System Divide – The Conscious Sedation
I have this super head cold. It’s as if a concrete truck has backed up to me and poured 9 yards of cement into my sinuses. Needless to say, I’ve not been myself. It’s been hard to listen to some music because I feel like I’m in a constant state of astral-projection. Aside from the super shot with steroids courtesy of my doctor, nothing has been getting through to me. That was until I cranked some System Divide. They were just the jackhammer I needed to break me out of my stuffy hypnosis.
System Divide consist of Miri Milman (vocals), Sven De Caluwe (vocals), Cole Martinez (guitar and sounds), Michael Wilson (guitar), Andrew Lenthe (bass), and Mike Heller (drums). I was not prepared for this band. I saw their press release and thought, oh great, another Euro death goth Nightwish wannabe. Wow. I. Was. Wrong.
System Divide may have female vocals to offset their tech death onslaught, but they do not follow the Euro pop metal conventions I’ve grown to dread. Their debut album, The Conscious Sedation, is mind numbingly hard. They crushed my assumptions with the first track, “Vagaries of Perception”. That song makes me want to reach out to Mike Heller and ask him why he’s so angry; the drumming is outrageous.
The Conscious Sedation is full of down-tuned goodness. Martinez and Wilson have these crazy murderous riffs throughout the album. “An Intoxicating Affair”, the second cut, is how I feel about the whole album. I can’t get enough. In fact, I would like more instrumental parts. Don’t get me wrong, the vocals are fantastic, but “Stagnant Progression”, the closing track, is a standout song because of instrumental moments. I would also like less Linkin Park piano and synth drum loops; those moments take away from otherwise great songs.
I also noticed Lenthe’s bass-lines in many of the tracks, always a plus when a metal band knows how to use the bass player for more than filler material.
Milman and De Caluwe make incredible smooth and hard vocal wonder twin power. I can see it now: shape of a medieval, fire-breathing dragon and form of a bucket of death. There’s a Saturday morning ‘toon for you. Milman’s vocals, especially in “Stagnant Progression” and “The Apex Doctrine” are used perfectly to compliment the complex array of sounds System Divide set up. System Divide remind me of Eluveitie in that they can write incredible death metal songs around epic themes and use female vocals to control the damage.
I’m pleased with System Divide’s debut. The Conscious Sedation is one of the better releases of the year. Is it appropriate to call a death metal release “fresh”? Well, dammit, I am.
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19 Comments
August 19th, 2010 at 5:38 pm
I LOVE THIS ALBUM! Another solid review Mr. Anderson…:)
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Josh replied:
March 24th, 2011 at 8:22 pm
Cool fact, Miri and Sven are husband and wife. Id also look into Aborted, Sven's main Deathgrind band.
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August 19th, 2010 at 5:43 pm
Wow, after listening to the clips, it is great to find another band similar to My Ruin that fronts a female vocalists and strives to completely rips the balls off their male listeners. I'm not into bleeding out on the floor but with this type of music as a soundtrack to stripping my manhood, I may be a little more paralyzed at the time. A 4.5 for a debut? I'm willing to take your word for it and will check it out soon. Get better!
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August 19th, 2010 at 5:44 pm
This stuff sounds pretty wicked man. I gotta get it into my collection, nice review =D
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August 19th, 2010 at 6:19 pm
You forgot to mention that she looks quite gorgeous :p lol.
Kidding aside, this album does sound very intriguing. I can't wait to get a hold of it
Great review Keith, and get well soon!
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August 19th, 2010 at 6:27 pm
damn, I'm so jealous… can't wait to hear this!
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August 19th, 2010 at 7:21 pm
Okay, so here I come to try and crash the party…
I couldn't make it past track 7. Her vocals, while way better than Nightwish, Epica, etc, still grates on my nerves after a while. Maybe if she didn't sing so much, it wouldn't be so bad. But it's way too often for my taste. I much prefer the chick’s vocals from The Breathing Process, but that's just me. It's unfortunate too, because I wanted to like this album.
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August 19th, 2010 at 8:54 pm
Sounds pretty good, I'll have to check it out.
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August 20th, 2010 at 6:21 am
I'm imagining how would this album sound like with Cristian Älvestam (ex-Scar Symmetry, Solution. 45) on clean vocals… It would be BEAST!
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August 20th, 2010 at 10:24 am
Sounds epic. I've been listening to their EP on youtube, and it's phenomenal.
Can't wait for this one.
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August 21st, 2010 at 1:17 am
I`m so stoked about this album, ever since I heard these guys for the first time I can`t get enough of them! I think their music is really unique and we`ll hear about them quite a lot in the future!
damn I can`t wait for `The Conscious Sedation`!!!!!!!!!!
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August 22nd, 2010 at 8:41 am
This sound so good. I have been checking out the videos as well and I cannot wait.
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August 25th, 2010 at 4:09 pm
I was interested in this band..to see what they would do…few good riffs….but the girl vocals are not my flavor. I just cant get into Nightwish and evanescence and we are the fallen and operatic girlie vocals with my metal. Epica, the agonist, and ..ah the list goes on. Although Lacuna Coil seemed okay back in their older days before their music went downhill. Funny how I'm not into those girlie vocals…yet I really like The Birthday Massacre..which is more dark/ fairy tale/ 80's new wave/rock with a girl vocalist . Its cool others dig it…just throwing in my opinion. Wonder if they would still be good if they took out the girl vocals? Not sure…eh.. cheers!
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Gabriel Pio replied:
August 25th, 2010 at 4:47 pm
Check out Straight Line Stitch and see what you think. One of the best metal groups with a female lead, imho.
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Jen replied:
August 25th, 2010 at 5:02 pm
I second that statement!
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Jen replied:
August 25th, 2010 at 5:05 pm
I'm with you, wtf. I didn't like them much either, but I'm super picky about chick vocals. Check out Straight Line Stitch if you haven't already: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRrfLMOGMrM
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August 26th, 2010 at 1:04 pm
Thanks guys..but I have already..saw them live at a bar with Devildriver. Have also seen some of their videos. While I can appreciate she's a good vocalist…still didnt dig them at all. The music too…the music and the vocals were just not that great compared to other bands… But..thats my tastebuds for ya…as well know all of us are very picky with what bands we like, and ones we dont. I've been into Karnivool and Combichrist lately….im in THAT mode..and I'm sure soon I'll be on another mode with diffenent bands come a month from now.
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October 28th, 2010 at 4:49 pm
I just recently bought this album, and it is really solid. The female vocals are good, but then again I do enjoy female vocals for the most part. Nightwish and Epica are too dramatic and cheesy for me, but this band seems to strip away the gimmick and make it work. I always wanted Lacuna Coil to be way heavier, and now I've got it. System Divide. There is also some great guitar and drum work on this album, too. Nothing that breaks the mold, but why does it always have to?? I think some bands sacrifice good songwriting for experimentation and originality, and it ends up hurting their sound in the end. But on the other hand, it is only a debut, which means no matter how good it is there is always room to get better.
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January 27th, 2011 at 11:49 pm
I keep revisiting this album. While it's still not as good to me to warrant a 4.5 score, tracks such as "Vagaries of Perception," "Lethargy," and "(N)ether" really show the band's massive potential, especially when the group allows Milman's vocals to shine.
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