The Finnish Altaria is founded by ex-Blindside members Tony Smedjebacka and Marko Pukkila and features Jani Liimatainen from Sonata Arctica on guitars. Divinity is their second full length album and compared to the first album, the biggest change involves the vocals. Anyone who has heard Requiem’s latest album knows that Jouni Nikula doesn’t have the most melodic voice around. Luckily for Altaria they’ve managed to find a very good replacement in Taage Laiho, who has a voice that fits the melodic metal very well indeed.

What can I say about Divinity? Well, it’s corny. No offence but one or two suck up mid tempo songs are okay, but a whole album, tends to bum me out pretty badly. Altaria unleashes one after the other cheesy melody and listening to Divinity is like taking a sugar overdose.

Seriously, the music isn’t all that bad, but it’s just a little too sweet for my taste. Liimatainen’s guitar work is great though.

Since Altaria is Finnish you can easily guess who produced it and where it has been recorded. Yep, Mika Jussila and Finnvox Studios are the correct answers. I have to admit that Jussila did a very good job on this album though. The sound is heavy yet pretty clear and far from his normal clinical production.

Divinity is an album you might like if you enjoy sugar sweet music. Otherwise I advice you to stay far away from this melodic metal release.