and the vocals spit on the whole thing, it does not sound too bad. This is especially well done in "Call Of The Blade" in my eyes.

Well, it just is really much tootling and that gets on your nerves sometimes, as every supposed or actual hole gets filled up with melodic arches. Here, they could have given the songs more room to unfold.
This way the whole thing sounds, despite the good sound, somehow random or rather constructed.

The duration isn't great too. If you take away the intro, interlude and the outro, you have only a short half an hour music left.

Conclusion:
The approaches are definetly good. There is a lack of refinement and passion, however. More dirt and purged songs could help here. Fans of Netherbird, Be'Lakor, Ages and of course Amon Amarth as well as Ex Deo shoul risk an ear.

Rating: 6,5/10

Recommendation: Call Of The Blade