ALBUM REVIEW: Dead Air Divine – ‘The Answer’

Hey everyone! We’re back with a new review and, actually, a new entry into my personal catalogue, as I didn’t know about this project and got recommended to check it out! I’m talking about The Answer by Dead Air Divine, the first record from Mr. Lee Patrick McKinney (Born of Osiris) and Mr. Tilian Pearson (Dance Gavin Dance), which just came out on Jan. 30.

I gotta say, when checking out new prog projects it’s always risky, as there’s such a wide field of genres nowadays that describing a band as “Progressive” could mean them sounding like Sleep Token, Leprous, Dream Theatre, and everything in between (which is A LOT).

The Answer comes at you full force. From the first minute, you can definitely tell you’re listening to something unique and different — it reminded me of the time when I heard VOLA for the first time! What immediately grabs your attention is the blend between the two artists’ styles that this record shows from start to finish. It’s pretty unusual to hear very high-pitched vocals on such a djent-driven sound and, personally, it works, and in a really good way.

Pearson’s voice hits you, of course, with instant Dance Gavin Dance vibes and really strong melodies, which I can’t speak highly enough about. Although there are moments on this album where you can hear more rock/pop-oriented sections, they don’t feel out of place and mix with McKinney’s performance extremely well, creating interesting dynamics within each song.

On that subject, the guitar work is exactly what you’d expect: expertly written and executed, metal-oriented, of course, and the cherry on top of it all are the solos. Growing up on bread and heavy metal, with the current metal scene we’ve got, I’ll always give two thumbs up to even the shortest guitar solo in any track. Here, they fit really well within the wall of sound that comes at you and that, I think, will create magic in a live setting.

I’ll admit they do sound a bit “robotic”, but I feel they fuse extremely well with the synth sections spread throughout the album, which I’m always going to be a fan of, regardless.

All in all, for this being the first outing from this new project, you can definitely tell you’re not listening to amateurs. 

That’s why I can get over the only real criticism I have for this record, which is that I expected more variety from track to track. Still, I guess having a cohesive tone throughout the whole album is what the guys wanted in order to really push forward their new ideas and this new mix of genres that they put together so effectively, in my opinion.