As a Canadian, it is always exciting to see a band from my home country pop up in my inbox. Does it ultimately mean anything? No. And that’s why I’ve spent so much time listening to Quebec City’s Born Divided and their upcoming album Chronicles of a Shipwreck. Though, there may be a chance that you’re reading this after October 24th, 2025. If that happens to be the case, hello future!
Anyhow, despite them being Canadian, I have a strict no-bias policy when it comes to location. That being said, with a quote like “This isn’t just an album. It’s a reflection of where we’ve been, what we’ve endured, and how we’ve emerged, louder, heavier, and more unapologetically ourselves” made by the band… well, you can’t help but hope that Chronicles of a Shipwreck isn’t a damning name for the group. It does, after all, invoke thoughts of disaster.
Born Divided features quite a lot of familiar but interesting elements on Chronicles of a Shipwreck: the harsh vocals of Maxim Lévesque juxtaposed by cleaner vocal passages , impressive guitar work by Fred Bedard and Michael Beaudoin, all built on a solid bottom line by Tommy Demers and drummer Lucas Biron. There are also a lot of synth elements, but I couldn’t find who to give credit to.
Without a doubt, Maxim Lévesque absolutely kills it with his harsh, yet very clearly articulated, vocals on Chronicles of a Shipwreck. It’s pretty clear this guy knows exactly what he’s doing. That being said, you’d think with the clear intent behind his delivery, that he’d had more of a hand in songwriting—but it seems that was done by Tommy Demers and Michael Beaudoin.
This might be why the music itself, you know, all the sound behind Lévesque, has so much care put into it. There is a level of technical proficiency that sort of baffles me at times, having played guitar myself. Born Divided really has a good sense of what makes a song, and how to make it feel like it’s moving towards something bigger. Though, I’d say I really liked the simpler and “bigger” moments most of all. This might just be due to how aggressive, and amazingly chuggy, the album can be at times. It’s just nice to have some breathing room when listening to an album in whole over and over again, and they’ve done that pretty well here.
In particular, I love the “bigger” feeling tracks like Illusion Factories and The Dead Inside Ourselves. To me, these two felt like the biggest and most impactful tracks on the album. When it comes to something named Chronicles of a Shipwreck you really need those larger wall-of-sound moments to nail the feeling that sort of name evokes. Wonderfully, you also get those moments where Bedard and Beaudoin give Demers some time to show his skills on the bass—which isn’t always as common in metal as it should be. These moments are smartly placed as well, acting as small interludes where the listener is able to breathe just a little before being blasted by the entire band in full force.
Oh, and did I mention that the band itself produced this? I’m actually pretty surprised, as I’ve seen studios who professionally produce albums do way worse jobs than these guys have done on their own. It’s impressive, especially as I’m someone who has struggled with learning the ins and outs of mixing and mastering with my own attempts at music. The only actual issue I had, at all, was that the synth feels just a little weak. It isn’t badly written or anything, and I wouldn’t say it needs to be louder. I feel like the album would have benefited from some more impactful virtual instrument selection. But, this might just be down to personal taste on my part.
If it wasn’t obvious, Born Divided’s Chronicles of a Shipwreck was a very good experience for me. This one netted me about 8–10 listens (I stopped counting around 6) and I never felt like there was a song that didn’t fit. Nothing was skipped, and I remain entirely impressed this one was self-released. So, here’s one for us Canadians!
-KEITH HAM-
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