16. April 2025
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Media Review

Divide and Dissolve – Insatiable

Florian Buechtingby Florian Buechting

Divide and Dissolve - Insatiable

Divide and Dissolve - Insatiable
4.7

Rating

 4.7/5

Flyctory.com Pros

  • Very intense and catching album
  • Strong atmosphere create with very limited elements

In general, I really like instrumental music. Creating atmosphere and telling stories without the use of language can be a very intense listening experience. I ran into a very interesting release as of 18th April 2025 while working on Flyctory.com. Insatiable is already the fifth album of the project Divide and Dissolve. Here is my review.

 

Divide and Dissolve – About The Artists

Divide and Dissolve, based in Melbourne in Australia, do instrumental doom metal. Takiaya Reed founded the project in 2015. In the meantime, Sylvie Nehill was also part of the band, but left in 2022. Divide and Dissolve has released four studio albums so far. The last one was Systemic, released in 2023.

 

Divide and Dissolve – Insatiable – Track by Track

The ten song album lasts 34 minutes.

1. Hegemonic

Despite Hegemonic is just a little shorter than the characteristic duration of the album, I would rather see it as an intro track. It uses synth sounds and even some spherical backing vocals to create an initial atmosphere, on which Insatiable is built on. It rather feels repetitive, but also creates suspense towards the next listen.

2. Monolithic

Monolithic starts very gentle and rather creates a dream folk than a metal atmosphere initially. However, after about a minute, this harmonic feeling is “disturbed” more and more by hard riffs and distorted metal sounds. This leads to a very interesting contrast. Like a threat, the dark tunes seem to march on, some chords feel like sirens.

3. Withholding

There seems to be a link between Monolithic and Withholding, which leads to an even more dramatic – and narrative – listen of the album. The sound gets heavier, the listen is intense, feels psychedelic, sometimes close to bearable. Later in the track, the drums take a more important role. Thus, the feeling of something dark and big is marching on becomes more and more present.

4. Loneliness

Already the fade-out of the predecessor calmed down the atmosphere a bit. During Loneliness, you indeed feel a bit lost and lonely. Takiya Reed has a very special way to create atmosphere. The intensity of her tracks feels overwhelming.

5. Dichotomy

While Loneliness kept its style for its entire duration, some very new theme is introduced with Dichotomy. The dark, heavy riffs, which Divide and Dissolve presents right at the beginning, feel massive and destructive. A key feature of the album is that the songs feel monotonous. You still don’t feel urged to go for the skip button, but feel rather caught by the sound. Somehow, that’s musical wizardry from Down Under.

6. Provenance

Three of the songs of Insatiable have been presented before. One of them is the sixth track of the album, Provenance. The track start with string and flute-alike sounds. They do have a certain harmony, but there is also a slight touch of dissonance. Provenance and the following Disintegrate together take some ten minutes and are thus the longest section of the album. Just when you into the style of the track, Reed has some smashing chords for you in stock, destroying the feelings you just got used to. You have to stand that for the remaining part of the five minute track.

7. Disintegrate

The hard, slightly distorted sound of the predecessor track continues in disintegrate. It more and more turns into the slowly marching, threatening style other songs already presented. Tje distortion feels to grow, the speed is slowing down, which increases the tension.

8. Grief

Grief is another track previously released. Being less than 90 seconds long, it feels like a choral singing in a church or a chapel. However, you cannot identify words, just sounds from the vocals. Thus, the track rather has a touch of an interlude.

9. Holding Pattern

Metallic chords come back immediately at the beginning of Holding Pattern. Slow drumming joins in. The sound reminds me of trying to play a didgeridoo sound on a guitar. Divide and Dissolve keep that sound for 3:25 minutes in total.

10. Death Cult

The flute tunes are back at the beginning of the four minute closing track, Death Cult. However, the long notes with little variation again create intensity, before the Australian artist frees you at the end of the album.

 

Divide and Dissolve – Insatiable – Spotify

I will add the Spotify widget once the album has been published.

 

Divide and Dissolve – Insatiable – My View

Wow! Insatiable is an absolutely intense listen. The Australian catches your soul over 34 minutes. Sometimes, the record feels too intense, but that’s a very positive statement, based on the message the listener should get. The record is definitely not suitable for any listener, but it is absolutely well done.

Favorite Song: Provenance

 

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