LEGACIES

Chaos Divine are one of the most lovable metal bands to emerge from Australia's metal boom of the last decade. While generally described as a progressive metal act, on the band's latest release Legacies, the group seems to pivot further away from prog proper and embrace a more straightforward melodic metal sound to spectacular effect. Songs are characterized by meaty guitar riffs and choruses with the big open sounding chords accompanied by vocalist David Anderton's arena rock wailing. The arrangements strike an ideal balance between heaviness and beauty. I find myself resisting the urge to simply play outro of "Beacon" on repeat for hours on end.

Unfortunately, this album does suffer from a mild case of run-time-over-one-hour-itis. If given the choice between leaving your audience exhausted or hungry for more, the latter seems like the better of the two options.