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Divided Multitude - Inner Self

Artist:	Divided Multitude
Title:	Inner Self
Label:	Sensory SR3004
Length(s):	73 minutes
Year(s) of release:	1999
Month of review:	05/1999

Line up

Rayner Haroy - bass
Christer Haroy - guitar, backing vocals
Sindre Antonsen - vocals, guitar
Eskild Kloften - keyboards, backing vocals
Olav Skei - drums

Tracks

1)	Maybe	4.37
2)	Streets Of Bucharest	7.07
3)	Heart Of The Moment	7.01
4)	Pictures At Home	4.42
5)	Inner Self	7.03
6)	Tale Of Tomorrow	10.16
7)	Confused	6.16
8)	Mirror's Eye	8.03
9)	Solitude	9.14
10)	Scream In Silence	8.41

Summary

Hailing from Norway, this is a prog metal outfit on the prog metal divison of Lasers Edge.

The music

Opening with Maybe, the band leaves nothin to chance. High tempo metal with organ and some Arabic stylings. The vocals are somewhat accented and the articulation is a bit sloppy. Still this first track is a good one: plenty of variation, some nice signatures and at times flashy drumming, a good vocal melody and quite powerful. The music is obviously song directed. Streets Of Bucharest is a more epic track, quite heavy. Having to make comparisons I think Threshold is somehow close, but in the more up-tempo parts of this second track I'm also definitely reminded of the bombast of Rhapsody, but not technically as slick. Divided Multitude likes to insert numerous breaks and likes to go against the grain of the composition. This does make for sometimes rather fragmented sounding music. Heart Of The Moment opens terrifically with some nice guitar and powerful drumming. Instead of letting the song collapse into a vocal part, the band first takes back a little gas. The guitar work here sounds familiar but the offbeat drumming obscures this. The vocals in this track are almost operatic and the piano is a nice touch. Again, the melody is okay and there is a little more structure to the music (still often offbeat though). Pictures Of Home is a ballad with a bit of a sway in it. Halfway the song powers up a bit and after some piano work the song lightens up. A bit too mellow this one though. With track we come to the rowdy title track. The chorus is a bit of the singalong type, but for the rest the music is as fickle as it was earlier. Tale Of Tomorrow opens in a familiar way. I'm reminded of some older song of end seventies and begin eigthies melodic hard rock bands. Now these guys do mention Rainbow as an influence, so that may be where it is coming from, but I also get this Asia vibe here. I can't place it exactly. With over ten minutes of music, this is the longest track on the album and the keyboards are back; I hear too little of that. The song is a little disjointed: catchy parts are alternated with long instrumental parts that go nowhere. Leaves me Confused, which is also the next track. Opens well with some friendly piano and some fake accordion and even something akin to a keyboard solo in this bouncy track. Again the vocal parts sound very accessible and well the lyrics are a bit clumsy (which is always a dangerous subject, me not being a native Englishman/American). Mirror's Eye shows some improvement. The drums sound a bit hollow and the vocals go into the direction of Damian Wilson (with that whine). During the last part the keyboards enter the stage, but the band again tends to fiddle around a little too much. Solitude enjoys a good build-up, but the vocalist cannot handle the lower regions very well. The keyboard presence goes up in this part of the album, which is a good thing. A nice melodic guitar solo though. An okay composition, but the rendition could be better. It might be my apparatus but the sound is a bit dull. We close with Scream In Silence. Not a bad track with some nice melodies, but I don't like the vocals here; they sound a bit too unpolished and wavery here. But again a nice melodic guitarsolo. I seems the music becomes more melodic towards the end of the album.

Conclusion

As you might have guessed from some of my remarks, this is not a top-notch release. The composition are a bit disjointed, the melodies seldomly interesting. As always, the music has it moments, especially in the beginning and at the end of the album, but this does not make for a good album. The band does hold on to the song formart, although the songs are somewhat longer, but they will not avoid a poppy chorus if they can. Improvements can be made both in sound and some more careful attention paid to lyrics and vocals should certainly pay off.