The Age of Industry is the first release of John Seput (Murder DK and Severed Headthump) and David Kizzia (Murder of Crows) working together as Division Six. With this release Seput and Kizzia manage to take an already accessible genre to the next level, pulling in influences from all over the alternative map and spanning the last two decades of underground guitar-themed sounds and styles. Unsurprisingly, some of these styles work better than others. What works definitely works, and what doesn’t work definitely doesn’t work.

The Age of Industry picks up where coldwave left off, integrating crunching guitars, melodic vocals, catchy beats, and a healthy dose of synthesizer. Seput’s vocals are surprisingly diverse, as he manages to sound not only like himself, but also like Tim Skold, Godsmack, and even Ozzy Osbourne. Some of these variations work to their benefit but confuse the overall direction of this release, which sometimes seems more like a festival compilation than the offering of a single band.

Overall, The Age of Industry is a catchy, upbeat album that I find myself singing along to more often than not. Some songs catch my attention more than others, some I really enjoy, and some I don’t. While most of this album is pretty well done, especially the songs with slower themes, some tracks seem to have trouble holding together. I honestly think that if the recording quality and production standards were higher the album would be much better. As it is, The Age of Industry comes across sounding more like a really appealing demo than an officially produced album. Division Six has a lot of potential, and I believe their sound has the ability to catch on. I expect that after touring and more time together as a band, both in and out of studio, their next release will be an accomplished one.