Release Date: March 21st 2025. Record Label: Spartan Records. Formats: DD/Vinyl
Diviner - Tracklisting
1.Body
2.Blunt Force Drama
3.Get Paid
4.Above You
5.Undone
6.The Known World
7.Still Running
8.Kneel
9.Born All Wrong
10.Diviner
11.Breathe
Members
Ted Alvarez: Guitars, Vocals
Jeff Bartlett: Bass Guitar
Rob Smith: Drums, Vocals, Keys
Review
Alternative/Sludge/Stoner Rockers Museum Of Light return with their emotionally charged and brilliantly satisfying new album Diviner. The band impressed me back in 2022 with their acclaimed debut album Horizon with its mix of Alt Rock, Shoegaze, Psych, Stoner, Sludge, Doom, Post-Rock and Progressive based movements. Diviner follows a similar path but with a more nuanced and multi-layered sound.
The record sees new additions of Jeff Bartless on Bass Guitar, Elissa Aliverz on vocal duties and Amelia Urry providing Spoken Word poems which are highly majestic and give the album a sense of realism that deserves to be heard by the biggest audience possible. The sound is amplified by HUGE SOUNDING grooves and complex melodies which easily draw comparisons to the likes of HUM, Cave In, Torche and Floor but with a Shoegaze / Doomgaze leading the band into Progressive waters.
The album even has moments of huge sounding Stadium Rock melodies but is mostly held down by a grounded Sludge/Stoner Rock instrumental charge. The vocals are held back more compared to Horizon with Museum Of Light excelling within their “LESS IS MORE” approach with stunning heavy sludgy guitars propelling the band into Spaced Out and Ethereal territories.
This is more of a collaborative effort with guest contributions from Elissa Aliverz on vocal duties and Amelia Urry’s spellbinding spoken word poems being some of the genuine highlights of the record.
With a distant Ambient, Space Rock and Psychedelic flow allowing for mellow Post-Rock themes to appear for the most uplifting parts of the record before Museum Of Light transform into highly destructive but equally melodic DOOM-POP destroyers with that FLOOR and TORCHE influence coming into play.
There’s a wonderful sense of complex melodies throughout the album with a harsh sense of reality creeping in at times but those excellent spoken word parts allows an upbeat environment to fully form on the later stages of the record. The sound can be considered experimental with flashes of glitches and intricate noises having a mind of their own though Museum Of Light’s dominant Alt Metal keeps everything moving along at a superb pace.
I could have easily written a song-by-song review for Diviner but I consider this as one long instrumental track broken down into individual chapters. There’s a cinematic and unpredictable nature to how Museum Of Light deliver their music especially when the music becomes disjointed with heavy DRONED OUT passages whilst still keeping with their intense creative vision.
If I have to recommend some favourite tracks of mine then I would say Blunt Force Drama, Above You, The Known World, Still Running, Diviner and Breathe. As these are the songs that best describe Museum Of Light across both of their brilliant and highly original albums.
Diviner does have a certain abstract, colourful and retro sound coming from the production side of things with Museum Of Light having a certain Seattle vibe to the record with help from Scott Evans, Carl Saff, Cameron Heck and the band’s very own Jeff Alaverz all contributing with the making of the album. They’ve all done a wonderful job which allows Museum Of Light once again to create a highly anthemic style of music which will no doubt allow Diviner to become one of my favourite albums of the year.
Words by Steve Howe
Thanks to Spartan Records for the promo.
Diviner will be available to buy on DD/Vinyl via Spartan Records from March 14th 2025.
Links
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