Rain – Part 2

Working out what works in Violent Divine has never really been accomplished during rehearsals. Mostly such things are handled through a massive amounts of e-mails and mp3-files. At rehearsals the band more or less put the individual parts together and sort of add the current Violent Divine approach to the final song. Yeah I know it’s a bit academic but wtf… it’s 2012 and who cares about jamming or have the time and strength to put up with endless hours of making noise going nowhere in 99 times out of 100. Well I’m not saying it might not work out that way for Your band. I’m just stating that we simply don’t have the patience for it.

In that spirit, clearly explained above – this is how S.J adds the guitar solo part for Rain – in the convenience of his own bedroom, with his iPhone/iPad/iDon’tGiveAFuck or iWhatever. It allows S.J the time to get the solo exactly how he wants it – without stress or preassure from the rest of the band in the rehearsal environment.

Check out S.J and the magic to-be-guitar-solo of the song Rain. What do You think?

to be continued…

2012
05/17
CATEGORY
Violent Divine
Work in progress
Write comment

Rain – Part 1

Since hearing Barrel Of A Gun by Depeche Mode for the first time, I knew i needed to write a song like that, since I truly believe Depeche Mode to be a rock band rather than a synth band – and to me the song reminded me a lot of Black Sabbath. I think my first effort to realize this idea saw the light of day back in 1996 in the band Blueplastic – then by the title “Obedience” – playing around with lyric ideas of the stupid statement that “ignorance is bliss”. There is also a saying that a happy partner in life is a silent partner, so therefore happiness must lie in both obedience and ignorance. Yeah I know I have a twisted mind.

To hear it suck:


Anyway, some songs need to be laid on ice for a few years and in 2011 I did a total remake of both guitar riff and lyrics. This version, that is up for rehearsal with the new line-up any day now, has lyrics that concerns matters of religion, the evil of mankind, as well as the ever present topic of love and betrayal.

Enjoy a small excerpt with programmed drums and bass with Mike handling the guitars: 

To be continued…

2012
05/07
CATEGORY
Violent Divine
Work in progress
Write comment

Decisions decisions decisions

Running a band isn’t always all fun, games and glam. It’s about getting your hands dirty and sometimes to get your skinny little ass knee deep in shit. Violent Divine will be – as it always has been – a somewhat flawless rock and roll machine – delivering the goods at more than 100 % each and every time we do something. The aim to remain and improve at this level of performance and attitude towards what we do, why we do it and the way we do it, lead to some unfortunate decisionmaking.

The new Violent Divine line-up has been blessed with a really great drummer – Magnus. Unfortunately, playing 3,5 minutes pop-doom-metal songs in the end  proved that our ways of approaching music and performing songs didn’t quite end up. This is of course most unfortunate since Magnus is not only a great musician, but also a very good friend. However the decision had to be made to part ways and search for a new drummer for Violent Divine. Fortunately S.J had a friend in his band Equil – Simon- who was willing and able to take on the unholy task as heartbeater of the Divine.

Therefore, the line-up of Violent Divine is from now on Mike on vocals, S.J on lead guitar, Oscar on bass, and Simon on drums.

2012
05/04
CATEGORY
Violent Divine
Write comment

Maximum exposure

Right now during March 16-18 Violent Divine is promoted on The Pirate Bay front page in Sweden, Finland, Lithuania, Spain and Germany. Go to http://www.violentdivine.se to download and enjoy your free copy of the 2006 self-titled debut album. After only 2 hours, more than 1500 new rock fans have downloaded the album. This enormous exposure beats anything the band has accomplished so far in web promotion. PirateBay Rocks!

About the debut album, international press said stuff like: ”Rock and roll is back and going to be louder and more alive than ever before” and ”twelve orgasmic tracks of sex, sex and rock n fuckin roll“

Violent Divine encourage You to #share #seed #copy #distribute #spin #transmit #download #spread #pirate #promote the band wherever you are on the world wide web. Please #follow http://www.twitter.com/violentdivine and #RT !

Thanks!

