If you’re gonna call your band DIVIDE THE SEA, you better bring along a big, big sound. Fortunately that’s not a problem for this South Carolina five-piece who mash together a mix of southern-style hardcore and jagged metalcore to the delight of fans of early MASTODON, TIME IN MALTA, and the entirely too short lived BELOVED. Man is exceptionally hard to pigeonhole musically, and despite its lengthy running time (needling up against 50 minutes), it rarely gets tiresome and uninspired. DIVIDE THE SEA are a loud and proud Christian band and that theme fuels virtually all of the lyrics on Man. While that may be a turn-off to some, the band has wisely used their inspiration to thread together a theme about what it means to be a “Man.” The band posits the questions in this way on their MySpace page: “What does it mean to be a MAN? To be masculine? To hunt, fish, grow beards, work on our muscles, drive motorcycles, do death defying stunts, hold doors for ladies, chop wood, eat beef jerky, wrestle bears, blow stuff up, wear flannel, get in a scrap, drive cars backwards, eat two pound steaks, climb trees then chop ‘em down? Those things are all awesome, but we believe there is more to being a real MAN.” You can probably see where this is going. The ‘character’ element to the band’s lyrics is impassioned and to the band’s credit, the artwork is a funny jab at “man” stereotypes. Man is a well-rounded beast – the absolutely thunderous riffing on “Dancin’ With the Devil,” will get your body moving, while the forceful lead vocals become an aggressive instrument of its own. A moderate interest in atmospherics drives the BELOVED comparison, as both bands have shown a reluctance to maintain rigidity in their heaviness – a characteristic pushed along by controlled chaos percussion. A debut full-length like Man should draw some serious attention towards DIVIDE THE SEA and hopefully the will band will stick around to deliver again. Good luck coming up with a subsequent concept…

Blood & Ink