Calgary extreme metal band Divinity have been carefully crafting their show and their sound for 20 years.
After several line up changes and instrument shifts within the band, they re-released two previous EPs and a new third EP together as a concept album “ The Immortalist.”
They play the Smokehouse with Vancouver metal band Expain and the Avulsion.
“ Sean (Jenkins, vocalist) and I formed the band around 2001 02 2002, observed guitarist James Duncan, noting they just added a second guitarist, Gord Olson who joins vocalist Jeff Waite, bassist Keith Branston and Duncan’s brother Brett on drums.
Duncan noted the band takes a lot of time to create the many layers of their music.
“There’s 30 or 40 guitar tracks and a dozen vocal tracks. So I had to decide what to play live. Even the synth parts were written on guitar,” he said having the second guitarist helps the band play more of the songs, not to mention gives them the opportunity for harmonized leads.
He noted Olson is a long time friend of the band who they asked to join about four years ago, but was unable to due to other commitments.
“We can play really heavy rhythms and go right into a harmonized lead sections like Iron Maiden it really fills out the sound,” he said.
While the album is meant as a concept album, Duncan said the individual songs stand on their own, so they aren’t playing it in order.
“We thought about doing that, but instead we want to draw people into the show by playing a couple of our loudest, heaviest songs,” he said.
“ There’s faster parts and slower parts too. There’s songs about psi wars and aliens,” he continued, they are connected with the graphic novel which accompanies the CD.
“We’ve created the concept, so you can see what is happening in a a full 24 page book,” he said, adding as the band members are all nearing or around 40 years old, they have no illusions about making a living with Divinity, so they all hold down good day jobs.
“People aren’t buying records anymore. You have to give them something else,” he said.
“Our day jobs allow us to do what we want to to with Divinity,” he said.
“ We want everything to look and sound as professional as possible,” he said, adding Sean Jenkins does all of the bands graphic design including the website merchandise, posters and the book itself.
“This band can’t fund itself. But we want to create music we like and that other people will want to listen to, so if we can do that, we‘re satisfied with what we‘re creating,” he continued, adding they are excited to be able to play with people like Steve Vai vocalist Devin Townsend of Strapping Young Lad and current tour mates Expain.
“There’s six of us on stage and we never give less than 100 per cent. It’s really energetic Come to the show, your head will explode,” he said.
Calgary metal band Divinity play the Smokehouse, Sept. 24 with Vancouver metal band Expain and local metal band the Avulsion.
The early show starts at 8 p.m. There is a $10 cover.
