So Divorce went and got a new line up a while back, stripping back to the one guitarist and enlisting new vocalist Jennie Fulk into their unholy war on your meek sensibilities. Following a string of gigs since the spring, including a joyous outdoor rampage courtesy of Winning Sperm Party’s incredible electricity box, I don’t imagine any fans of the previous incarnation have been particularly surprised to notice they still sound absolutely brutal.
Having said that, this is a pretty melodious kind of brutality. While in the past Divorce have made blatant attempts to rip off my face, this time round there’s an unfolding precision in the sound that reeks of evil. I’m not saying anything as stupid as ‘Divorce have matured’ (the infants are still terrible), but rather this – listening to ‘Love Attack’ (as well as B-Side ‘Meating’) is more akin to being invited to witness a slaughter, rather than becoming a victim of it yourself. Out of the relentless bass and drums that open it up, the pieces all fit together in some horribly dramatic, orgiastic spectacle, from the discordant sliding guitar to the casual ferocity of the vocal delivery.
In other words, there is soul in this record – It just happens to be made of a rancid, all-seeing, all-knowing chaos. Fulk’s range of yelps and grunts shine through particularly well on ‘Meating’, on times melting into throat scraping gasps, before descending again into a terrifying war chant that could take Divorce wherever the fuck they want to go. Bewilderingly good.
Words: Xavier Boucherat
Rave Child 