AMG Review of Division

Stewart Mason
All Music Guide

Knoxville, TN, alt-metal act 10 Years made their major-label debut with 2005's The Autumn Effect, an effort much beholden to the likes of Tool and Staind, and the album scored a big radio hit with the single "Wasteland." Reportedly recorded in a fractious intra-band environment (hence the title), Division sounds like the work of a band that carefully and thoroughly deconstructed its previous hit and attempted to replicate it several more times for the follow-up. Division is a smooth, radio-friendly record featuring new producer Rick Parashar's glossy layers of instruments and vocals. Occasional moments also suggest that the bandmembers now consider themselves "artists": the coda of "Picture Perfect (In Your Eyes)" is nearly as long as the body of the song itself, and features a spoken word poem read by one of the album's female backing vocalists. Division may well have the intended effect of prolonging the band's chart life, at least temporarily.