2012
03/16
CATEGORY
Violent Divine
Write comment

Expectations

It’s probably a bit pointless to bother about what expectations people will have of the new Violent Divine. After all, the new band will never become a cover version of the old band. Obviously Violent Divine will perform a bandmembers’ choice of songs from the previous 3 albums as well as the most popular songs like Let’s Go, Rush You, Blackheart, Sweet Blood but it will hardly sound like it did back in the days. Why should it?

Violent Divine is a new band where the individual musician will contribute to the new sound with their personal skills and influences and perform the songs in a new way – as a band. There will be changes made in arrangements to make old songs sound like they were originally performed by this current line-up. Anything else would be fake. Some people might think it sucks, while others might think of it as musical progress. I call it evolution.

Check out this sound file of lead guitarist S.J trying out some new tricks of the trade for the guitar part of Let Em Burn, off the In Harm’s Way album. Like lots of japanese people say: same but different. One thing may never change though. Violent Divine will always be in your face!

2012
03/08
CATEGORY
Violent Divine
Write comment

Bump and Grind

Rebuilding a band wasn’t so much of a “piece of cake” as I imagined it to be. After a few rehearsals it was clear that new guitarist Peter couldn’t commit to the band as much as he wanted to, so we decided to part ways. Peter will focus on his band Soul Temple and hopefully they will share a stage with Violent Divine in the near future. Continuing rehearsals as a power trio with Mr Mike Divine himself on both vocals and guitar was certainly an experience. No, you will never hear a recording of that on-line – ever. The quest for a new Divine guitarist was starting all over again.

Yesterday the band auditioned a helluva guitarist, Mr Sean-Joel Saxholm, who will handle the six-string-stuff from now on. Check out his magic tricks with his band Scars Align. This means Violent Divine is now Mike, Sean-Joel, Oscar and Magnus. Now to figure out if we’re all going to use Divine as our common surname. We’ll see about that. New promo pics to be shot, songwriting, rehearsals – I’d say the future looks Divine!

Another piece of good news is that Violent Divine will be promoted by The Pirate Bay in Sweden, Finland, Lithuania and Germany during March 16-18. An incredible opportunity to gain maximum exposure and to introduce the band to many more rock fans. Huge thanks to The Pirate Bay for supporting Violent Divine! During this period of time, Violent Divine offer a free download of the 2006 debut album from www.violentdivine.se.

Help out our Divine quest and like, follow, tweet, re-tweet, blog, recommend the band wherever you are on-line. Violent Divine is found on the official website: www.violentdivine.se
MySpace: www.myspace.com/violentdivine
Facebook: www.facebook.com/violentdivine
ReverbNation: www.reverbnation.com/violentdivine
YouTube: www.youtube.com/violentdivine
Soundcloud: soundcloud.com/violentdivine
Twitter: www.twitter.com/violentdivine
Tumblr: violentdivine.tumblr.com
Spotify: http://open.spotify.com/artist/759gmWpoyIiX2evd8l6Jk5

…and if you still can’t get enuff, follow the random rants of Mike over at www.twitter.com/mikethedivine

See u later!

2012
03/06
CATEGORY
Violent Divine
Write comment

The Second Rehearsal

Thought you guys wanted a brief update on what’s going on in the Divine camp. The second rehearsal completely removed the feeling of a garage band and sort of completed the feeling that this Is a band. This Is the brand new Violent Divine. Like I told the guys in the band, to me this is almost like having a religious (Divine) experience… guess I’m a soft puppy when it comes to certain things that rock – and as you know – that certain power of music that you can feel but certainly not explain is sometimes quite overwhelming.
Ok enuff sappy shit from me, but I really just wanted to share the joy of being part of a band like Violent Divine.

So far, if you really want to know, we rehearsed old Violent Divine songs so far and you can find a list of them right here on Spotify. Next we’ll start working on new songs for the upcoming album and in a while you will be able to – through this blog – follow the creation and evolution of one of those songs – from its most raw form to the result that’ll be on the next album.

