Divide and Dissolve – Insatiable | Album Review

Led by Black and Cherokee composer and multi-instrumentalist Takiaya Reed, Divide and Dissolve release their new almost entirely instrumental record Insatiable into the world, a world she saw through an optimistic lens.

When a band whose ethics are intense as their own music, it is hard not to sit up and take notice.  Carrying messages of decolonisation, anti-racism and justice for indigenous cultures, Divide and Dissolve is one such act that walk a fine line of producing sonically crushing yet equally beautiful material.  Citing African-American & Cherokee heritage and residing in Melbourne, Australia, the project’s architect multi-instrumentalist Takiaya Reed has always fought the rights of the marginalised and underrepresented through the body of their work.

Coming to the fifth album of their career and first release on the legendary label Bella Union, they are an act that has carved a career in the darker echelons of post-metal, drone and doom metal blended uniquely.

Opening with Eno-esque beats of ‘Hegemonic’ that simmer slowly, it becomes apparent that this is a multidimensional album beginning to unfold.  The themes and influences of Insatiable centre around a dream experienced by Reed.  Ideas of a better tomorrow, love and the ever present resistance ring even truer in uncertain times and amid political and social upheaval. Vocals on this album, as ever with the project, are sparse, this is predominantly an instrumental experience.  When vocals make an appearance on the track ‘Grief’, they are delivered in almost hushed tones, adding more subtler textures than the brute force that contrasts elsewhere on this record.

There are moments of lucidity when saxophone is used to almost tie everything together, though this adds to the nightmarish elements that constantly flow through this album.  Think more John Zorn than John Coltrane here. At times, you feel like you are in the soundtrack of a film akin to the likes of Hitchcock with Insatiable’s vast and cinematic approach. Jarring off-kilter rhythms that can turn on a dime down a dark tangent with an echoing level of feedback and distortion create a pummelling album that is seismic in its delivery.

Sprawling soundscapes are used to great effect in Insatiable, but this at times uncomfortable to those not familiar with Divide and Dissolve’s own unique take of doom metal that leans towards the wall of noise approach akin to some of their left field contemporaries such Sunno)) & Big|Brave.

This is a journey of an album that will haunt and inspire in equal measure and not leave you the same person once it finishes resonating in your mind.  This is heavy, but not as you would think.