AT THE CONCLAVE

"At the Conclave" is the debut full-length studio album by Belarus, Minsk based avant garde/progressive metal act Divina Enema. The album was released through the Canadian label Great White North Records (or rather through subdivisions of the label) in 2000. Divina Enema was formed by lead vocalist Yaroslav A. Burakoff in 1998.

Stylistically the material on the 6 track, 46:28 minutes long album is a very eclectic type of metal. Avant garde/progressive metal probably isn't the worst description of the music, but of course such a description should be explained a bit more in detail. It's overall a highly theatrical form of music with elements from goth, black, death, progressive, and symphonic metal. In addition to guitars, bass, drums, and vocals, the instrumentation also includes piano/keyboards, violin, cello, and tenor-sax. Lead vocalist Yaroslav A. Burakoff has a varied vocal arsenal to say the least. He often sings in a high pitched voice, which is quite similar in style to the high pitched singing by King Diamond, but he also uses a deeper goth type vocal style, and both death metal growling and black metal screaming. His phrasing is theatrical/paatos filled and his vocals are probably what you'd call an aquired taste. But no one can take away from him, that he is an incredibly skilled singer.

The rest of the band are well playing too. The tracks are all relatively long and go through many transitions/structural changes and even after many spins they can be a bit hard to tell apart. "At the Conclave" feels a lot like listening to one long track with many different sections and changes. And it is in the songwriting department where I think Divina Enema lacks a bit. They are obviously skilled composers, but I don't think the music is particularly memorable. The fact that the sound production isn't the most powerful either (the drums feature an odd tone, and the guitars lack punch) isn't helping the album either. So upon conclusion "At the Conclave" is what I'd characterize as an interesting album, but not a great album. Still there are enough quality here to warrant a 3 star (60%) rating.

(Originally posted on Metal Music Archives)