The Murder of my Sweet - Divanity

The Murder of my Sweet....the name sounds menacingly and remembers me a little bit to My Dying Bride. It fits to Valentine, cause around this time, which are most men tired of, the five swedish with front girl Angelica Rylin published their debut „Divanity“. The band describes their music as symphonic metal with film noir nuances. What sounds a little unspectacular, could have been its own charme. The album cover definetely has its charme, cause it shows the real pretty female vocalist in a strange surrounding. To murder this sweet seems to me improperly.

But now direct to the music.

Dark intro of „No evil“ leads direct over a short bombastic keyboard sequence to the melodic base vocals, partly double layed. The guitars riff powerful out ot the speakers, painted with keyboards that lean this song a kind of cinema feeling. The voice of Angelica is warm and pleasant and is fortunatley miles away from the many suitable opera girls that made it to the rock music sector in these days. The harmonies steal a little bit of hardness of this song but it appears ear catching and straight. Not bad. „Follow the rain“ starts with...yes, with rain. Again a bombastic element that leads into the song. Very catchy chorus changes with keyboard walls, symphonic, rockin'. The track is convincing with immense power. The guitars of Daniel Palmqvist are almost in rhythm work, no solos appear. You must have a real acceptance to symphonic music, otherwise get your fingers off this album. „Bleed me dry“ starts in best Royal Hunt tradition before the song suddenly change into balladesque fields. Only short, cause a wonderful vocal part layed in epic keys follows. The vocal performance is very variable. Sometimes dark harmonies, sometimes elegian, sometimes happy. All in all a very key orientated and with its 3 minutes a really short song. It continues futuristic with „Chemical attraction“...in the beginning. Harmony vocals stand against chaotic instrumentation. Interesting songwriting, but a more dark vocal performance would give this song more effects. So the harmonies steal this song its own charme. Piano and keys open „ Kiss of death“. It remembers again to older Royal Hunt. This song remembers me to a well known other song, but I can't imagine which song it was. As the keyboards so the refrain and song structure. Some more silent voice sequences cannot avoid the bombastic basement. This could be from a soundtrack of an epic cinema blockbuster. The song sounds mighty, heroic...like I said...cineastic. And..what should have told you...there is still no guitar solo that could be heard. „One bullet“ starts with a horrified sound sequence. The song is more straight and tells directly what has to be said...the refrain. The keys this time are more supporting in the background. The main character is faster, more hectic...and with it's 3 minutes this is the song that defines the bands name..The Murder of my Sweet. So one bullet was enough to kill the lady....now we know that. This could be a single release cause of its straightness and ear catching element. Good song. More relaxing appears the next song „Tonight“. Carried by a wonderful keyboard basement and a fitting chorus this song becomes a real smasher. Without bigger overload the track comes directly to the point. Elegian start in „Storms of the sea“. Symphonic bridge into a melancholic vocal performance. The band knows here how to built an excitement bow without cheesy arrangements. More held in lower tempo the song shows a lot of different things to explore. For me the best song of the album cause of its theme and arrangement. A direct opponent follows with „Destiny“. Happier and positive arranged this song hits direct the listeners ears and invites to sing with. This is more easy listening than before. It lies between a chartbreaker and cheesiness. This song won't hurt you but it is less exciting as to become a real album highlight. „Revolution“ starts with strange sound samples before the guitars and the powerful vocals forward the song. The music partly sounds like it would not belong to the vocals. But it seems that this was exactly the bands choice and so it has it's special own charme. But, what is that? A guitar solo....yeah !! I didn't await to hear any on this album ....really short, but here it is. I like that song cause it invites you to explore a lot of various music elements within its strangeness. Bombastic elements...meet strange parts...meets ear candy. But not overloaded and so a recommendation to check this song out. Tiny keyboards leads us to „Valerie“.What starts slowly, takes more and more speed and explodes over a silent vocal performance into a bombastic keyboard wall. Straight in the refrain the song moves to a variable hit that ends with a patient and silent sequence. „Death of a movie star“ finishes this debut. The song starts fearful with vocals mixed in the background. The arrangement of this track is a lot inspired by Queen. Think about if there was Freddy Mercury singing here instead of Angelica. I don't want to talk about stolen but the parallels are very high to this UK heroes from the past. Anyway, this is a song that is breaking out of the standards of the rest of this album. But with that it brings a new facette into the bands musical spectrum.

Sure, this band doesn't found the musical wheel new and specially for the musicians, except keyboardist Andreas Lindahl who does an awesome job, there is enough room to climb higher. For example more guitar solos for my opinion would level up the bands sound. But the band counts with beautiful arrangements and a warm and interesting female voice. The band definetely has the know how to do more and this should be shown in their next releases. It is not the wrong way to give The Murder of my Sweet a chance. People who like symphonic rock music with a little cineastic touch should not be disappointed with „Divanity“.

Points  7/10

review by Kerb

Learn more about this band (click here)