The awesome Conquer Divide finally released their sophomore album last week. After eight years of waiting, the hype was pretty massive. I’ve been a fan of them since their ‘Bad Habits’ cover a couple of years back now, so I’ve been looking forward to this a lot too. And after their collaboration with the wonderful Electric Callboy last year, they have a lot of eyes suddenly on them. How does this album measure up? Let’s take a look and see!
Opener ‘Atonement’ opens on a fantastic scream and massive modern metal riff. It’s giving off big Spiritbox vibes right from the offset. The feel continues through the lower, electronic-led verse. It builds to a huge, arena-filling chorus, catchy and full of soaring vocals and the odd scream again. We also get a pretty brutal, heavy breakdown after the second chorus, the scream calling it out perfectly. The contrast between the heaviness and lighter parts are a lot of fun and sure keep things interesting. It’s the perfect antithesis track of modern metal music in 2023, and it’s a solid album opener!
‘N E W H E A V E N’ opens a little more like what I was expecting from the band. A more electro-drive pop-punk sound, like Paramore meets Nine Inch Nails. Still, the ch0nky riffs come in pretty quick, once again building everything up perfectly to another massive chorus. It’s catchy and radio friendly and awesome! The chanting bridges are so very Pretty Reckless too, in the best ways. It’s the perfect choice for a single, yet still as a brief-yet-heavy breakdown with more awesome screams. I LOVED this track, and it was a perfect choice as a single. It easily makes our playlist!
Another single, ‘Paralyzed’ is up next. Like the previous track, it starts off more subdued, building up from synth and vocals to drums, bass and eventually huge guitar chords for the chorus. The band have an incredible ability to write incredible hooks and pop choruses that slot perfectly in with their metal sound. It’s what drew me to them to begin with, and this album has somehow improved on the formula even more. This is another excellent chorus and song as a whole, it being essentially a pop track outfitted with a darker, heavier tone thanks to the instruments. Oh, and the now typical amazing scream and breakdown combo in the middle. It’s a simple formula but done to perfection by a band that should be so much bigger than they are.
‘welcome2paradise’ is another that opens on a modern metal riff. It also keeps the heavy flowing, the Cortney LaPlante-style screams ringing through the opening verse. I like that the band have mixed up the formula a little with this, including more harsh vocals and messing with the structure. Yet still, it has another massive, catchy chorus that Conquer Divide do so damn well. I love the ‘Holy Roller’ spoken word bit in the middle, and it builds so well into the breakdown. It makes it somehow even heavier. This is another incredible track and again easily makes the playlist!
‘PRESSURE’ and ‘onlygirl’ are both very pop. Like outside of the big distorted power chords behind the chorus (and the slightly heavier bridge with a couple of screams on the former) they could easily make it onto a mainstream radio station. Heck, they still could, as it feels like a combination of early Paramore and Olivia Rodrigo, but darker than both smashed together. I get having a poppier track after heavier previous ones, and it was a great way to break up the album a little. Neither are at all bad tracks. I might be more likely to skip the former on repeat listens, though.
‘system_failure’ and closer ‘gAtEkEePer’ follow a similar formula to the first few tracks. stripped back verses, big riffs, huge choruses and heavy breakdowns. It’s clearly not a bad formula at all, and neither track is bad. The latter in particular is fantastic. Despite the slightly cringy song title, it’s got some of my favourite lyrics on the album, truly impactful and heartfelt. And musically it is excellent too!
Meanwhile, tracks like ‘Playing with Fire’, ‘Over It.’ and ‘wide awake’ are pretty standard radio hard rock tracks. It feels like how Paramore would have sounded now if Hailey hadn’t gotten rid of 2/3rds of the band and gone more pop. None of them are bad tracks at all but, honestly, if all three were played back to back I don’t think I’d notice the differences that much. And, while the first two are one after another, the latter being later on is masterful album composition, honestly.
‘the INVISIBLE’ the closest thing to a Shinedown/Skillet style ballad. Especially when the chorus kicks in and it’s made even bigger by the strings in the back. It’s a massive sound throughout and a pretty emotional track from a feel and lyrical standpoint. It’s really great, and will go down a storm live given how catchy it is. Another amazing choice for a single.
I had to close out this review with the utterly fantastic ‘Afterthought.wav’, though. It goes HARD. It’s an all out deathcore track and I fucking love it. Yes, it still has a radio-clean chorus, but the rest of it will scare Christian mothers worldwide. They do heavy so well, and I’d have honestly taken more of this on the album. However, I don’t know whether I reacted so positively towards it because it was pretty isolated in terms of style? Either way, check this track out, it fucking slaps. I have to see this live!
Overall: Damn, this is an awesome album! I have been rather vocal in my dislike of ‘Fuckboi‘ in the past, and while I did like a few of the bands early tracks, I was more into their covers. However, this blew me away. The album is banger after banger after banger, with really not a bad track throughout. Don’t get me wrong, at 13 songs I’d have maybe trimmed it slightly, but thanks to how well it’s composed it works perfectly as it is. Everything about it was awesome, from the writing to the playing to the mixing. Honestly, props to the producer, as the levels and mixing was impeccable. These ladies have a lot of momentum behind them already, but with such an amazing album release, they’re gonna become massive this year.
The Score: 9/10