Seth’s third release, entitled Divine X, is without doubt the most mature album in the French black metal act’s career. This may in fact even be the result of the many setbacks the band faced whilst working on this album. The recording of Divine X was originally scheduled for last summer in the Suite Sound Studios but due to financial problems of the studio the recording session had to be re-scheduled to the end of 2001 and in addition a new studio (Excess Studios in Holland) had to be found as well. In the meantime Seth had parted ways with singer Vampyr Vicomte Arkames prior to the recording of the new album however it was agreed that he would still record the vocals for Divine X. As the band entered the studio half a year later as planned it was decided that new-found guitarist Nacht instead of Arkames would do the vocals for the new album. You might wonder where all this information actually leads to, apart from history’ sake, but these developments have had their effect on the way the record turned out.

The most striking difference between their previous offering L’ Excellence and their latest release is the dynamic sound which is reinforced by the clear and open production. As far as the music is concerned Seth have not merely continued the path taken on L’ Excellence but focussed on the guitar melodies and added even more variation by alternating distortion with clean passages. Even though Seth’s music in general bears many black metal characteristics the overall tempo (somewhat slower than on their previous record), the more death-metal influenced riffs and Nacht’s vocals give Seth’s music a slightly heavier edge. All in all a very professional and mature album that will capture your interest from beginning to end as the Frenchmen have succeeded in expanding black metal’s musical boundaries and successfully integrated the Dissection influences resulting in a rather unique sound.