DIVINE ASCENSION – As The Truth Appears

Divine Ascension is a female-fronted Progressive Metal act from Australia. As The Truth Appears is the band’s debut album. They have been very active on the local Metal scene in Australia for the past few years, and released a three track demo in 2007, which catapulted them to begin the process writing a full-length album.

Divine Ascension is led by theatrically trained singer Jennifer Borg. She has an operatic style of singing with a very broad range. Backing up Borg is an extremely talented quintet of musicians. The formula consists of a standard Prog Metal line-up featuring two guitarists and a keyboardist. One might be led to believe by looking at the name of the band and some of the song titles that Divine Ascension is a Christian act. However, that is not the case. Materially most of the tracks delve into the topics of life and love.

Borg is clearly the highlight of the album, and the band in general. Visually, she is not the atypical female Metal rocker. However, she is a very elegant and modest beauty who emulates an incredible amount of passion in her vocals. It is very easy to be captivated by her lyrics. Even though Borg is immensely talented, there isn’t anything tremendously original about her style. There are many female Prog Metal singers with an operatic and theatrical background, and that seems to be a growing trend. With bands like Epica, Nightwish, and Evanescence leading the way, Borg lacks a distinctive quality to separate her from the crowd.

Regarding the music, the opening lines and inspiring guitar riffs of the opening track “Answers” is certainly inviting and promising. The heartfelt anthem about a love gone bad is undoubtedly the best song on the album. Unfortunately, the tracks that follow have a difficult time stacking up. There isn’t one track that stands out from the others. There is a significant “wow factor” that is lacking, and the music in general comes off at bland. It is difficult to discern if there is simply a matter of poor songwriting, or if Borg’s vocals are not strong enough.

All of this comes with great disappointment, as Divine Ascension is extraordinarily talented. They certainly have enough ability and talent to become an overpowering force among their contemporaries. They can be an exciting band, but must provide their audience with more originality, captivating songs and power-packed vocals. Unfortunately As The Truth Appears seems to be genuine let down for their debut.