Despite having heard of Divinefire, at least in passing, their music was entirely unfamiliar until this CD popped through the post and whilst most of the tracks here contain a religious message of some description, if that isn't your cup of tea don't worry as it isn't rammed down your throat. As an album Farewell is well structured with excellent musicianship and comes across as a quality metal album with a mixture of clean and gruff vocal styles though nothing to extreme and it's handled and balanced well throughout.

Actually Farewell starts off relatively weakly with the instrumental “Calling The World” which tries to convey a degree of high rock pomp but seems to lack that extra degree of drama but things get going properly thanks to “Unity” which sears through the speakers in a full metal onslaught. Things never stray from the melodic though even at full thrash like intensity, it's like a cross between Annihilator and Blind Guardian with the occasional gruff vocal line blended in. “You'll Never Walk Alone” carries on the pace with high speed chunky riff work and  “Pass The Flame” features some intricate guitar work but never strays far from their powerful heavy sound.

“Grow And Follow” features yet more frenetic guitar work but is still highly melodic again with the intelligent use of the alternating vocal styles and the production and musicianship really shine through whilst “My Roots Are Strong In You” has a distinctly Nightwish style, maybe with some PAIN thrown in that creates a complex powerful sound. “King Of Kings” kicks off with a nod to Helloween and contains more intricate weaving of guitar and keyboard although by this point, lyrically at least, things are getting a bit samey as there's not variety in the religious phrasing and context.  “Heal Me” is a bit of an epic at over 12 minutes long and is the first number to kick off at a much lower pace but things heavy up soon enough and, as would be expected with a track of this length, goes through a huge variety of timing and style changes almost giving it a “Rime Of The Ancient Mariner”feel. The album closes with another instrumental, this time medieval in style but again it doesn't quite fit along with the opening instrumental and thus isn't as effective as it should be.  Overall however Farewell is a high quality piece of work that will appeal to fans from the Blind Guardian/Helloween side of things across the spectrum to In-Flames/Dark Tranquility territory.

Michael Clark