Despite a contract with one of the world’s biggest metal labels, Calgary’s Divinity prefers to go it alone.

A textbook example of a local band making it to the big leagues, Calgary’s Divinity has been churning out its personal brand of high-tech heavy metal since its members were in high school. Longtime friends Sean Jenkins (guitar and vocals) and James Duncan (guitar) spent seven years building a band that aimed to carve out a niche for itself in Calgary’s underground metal scene through sheer hard work and dedication to the craft. Upon enlisting James’s brother, drummer Brett Duncan, lead guitarist Sasha Laskow and bassist Nick Foster, Divinity did just that. The band’s most significant break came when it signed to the roster of the infamous Nuclear Blast record label, releasing its remarkable full-length debut Allegory in March, 2008. Whereas most burgeoning acts would be content to ride the wave of adulation that follows a high-profile release, Divinity continued to work on its next album without pause.

“We started putting ideas together around November of last year,” says Brett. “Nuclear Blast wasn’t exactly keen on the idea of us doing another album so quickly because they had just released Allegory six months before, but we felt we were ready and we went ahead and did it anyway.”

Living up to its rebellious roots, Divinity decided to take matters into its own hands and forged ahead via the do-it-yourself route, despite already having a contract with the iconic heavy metal label. Indeed, the catalyzed quintet applied itself wholeheartedly to the process of releasing its own material with Laskow taking the lead when it came to producing the new album. Sasha’s adventures in mixing Singularity are faithfully documented on the band’s webpage (divinity.ca/brokebands/). Showcasing the band’s love affair with technology, Sasha’s blog offers step-by-step instructions on manipulating equipment, software, frequencies, bandwidth and more to piece together your very own musical masterpiece.

“Sasha was the producer and mixmaster, and he really worked his ass off on this one-man project; we couldn’t be happier with the way things turned out, ” Brett says. “The biggest difference on this album is how much we’ve matured, musically and lyrically. Allegory represents what we were like five years ago. The new ideas we pulled together for Singularity flowed so well that it all came together quite quickly by comparison.”

Marrying futurism and humanism with galvanizing results, Singularity refers not only to an event in time and space, but to Divinity’s resolution to go it alone in a universe flooded with independent releases. With the new album’s launch set for the first day of the last month of 2009, the band is eager to unleash its vision of the shape of heavy metal to come.

“The theme is about looking to the future and what will happen when people aren’t paying attention to their lives and let technology take over,” Brett explains. “We used technology to make this album, but we’re aware of the rat race when we’re working our 9-to-5 jobs. Divinity is our way to deal with it. Everybody has one form of release or another. You know — cocaine, sex, drinking, death metal....”