Divine Heresy

History

Formation (2002–2007)

Following his departure from Fear Factory in 2002, guitarist Dino Cazares was looking for a drummer that "fit in" with the band. First he tried drummers John Sankey of Devolved and Nick Barker of Cradle of Filth and Dimmu Borgir. But both drummers had to return to their homelands of Australia and England respectively due to visa issues. He then met former Vital Remains drummer Tim Yeung. Cazares and Yeung recorded the material they wrote and sent tapes to Cummings for his vocal audition. Cazares comments "We heard passion and anger in his voice, which was something we wanted. It was also very aggressive."Divine Heresy held auditions for a permanent bassist — Tony Campos of Static-X played bass on three songs and Cazares acted as bassist on the remaining songs. Following unsuccessful auditions, Cazares was contacted by former Nile bassist Joe Payne. Cazares knew Joe Payne from seeing him play live with Nile. After auditioning, Joe Payne joined Divine Heresy as the permanent bass guitarist.

''Bleed the Fifth'' (2007–2008)

The band recorded its debut album, Bleed the Fifth in early 2007 with production duties handled by former Machine Head guitarist Logan Mader. The title of the album is a play on words, Cazares comments "You have the right to keep your mouth shut, but on this record we believe we're saying a lot". Cummings wrote the majority of the lyrics, which are about personal strifes and how people overcome them. Much of the lyrical content was influenced by the Book of Revelation, natural disasters, war, and terrorism. Cazares stated the album is a "big fuck you" to the people who want his projects to fail.

Released on August 28, 2007, in the United States, Bleed the Fifth sold 2,700 copies in its first week.{{cite news |title = First-Week Sales Revealed |work = Blabbermouth.net |date = September 5, 2007|url = http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=80118 |access-date = December 30, 2007|url-status = dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20071017154506/http://roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=80118 |archive-date = October 17, 2007 |access-date=December 30, 2007 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20071221055555/http://www.roadrunnerrecords.co.uk/artists/DivineHeresy/press.aspx |archive-date = December 21, 2007}} Eduardo Rivadavia of Allmusic felt the album "strikes a near-perfect balance between confirmation (reminding fans of Cazares' abilities and unique vision) and innovation (he even plays a few guitar solos!)".{{cite web|title=Bleed the Fifth Review |access-date=December 30, 2007}} Scott Alisoglu of Blabbermouth.net summarized his review claiming the album is "one tough son of a bitch that may still have you humming melodies long after you've ejected the disc."{{cite news |access-date = December 31, 2007|url-status = dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20071017154511/http://roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/showreview.aspx?reviewID=1207 |archive-date = October 17, 2007}} Chad Bowar of About.com commented "Great musicianship, good songs and excellent production make this a very respectable debut."{{cite web |access-date=December 31, 2007|archive-date=November 23, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151123232655/http://heavymetal.about.com/od/cdreviews/fr/divinehereseybl.htm |url-status=dead}}

After recording was completed, Cazares announced the band signed a North American deal with Century Media Records, and a licensing deal with Roadrunner Records in Europe. His decision to choose Century Media was based on the creative freedom the label gave him, whereas Roadrunner would ask him to produce radio and commercial songs when he was in Fear Factory. However, Yeung claims Roadrunner were not interested and said he did not want to be on a label that is "sort of interested".

Departure of Tommy Vext (2008)

Lead singer Tommy Vext left the band following an on-stage altercation on April 26, 2008. The cause of the altercation remains controversial. According to Dino Cazares, Vext was fired because of a conflict during a live show. "We felt that he wanted to end the show early to go hang out at the New England Metal Fest, which we were supposed to be performing at the next day" coming up with all sorts of excuses to make this happen. The band continued to play after what Vext said was supposed to be the last song. Vext then began screaming at Dino and argued with him before he pushed Dino across the stage. Vext was kicked out of the band immediately. In a video interview Vext explained that he wanted to prevent ruining his voice for the next show by ending the set early because the PA system went out during the show.

In exclusive "Metal Injection" interview Tommy explained his departure from the band:

''Bringer of Plagues'' and hiatus (2009–2015)

Divine Heresy's follow-up to 2007's Bleed the Fifth was the group's first release with new vocalist Travis Neal, formerly of Pushed. He is also currently a member of the Swedish band The Bereaved and the band Hate Times Nine from San Diego/LA. The album, titled Bringer of Plagues, was released on July 28 release via Century Media Records. Dino co-produced the album with the acclaimed producing team Dirty Icon (Logan Mader and Lucas Banker).

As of November 25, 2010, Divine Heresy cannot be found on the Century Media Records website. Dino has also given interviews that during breaks from the current Fear Factory tour, Dino and drummer Tim Yeung have started writing new material for the next Divine Heresy record. On January 26, 2011, it was announced that bassist Joe Payne had left Divine Heresy. In late 2012, Payne and an associate were arrested in connection with an investigation into the distribution of more than 2,900 grams (6.4 pounds) of marijuana.

On May 10, 2011, Dino announced via Divine Heresy's Facebook page and through his own personal account that Divine Heresy are still together and that there will be a new album in 2012. He also said that they were planning a tour along the US east coast. On August 17, 2012, guitarist Dino Cazares via Twitter commented on the status of Tim Yeung as a DH drummer:

On July 27, 2015, in an interview with MetalSucks, Cazares confirmed that he is the only remaining member of Divine Heresy and the band is currently inactive due to his commitments with Fear Factory.

On January 24, 2020 Cazares, announced that Payne had died at the age of 35. No cause of death was disclosed.