Talk again soon!
Mike Divine

2011
12/13
CATEGORY
Violent Divine
Write comment

The First Rehearsal

The very first rehearsal of the new Violent Divine line-up took place in a studio in an old warehouse. It was also the first time the new bandmambers met in person, and as expected it was a bit like going on that first date. You’re a bit nervous about if the other person will like you and who you are, and maybe most important of all approve of your skills as a musician.

Well I can assure you that everything is cool in the Divine camp, even though the band – as expected – sounded a bit like a garage-band – but hey, what’d you expect from the 4 guys playing together for the first time. To tell you the truth, the new Violent Divine is already sounding a bit like the vision I had for the band while I was searching for new brothers in arms. A little heavier, a little meaner than before, and I already know that I’ve found what I was looking for.

Together the four of us tried to define what makes up the old and the new Violent Divine. We all agreed on that it is the construction of the songs. The songs are mainly created from two elements: a metalinspired guitar and a melodic chorus. We decided we want to keep it exactly like that and that it was the fact that it was that very form of songmaking that made the guys apply for the band.

So then… here’s a short clip to prove it actually happened. It’s rough, raw, uncut – but it is the truth and nothing but the truth. It’s the beginning of something Violently Divine!

Rush You (rehearsal clip 2011) from Violent Divine on Vimeo.

2011
12/10
CATEGORY
Violent Divine
Write comment

Band versus solo project

So to evolve a bit on the inevitable question of why the choice of reforming Violent Divine instead of moving forward as a solo artist using the band/brand Violent Divine. After all I’m a decent musician and modern drum applications for various recording software do a decent job if you have a clue about how a drummer would do it. But maybe that last statement is exactly the point. I – as a singer and song writer, or in my greatest moments – a producer, have an over-all idea of what I want to accomplish – but I’m not really that much of an instrumentalist that live and breathe passion for my instrument. I simply don’t breathe guitar, bass, drums like the devoted musician do.

I breathe songwriting, writing lyrics, performing/singing, but that’s where it ends really. I need talanted musicians made out of of flesh, blood and rock & roll to re-create Violent Divine and to fulfill my vision of what the band should sound like, look like, perform like. I desperately need their input, companionship and collaboration. 1-2-3 and 4 – just as simple as that.

I think this song, Bittersweet, that I wrote, performed and recorded a few years back explains it really. It’s a decent song that I put a lot of effort in writing and recording, but it’s definately not Violent Divine. To me it’s more like HIM combined with Accept and it simply lacks the Violent Divine attitude in my vocal lines. Too damn soft and laid back if you ask me. Or to put it roughly – it’s more like radio-friendly AOR, and that’s definately NOT Divine.

Download it at http://airplaydirect.com/music/MichaelDivine for free, listen and please share your thought with me. Huge thanks to Lars Boqvist from Fair of Freaks (http://www.reverbnation.com/fairoffreaks) for recording the lead guitar parts for me.

Mike Divine

2011
11/19
CATEGORY
Violent Divine
Write comment

Restart My Heart

I guess I should have seen it coming when the band stopped bothering about wearing make up on stage and Gus no longer performed without wearing a shirt. Violent Divine as we know it disbanded in early September 2011 after some 6 years, 3 albums and lots of great shows. No reasonable explanation really but I guess we all had priorities set on real life issues for quite some time. I, Mike Divine, was left with the choice of continuing making Divine music as a solo artist using the brand Violent Divine – or trying to reform the Divine with new family members. After a month of soul searching I decided I didn’t want to pursue a solo effort. Ruling that option out, I started to advertise for new band members.

A month later the band is re-grouped with drummer Magnus, bassist Oscar and guitarist Peter, a new rehearsal room and new songs are already being penned, while waiting for the first rehearsal to take place. The new family members are all great musicians adding old and new musical influences to the band and I’m very much looking forward to work with my new Divine family.

This blog will display, in words, images, song and video clips, the journey towards a new album and new shows. Hold on to your hats – hold on to your hearts.

Mike Divine

2011
11/03
CATEGORY
Violent Divine
1 comment
Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.