Band : The Divine Baze Orchestra

Album Title : Once We Were Born

Label : Transubstans/Record Heaven

Distributor : Clearspot

Release Date : 2008

Review : CD

The prog movement has a new entity on its roster. And this fact is owed to the wise work by the Record Heaven/Transubstans label. The Divine Baze Orchestra is a new progressive group based in Sweden and this self-titled album is the first one of their career. Oliver Eek (guitars), Tobias Petterson (bass), Christian Eklof (drums), Daniel Karlsson (organ, mellotron) and Alexander Frisborg (vocals, tambourine) offer a fine mix of prog fusion rock and more bluesy hard rock-oriented songs, in the tradition of other great seventies acts. They have similarities to Uriah Heep, Atomic Rooster, Deep Purple, King Crimson, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Warhorse, Return To Forever, and others whom I just can't put my finger on.

The hammonds is predominant with the better rockin' songs such as “The person”, ”Rota di Mare”, “In search” and “Dance” which are all built on thick heavy guitar riffs, Lord- isch organ and operatic vocal harmonies. The organ is the driving force of these songs, and everything else follows in line. “ Orange and turquoise” is bluesy and it has a kind of gospel meets heavy hammond meets ripping Mick Box- feel to it, “Little man” seems to be a straightforward song in the beginning, with nice keyboard work, but there are some breaks in the rhythm and changes and unexpected jazzy licks. “The man from my mother's brother” is the most varied of the songs, with good latin percussion arrangements and different styles in the song. “Burned by the sun” is the last song and it tries to incorporate a Caravan -esque feel. And they manage to do so in a competent way. The song is rather symphonic and the musicianship is fine, though the melody is a bit repetitive. Anyway the song is decent.

Despite the fact that the production of the album, or at least several songs, needs some improvement, The Divine Baze Orchestra has delivered a debut album they can be proud of and so with a keen interest, I look forward to their next album.

85/100

Peter Brems.