Album Review :
Resurrected Divinity - Lycanthropy II

Resurrected Divinity
Lycanthropy II
(Broken Curfew Records)

For the uninitiated, Lycanthropy II is essentially a deluxe reissue of the Lycanthropy 4-song EP, but with an additional 5 bonus tracks extending the release to a full-length. Several of the bonus tracks are covers from a wide variety of bands, making this an interesting album all the way around.

The album wastes no time getting started. “Suffer With” comes right out of the gate with blastbeats and growls. No lengthy intros needed here. This is old-fashioned death/grind here with lots of tempo changes—alternating superfast blastbeats with slowed-down sludge riffs, and then occasionally incorporating both into a singular section by taking the rhythm section double-time.

This fast-slow formula really sets the tone for the whole album, as it is a recurring theme all the way through. While it’s not ultra-technical in the death metal realm, the furious nature of the tempo changes and the sheer brutality of the speeds make for an intense listen for fans of both death metal and grindcore. As a big fan of the epic slowness of sludge metal, I especially appreciate when the band breaks down into a slow, heavy groove. At the same time, the fast/slow/blastbeat/sludgy riff formula—as entertaining as it is—makes it more difficult to distinguish between songs. Musically, the closest comparisons would be to Mortician, Come to Pass, and Hellshed (but with more technical prowess than the last two comparisons).

Right, let’s talk about themes. While ‘lycanthropy’ is a clear reference to werewolves, that leaves the listener puzzled about the lyrical content of the album. Is it going to carry a horror theme? If so, will it be a silly one or a scary one, or both? Somehow it’s all of the above, and yet none of it. Here the werewolf is a symbol of one’s destructive greed:

With thirst for greater power
Greedy for something more
I long to transcend man
For myself I now abhor
Through all my hurt
I want one thing
To overpower everyone
To reject a basic mortal body
The beast and me now are one

And lest listeners miss the point of the exercise and mistake the analogy for aspiration, the band clarifies:

Now this is what it’s like
To succumb fully to the flesh
The beast’s hunger outweighs my judgment
As I grant the innocent gruesome deaths
What have I done?
What have I become?
My hatred and my hunger
Left a trail of innocent blood

The message is so relevant to our contemporary climate that I’m hesitant to point out the obvious applications (corrupt politics, over-zealous wealthy elites, ultra-capitalist billionaires), in part because I don’t want any of us to miss the point by pointing out someone else’s greed. Instead, Resurrected Divinity force to ask ourselves which ways we are letting the beast take control of our own lives.

Other tracks deal with the subtle evils of temptation (“Suffer With”), resisting the world’s value system (“Suffer Without” and “Conquered World”), and submission to Christ (“Unfathomable”). Two of the bonus tracks are covers, from wildly disparate sources—one from Flyleaf and the other from Broken Flesh.

All in all a fun listen and a great addition to the Christian death metal/grindcore canon. Available in digital formats or compact disc via Broken Curfew Records.