Division

Creativity isn't manufactured on an assembly line. It can't be scheduled or forced and when it's not coming there's nothing to do but wait. That's what the members of Knoxville, Tennessee quintet, 10 Years, discovered when they started writing songs for their second album, Division, the follow-up to their debut The Autumn Effect. Having spent the better part of two years on the road, the band members planned in October 2006 to take a month off and then dive back into writing mode. They aimed to re-enter the studio in early 2007 and have their second album done by that spring. But just a few weeks after they started coming up with riffs and melodies, it became clear they were going to have to throw away the calendar.

"We could have met our deadlines and gone into the studio in January," clarifies singer Jesse Hasek. "But we decided early on that we weren't going to allow ourselves to run through the motions. We felt like we really needed to challenge ourselves and do something fresh and different. And that took a little longer than we expected."

As it turned out, Division was well worth the wait. Musically eclectic, technically adept and emotionally poignant, the songs shatter preconceptions, revealing a tapestry of previously unexplored influences and a larger array of stunning melodies. Like The Autumn Effect, the new album is filled with enveloping textures and heart-stopping dynamics, but the arrangements are more developed and the songwriting more mature, revealing a cavalcade of styles including metal, hard rock, punk, alternative pop and even classical.