In over eight years of heavy-duty rocking, the Veer Union have mastered the technique of creating songs that are brutally extreme yet strikingly melodic. Along those lines, the band’s fourth album, ‘Divide the Blackened Sky,’ is jam-packed with a blend of teeth-grating rhythms and commercial melodies that are heavy enough to appeal to the hard rock fan while rarely too vicious or overindulgent.

‘Divide the Blackened Sky’ starts off fast and hard with the explosive introduction to ‘Borderline.’ Lead singer Crispin Earl cries straight out the gate, “I’m tired of being told to bite my tongue!  / I wanna scream at the top of my lungs!” Guitars hurl forward and the rhythms build, and pretty quickly, you have a full-fledged fist-pumping anthem. The song carries a noble message, to boot: “I try to speak out loud / You silenced me / But now I’ll stand my ground!”

‘Bitter End,’ the album’s lead single, offers a hard line blend of low-end riffing and Earl’s soulful, strong vocals. The song, one of the best on the album, starts quiet and blasts into rousing chorus: “I won’t ever surrender right back / I know better, to ever fall back / The enemy was living in my head / I ripped it out and left it for dead!” Earl proclaims as the musical backdrops heightens.

The album’s title track is another fast, dense, brooding rock song that goes down thick, with eerie Alice in Chains-like harmonies and ghostly dissonance. ‘Stolen’ starts off quiet as can be, before launching into a theatrical, fiery section. Overall, the theme of ‘Divide the Blackened Sky’ is intense rhythms, strong vocals and lots of post-grunge fire, creating a sonic wall that’s hard to knock down.

4 Stars
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