Press Clipping - 100 Bands in 100 Days

We got our first piece of real press yesterday when Nick Sonderup from 100 Bands in 100 Days wrote a review of our show at Fontana's Saturday. He's doing exactly what his name suggests, trying to see 100 different bands in 100 straight days. I found his site and invited him to come to see us, hoping to help his cause and his bank statement by bringing him as my +1 so he could get into the show for free. It was nice to read that he found me charismatic. I'll be working hard on developing my badass-ness for the next show.

...they were having fun, the crowd was having fun, they were good at their instruments and the songs were tight (kind of have to be, this is metal).

We really were having a blast up there, and all the people we hung out with at the after party said they had a great time too.

Brian (bass/vox) sent me an email Friday, saying that if I got to the club around 6:30p, we could hang and chat before their set...Yet, the hang and chat never happened (except for briefly after).

I felt bad that we didn't have time to talk and sent him an apology after the show. Setup didn't go according to plan for a number of reasons and we didn't have any time to hang out before we needed to hit the stage. I'm glad we got to talk for the little bit we did after the show though.

The place actually got pretty crowded for such an early show (50+ people).

It was a great night for us, the place was packed just like Nick said. The venue's count was actually over 100! Thanks again to everyone that came out to see us, we had a blast and can't wait to come back to the city for another show!

Divergence hit stage and immediately brought the metal: cranking out song after Metallica-inspired song. Yea, sorry. I can’t write this entry without repeating how blatant the Metallica inspiration is. Thing is, apart from the one song that starts like “Shortest Straw,” the rest seem inspired from post-Black Album Metallica.

It's no secret that we're influenced by Metallica. However most of the people I've spoken to don't seem to see as strong a resemblance as Nick did. I think the fact that his first encounter with our music was that the recording of "Collapse" reminded him of "Shortest Straw" might have given him a confirmation bias so his perception of our music changed to fit his assumption that we're a Metallica knock-off. Then again I could be biased because I'm in the band and I don't want to think of us as a Metallica knock-off.

First of all my voice is a high Tenor and James from Metallica is a heavy baritone. Next I think we tend to incorporate more melody into our music, especially in the Choruses. If you look at "Collapse," which he's right starts in a similar fashion to "Shortest Straw," the chorus is more similar to something off of a Sevendust record like Seasons than anything by Metallica. "Eulogy," "My Prison Still Remains," and "Standing Over Shadows" all have choruses like that as well, where the lead guitar outlines a counter-melody to the lead vocal and it's harmonies. Metallica rarely (if ever) has a lead guitar playing a continuous counter-melody during the chorus, which all four of the aforementioned songs have.

The clean verse to "My Prison Still Remains" has continuously arpeggiated chords, which is much more like something Mark Tremonti of Alter Bridge/Creed would play than something Hetfield would come up with. Also most of Metallica's breakdowns and instrumental sections are much more about the rhythm guitar part and harmonies along with it, while ours tend to resemble a larger break between the lead and rhythm guitar similar to the way Iron Maiden do a lot of their guitar parts. The intro to Devoiden on our album would fit better on Killers than on any Metallica record.

This might all sound like nit-picking, but unless you go to the details there's really not ALL that much that separates Iron Maiden, Metallica, Megadeth, Judas Priest, Dream Theater, Slayer, Pantera, and the rest of the metal bands around the world. Most of the songs are written in minor keys, most commonly E, A, or D, which means the chord progressions are mostly the same (vi - IV - V - vi). This means the melodies have to fit this chord progression, so the base notes for the melodies are mostly the same as well. You also expect a lot of fast tempos, palm muting, double bass, and guitar solos -- that's just how metal music is. The only way to really separate these bands is to look at the subtle differences between them.

In the end I think we've put together a nice blend of hard rock and heavy metal that is original enough to make us stand out, without going so far that we move out of the genre entirely. After all that's what a genre is, a set of expectations listeners have for what they're going to hear. We want to be a metal band, it's the music that we all love to listen to, write, and perform, and we feel that the "genre requirements" for being a metal band are worthy goals to strive for as musicians. We're not trying to create some completely avant-garde new musical direction, we just want to be really good at putting a fresh spin on a classic lineage of music that moves forward slightly, but never breaks away from its roots.

Read the entire review of our show here.