History & Biography Formed in Los Angeles after the forced departure of guitarist Dino Cazares from Fear Factory, the band quickly took on the mantle of more extreme music than Fear factory and along with bassist Risha Eryavec of Decrepit Birth went about playing live. “I know that my fans expect something special from me,” noted Cazares. The debut appeared in the spring of 2007 through Century media and Roadrunner Records. Cazares handled bass guitar on the album although former Nile man Joe Payne was soon added to the line-up. The album was produced by Logan Mader of Machine Head infamy. The man did not want his name used and went by the Dirty icon alias. A tour with Static-X was announced for the autumn of 2007.
Singer Tommy Cummings was fired in April of 2008. Cummings had become agitated onstage on April 26th in Poughkeepsie, New York when he wanted to end the show early and was blocked by his band-mates. Tommy Cummings joined the reunited crossover band Snot in July of 2008. Travis Neal of The Bereaved and Pushed joined Divine Heresy on vocals in August.
When Samael dropped from appearing alongside Moonspell on its North American tour in October and November of 2009 Divine Heresy took over. Samael issued a statement mentioning income and finances as the reason. Dino had made up with Fear Factory singer Bell and had reformed a version of the band when Divine Heresy’s second album appeared.
Singer Kasper Thomsen would sit out Raunchy's European tour with Sybreed and Threat Signal "for family and personal reasons" in late 2010. He would be temporarily replaced by Travis Neal from Divine Heresy. Divine Heresy bassist Joe Payne quit in early 2011 to concentrate on Pain After Death. He would die in 2020. In the spring of 2011 Cyanide Serenity recruited Travis Neal (Divine Heresy) as its new singer. Cyanide Serenity was re-recording its 2011 album, Consume Me, with Travis. The band was touring Sri Lanka and India. Former members Tommy Vext and Tim Yeung, guitarists Bill Hudson and Rick Di Marco and former In This Moment bassist Kyle Konkiel had a new project in 2014 called Westfield Massacre. Vext had left Snot as a result. The group became inactive in 2015 and would return in 2020.
Guitarist Dino Cazares recruited Once Human singer Lauren Hart for the Divine Heresy side-project. Hart had auditioned by uploading video of herself singing to Divine Heresy (but she was still in Once Human!). The band was looking for a drummer and live bassist as Dino wanted to play bass at the studio.
Reviews DIVINE HERESY - BLEED THE FIFTH - CENTURY MEDIA 
Divine Heresy is an attempt by kicked-out Fear Factory guitarist Dino Cazares at redemption. Having recruited singer Tommy Vext and drummer, scratch that, drum machine Tim Yeung the three go about attempting to recreate the brutality of early - we are talking 0.5 albums here - Fear Factory. That is, until song number two begins.
Bleed The Fifth is that quick to degenerate into a commercial metalcore platter (in)complete with clean vocals, boyish chants and attempts at one-upping Hatebreed in the generica sweepstakes. While the title track hinted at metal and Napalm Death the rest of the album is as watered down as the multitudes of bands with names like Hatebreed, Avenged Sevenfold, Trivium and Machine Head which run around posing on the edges of the scene. As bad as Vext’s waxing hardcore vocals are Yeung’s brilliant go at replicating the sound of a monotone drum machine with nary a feeling, beat or power is the worst transgression. Is the man really that disaffected? The album goes through song after song of false aggression mixed with trendy elemental reiteration until the end where it completely goes down the gutter with the band’s attempt at doing the Creed. Funnily enough, that end to the band’s album and credibility is called Closure.
Bleed The Fifth showed potential for all of three minutes before reminding the fans why Fear Factory and Dino Cazares became obsolete years ago. - Ali “The Metallian”
DIVINE HERESY - BRINGER OF PLAGUES - CENTURY MEDIA 
Now that Dino Cazares and Burton C. Bell have brought their questionable version of Fear Factory to the forefront (uh, didn’t these two used to bitterly hate each other?) one wonders about the validity and use of Divine Heresy, the band seemingly an outlet for Cazares’ Fear Factory riffs that he didn’t want to waste on his more obscure bands. ’07 debut Bleed The Fifth was pedestrian and utilitarian by everyone’s standards, and the subsequent live show was about the same; not much has changed on Bringer Of Plagues aside from a vocalist switch (even in this sort of side project-y band Cazares brings out drama, it seems). The new guy, Travis Neal (who, incidentally, sounds way too much like Chester Bennington of perennial embarrassment Linkin Park), does similar things as the other dude (Tommy Vext) and you wonder if Neal is really all that happy stuck in the gruff vocal/clean chorus paradigm that just about every metalcore band has done to death (no pun intended) over the last decade. That said, and despite its derivative nature, Bringer Of Plagues is, surprisingly, a better record than its older sibling, the songs faster and more energetic than Bleed The Fifth: if someone described Bringer Of Plagues as Fear Factory on a speed between 33 and 45, I wouldn’t disagree. As a result, ex-Vital Remains/ex-Nile drummer Tim Yeung is the real star here, showing us all, yet again, why he’s won all sorts of World’s Fastest Drummer competitions (yes, apparently they do exist). Features guest appearances from members of Dimmu Borgir, Soulfly, Machine Head and Static-X, which sort of makes you not want to listen after you’ve read those names (although Soulfly’s last few have been impressive). - David Perri
Interviews
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