Return from hiatus and new lineup (2022–present)

On August 1, 2022, Cazares announced he has recruited Lauren Hart of Once Human as the new vocalist of the band. He also revealed he has begun writing new material and would be playing all the guitars and bass on the recordings. Over a month later, Cazares announced that Gabe Seeber, live drummer of Decrepit Birth, is the band's new drummer.

Band members

Current members

• Dino Cazares – guitars (2005–present), bass (2005–2007, 2022–present)
• Lauren Hart – vocals (2022–present)
• Gabe Seeber – drums (2022–present)

Former members

• Jose Maldanado – vocals (2005)
• John Sankey – drums (2005)
• Tim Yeung – drums (2006–2012)
• Tommy Vext – vocals (2006–2008)
• Joe Payne – bass, backing vocals (2007–2011; died 2020)
• Travis Neal – vocals (2008–2013)

Live members

• Risha Eryavec – bass (2006–2007)
• Jake Veredika – vocals (2008)

Timeline

ImageSize = width:800 height:auto barincrement:20 PlotArea = left:120 bottom:60 top:5 right:15 Alignbars = justify DateFormat = mm/dd/yyyy Period = from:01/01/2005 till: TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal format:yyyy ScaleMajor = increment:2 start:2005 ScaleMinor = increment:1 start:2005 Legend = orientation:horizontal position:bottom

Colors = id:Vocals value:red legend:Lead_vocals id:Bvocals value:pink legend:Backing_vocals id:Guitar value:green legend:Guitars id:Bass value:blue legend:Bass id:Drums value:orange legend:Drums id:lines value:black legend:Studio_album id:bars value:gray(0.95)

BackgroundColors = bars:bars

LineData = at:08/28/2007 color:black layer:back at:07/28/2009 color:black layer:back

BarData = bar:Maldanado text:"Jose Maldanado" bar:Vext text:"Tommy Vext" bar:Neal text:"Travis Neal" bar:Hart text:"Lauren Hart" bar:Cazares text:"Dino Cazares" bar:Payne text:"Joe Payne" bar:Sankey text:"John Sankey" bar:Yeung text:"Tim Yeung" bar:Seeber text:"Gabe Seeber"

PlotData= width:11 textcolor:black align:left anchor:from shift:(10,-4)

bar:Maldanado from:01/01/2005 till:01/30/2005 color:Vocals bar:Vext from:01/01/2006 till:04/28/2008 color:Vocals bar:Neal from:08/14/2008 till:09/30/2013 color:Vocals bar:Hart from:08/02/2022 till:end color:Vocals bar:Cazares from:01/01/2005 till:10/23/2015 color:Guitar bar:Cazares from:01/01/2005 till:07/01/2007 color:Bass width:3 bar:Cazares from:08/02/2022 till:end color:Guitar bar:Cazares from:08/02/2022 till:end color:Bass width:3 bar:Payne from:07/01/2007 till:01/26/2011 color:Bass bar:Payne from:07/01/2007 till:01/26/2011 color:Bvocals width:3 bar:Sankey from:01/01/2005 till:01/30/2005 color:Drums bar:Yeung from:01/01/2006 till:08/17/2012 color:Drums bar:Seeber from:09/12/2022 till:end color:Drums

Discography

;Studio albums

• Bleed the Fifth (2007)
• Bringer of Plagues (2009)

;Music videos

• "Failed Creation" – 2007
• "Bleed the Fifth (Tommy Vext Version)" – 2007
• "Bleed the Fifth (Travis Neal Version)" – 2008
• "Facebreaker" – 2009

References

References

1. Rivadavia, Eduardo. "Biography of Divine Heresy".
2. Sharpe-Young, Garry. "Divine Heresy". [[MusicMight]].
3. "Divine Heresy - Bringer of Plagues (staff review)".
4. (September 23, 2007). "Divine Heresy - Bleed The Fifth (album review)".
5. (September 8, 2009). "DIVINE HERESY - Bringer Of Plagues".
6. (April 29, 2008). "MTV Headbanger's Blog". Headbangersblog.mtv.com.
7. (August 14, 2008). "Divine Heresy Announces New Vocalist, Travis Neal". Metal Underground.
8. McGrath, Ken. "Divine Heresy".
9. Bowar, Chad. "Divine Heresy Interview". [[About.com]].
10. Donnelly, Justin. (September 12, 2007). "Divine Heresy: Heretic Anthems". The Metal Forge.
11. Fonseca, Dave. (September 27, 2007). "Dino Cazares of Divine Heresy". metalreview.com.
12. "Exclusive: Tommy Vext speaks of Divine Heresy falling out - Videos on Demand - Metal Injection".
13. (1 May 2008). "THE DIVINE HERESY SOAP OPERA CONTINUES".
14. (December 12, 2012). "Former NILE And DIVINE HERESY Bassist Arrested On Drug Charge".
15. Pasbani, Robert. (December 12, 2012). "Former NILE Bassist Busted With 2,900 Grams of Marijuana".
16. "Niet compatibele browser". Facebook.
17. "Dino Cazares on Twitter".
18. "Dino Cazares on Twitter".
19. (July 27, 2015). "#109: Dino Cazares of Fear Factory". [[MetalSucks]].
20. (January 24, 2020). "Former NILE And DIVINE HERESY Bassist JOSEPH PAYNE Dies". [[Blabbermouth.net]].
21. (August 2, 2022). "FEAR FACTORY's DINO CAZARES Recruits ONCE HUMAN's LAUREN HART For DIVINE HERESY Project". [[Blabbermouth.net]].
22. (September 12, 2022). "Dino Cazares Reveals New Divine Heresy Drummer". ThePRP.