DIVINE HERESY, Bleed the Fifth (2007, Roadrunner)

The skull:
In a squalid restroom, a skull is jammed full of wires and gauges and shit, while he chomps down toothlessly on a grenade. There’s no bleeding going on, but presumably that grenade is ensuring the skull’s right to remain silent. Score another victory for the rights of the accused! This is not a very pretty cover, but it looks like someone went to the trouble of finding a good replica skull and going to town on it with rusty ric-a-brac and the hot glue gun, which is an artistic process The Council fully endorses. The arts-and-crafts method of cover creation is a sadly fading tradition, especially in the BDS realm, where handmade skulls once ruled the roost.

The music:
After he quit Fear Factory, Dino Cazares assembled Divine Heresy to play exactly the same kind of music he was making before. The differences are minor: Tim Yeung’s drumming is slightly less quantized than Raymond Herrera’s. Dino’s riffs are (very) occasionally a little noodlier. Tommy Vext’s (aka Cummings) death vocals are notably crappier than Burton Bell’s, while his clean vocals are at least a little more consistent. Other than that, if you’ve heard Fear Factory, you can easily imagine what Divine Heresy sounds like. I really enjoyed the first three Fear Factory albums (although they haven’t aged especially well) but the band lost me with the flaccid Digimortal, and while the post-Dino band put out some competent albums, the real Fear Factory magic (such as it is) is clearly in Dino’s hands, and this first Divine Heresy disc is probably the best of the post-Obsolote offerings from the FF camp. Hardly essential, but if you’re in the mood for Dino’s unique sound, this is a fine offering.
— Friar Johnsen