Formed in autumn 1995 in Colchester THE BLOOD DIVINE came together out of a desire for greater musical freedom amid a trend-obsessed music scene determined to compartmentalize bands at their inception. "We"re a band of five individuals playing intense, passionate music. Call it what you will. Our influences span the entire history of popular music, as far as back as the blues which after all is where all the best modern music comes from. Which isn"t to say we"re just trying to reheat last night"s dinner - we simply take ingrediants from the past and mix them together with a nineties flavour. This whole thing of trying to slap a neat little label on bands stems from complacent journalists with the conveyer-belt corporate mentality. And we"re not interested in that. Divisions between music are starting to blur and we would like to see more of this. The Blood Divine are about playing powerful music to anyone open-minded enough to want to listen." Awaken, the band"s debut album on Peaceville Records, was released to critical and fan approval in September 1996. They toured Europe at the end of the year supporting label mates My Dying Bride, and were voted Best New Band in Terrorizer magazine"s annual Reader"s Poll. Since then the band have undertaken a headline UK tour and have appeared at several European festivals, most notably the Rock in Madrid event where they appeared alongside Peter Green"s Splinter Group, Bruce Dickinson and Napalm Death. They recorded their second album in May with producer Pere Coleman , who worked with the band on their first record. Entitled Mystica, it is due for release in October 1997. "Rock n Roll shouldn"t just be like some bullshit feelgood movie that makes you forget how dull your life is for an hour or so - It should fire you up to do something about it. Maybe it"s naive to think that art can change anything in this day or age, people seem so content to just wallow in shit, but it"s like Jack Nicholson says in One Flew Over the Cuckoo"s Nest - At least I tried, goddammit...At least I did that much..." (Source: Official Site) Steve Maloney is now in another band called Vicious Cabaret, and thye describe themselves as Rock Noir. A debut EP is coming up shortly. More info can be found at their official site