A Life Divided - Down The Spiral Of A Soul • GRIMM Gent

A Life Divided – Down The Spiral Of A Soul

02/09/2023

A Life Divided have been described as the German Linkin Park and while that isn't wrong it reminds me even more on the early songs of The Rasmus. On their newest album, 'Down The Spiral Of A Soul', they go into a bit darker and harder territory. This album is strongly influenced by the current events, so it's certainly not a fun and sunshine kinda album. Let's get right into it.

The first song of the album, ‘Last Man Standing‘, which also was the first single, deals with a feeling that many of us experienced in recent years. People that we used to know start feeling more and more like strangers, and things that we thought were certain chance around us. Even the people we thought of as the strong rock in our lives suddenly start to crumble.

‘Best Time‘ is about narcissistic personalities, that are so sure of themselves that they don’t even realise that they’re failing. The song is super catchy, but I can’t quite shake the feeling that I heard this melody before.

‘Life Goes On‘ provides us with a glimmer of hope. It starts with a short acoustic intro, before going into a fast-paced song with a slight rock and roll vibe. Yet again, this song just feels a tad too familiar in my opinion.

My least favourite of the album, ‘True Religion‘ already starts with an intro that in my opinion doesn’t add anything to the song. I kinda like the lyrics, but the song doesn’t really promote the best parts of Jürgen Planggers voice, and it just feels too long. But at least on this song, I would agree that it reminds me of Linkin Park.

I like the mix between growls and clean vocals in ‘Disorder‘, although it does feel slightly out of place compared to the other songs. And then we come to the chorus of the song, and this time I can actually pinpoint why it sounds so familiar. I immediately got ‘Ghost of Love‘ from The Rasmus in my head. Overall, thought this might be the hardest song on the album.

‘Thanks For Nothing‘, you probably guessed it, also sounds oddly familiar. Lyric wise, it is a very repetitive and kinda simple song, which when it’s done right is something I absolutely love. In this case, I like the idea and concept, but I don’t think it quite hit its mark.

‘Hand Of Healing‘ is music and melody wise very nice, but feels a bit to repetitive.

‘Tear Down The Walls‘ is interesting. I think here all components work very well together and create one well-balanced but still very captivating song.

‘Send Me An Angel‘ has a bit more of an easy eighties’ synth vibe. It’s yet another very catchy, but also a lyric wise very repetitive song. It has some nice riffs though towards the end of the song.

I can definitely see myself headbang to ‘Burn The Fields‘. It has nice riffs and a captivating baseline. The vocals feel more like they’re there to support the music, instead of being the main focus. I think that’s actually a good thing in this case as the lyrics are yet again quite repetitive and somehow I also yet again get a slight vibe of The Rasmus in some parts of the song.

The Intro of ‘Down The Spiral Of A Soul‘ sounds a lot like Lord of the Lost. I do like the deeper vocals, though. I’m also reminded of older The Rasmus songs again. Somehow this song has a kinda hypnotising feeling that I like a lot, and then it just ends, and so does the album.

Overall, does this album take me on a deep emotional journey? No. But it’s a very fun easy listening experience. The songs a very catchy and easy to sing along. Nothing about this album is bad, it just misses that little something extra to make it stand out from the sea of new music we get every day.

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