CONQUER DIVIDE — the international five-piece band hailing from the U.S., U.K., and Canada who have generated accolades from SXM Octane, Revolver, Alternative Press, Loudwire, and more — have just announced their new album. Slow Burn will arrive September 8 via Mascot Records.
So we thought it’d be fun to see what the band — vocalist Kiarely Taylor, bassist/vocalist Janel Duarte, guitarist Isabel Johnson, drummer Samantha Landa, and guitarist Kristen Sturgis— liked in their spare time.
So we asked each of them their favourite records. And the results are as varied as their backgrounds.
Kia- Melodrama by Lorde
Lorde does something really special on this record- she makes you feel the emotions she is singing, even when they don’t necessarily relate to your life. The lyrics cut deep and represent so many different emotions and take you through a journey on the album from start to finish. I love the highs and lows and the swells in the beats. This record explores love and loss on every level.
Kristen– Lateralus by Tool
This album is magical and it solidified my love of prog metal. Great songwriting aside, the fact that the guitar, bass and drums are often in different time signatures from one another (and this band doesn’t play to a click live) or the fact that they wrote an entire song based on the fibonacci sequence (the golden ratio), the entire album was just ahead of its time. For me, as a kid when the charts were dominated by pop acts, Lateralus was formative. Here comes this record unlike anything I’d ever heard, beating out all the bubble gum pop and landing the #1 spot on Billboard. It was a stepping stone into a rabbit hole of other types of rock and metal, and huge inspiration for me when we were writing welcome2paradise. Tool aren’t afraid to take risks, and they let a song become what it is, never rushing a good idea or letting outside influences tell them ‘it needs to be 3 minutes and 20 seconds or have xyz formula for radio’. They paved the way for some of my other favorite artists like the Deftones and A Perfect Circle. The album is a piece of art in its truest form, and you need time to sit with it, it’s too much to grasp in one listen. It’s one of the greatest albums of all time and I consider myself lucky to have seen it performed live.
Izzy – Toxicity by System of a Down
System of a Down was my stepping stone into the modern heavy metal scene. I listened to this record on repeat as a teenager and it never gets “old”. The heavy, bouncy Drop C guitar riffs introduced a different world of guitar playing to me and it’s pretty much impossible to not sing along to Serj’s infectious vocals melodies. The whole album has the perfect blend of “sillier” lyrics contrasted alongside serious themes about real world problems (which I started to understand more the older I got).
Some personal favorites of mine are Prison Song, Deer Dance and ATWA.
Janel- Welcome To The Black Parade – My Chemical Romance
To me, each song on this album is an absolute masterpiece. Every song has such a big sound which really stuck out to me when I first heard it. This album completely changed my outlook on music and inspired me to also want to produce such a big, full sound as well. I love the theatrics they added too with their costumes, make up and the whole concept record itself. I’ve always been a fan of the way Gerard Way has the ability to make his voice more theatrical and in this album he truly took it up a notch and has inspired me ever since!
The song This Is How I Disappear was one of the first tracks I heard off this album and I’ve been hooked since that first listen. The intro is one of my favorite intros in a song to date and that song is definitely a favorite next to Famous Last Words since that song has also helped me through tough times so that one is dear to my heart as well!
Sam – Ghost Reveries by Opeth
This was Opeth’s best era alongside Blackwater Park, in my opinion. Dark, melodic, heavy and beautiful – my jam. I’m a huge fan of mournful vocals, and Mikael Åkerfeldt is one of my favourites. Some excellent tracks on here, and it has a lot of dynamics in the instrumentation.
Slow Burn will arrive September 8 via Mascot Records. Pre-order it HERE.
