After their very promising promo EP in 2001 the technical US-Deathers DIVINE RAPTURE have finally gathered the long deserved record deal and completed their debut album “The Burning Passion”. It offers an original sounding and skillfully performed mixture of brutal Death Metal à la MORBID ANGEL, HATE ETERNAL, progressive melodies and leads (which sometimes are that high pitched you immediatedly get toothaches) and some souldriven Black Metal elements. Beside the complete, great “Promo 2001” material there are seven new songs (two of which are rather miserable keyboard instrumentals) and a short intro. The production executed at Ron Vento’s Nightsky Studios is comparable to the first HATE ETERNAL and not the cream of the crop but still solid work. The new material is of the same high quality as the EP’s songs and vary between emotional intensity, straight in your face aggression and progressive experiments, e.g. almost funky solos, short clean vocal parts etc. To sum it up “The Burning Passion” is not the sort of Death Metal album that you will love instantly but might continue to fascinate you in the long run. According to the label info it will be out at the beginning of September and there will be an MP3 available on the label’s website soon, so check out www.listenable.net. The band’s website is right now being redesigned and can be found if you follow this link www.divinerapture.net.