There are many ways to describe what Divide and Dissolve does. Drone metal certainly works, but it doesn't really capture the visceral agony of these songs. Imagine Streetcleaner slowed down and reduced to its simplest elements. In short, this is the music of pain.

Divide and Dissolve Gas Lit (Invada)

Oh, there are a few samples and odd orchestral interludes, but the real core of this album is a throbbing wall of sound, unrelenting and uncompromising. Not unlike a black hole, nothing escapes the bleak power of this sound.

Takiaya Reed and Sylvie Nehill are Australian, and they have embraced the basics of their sound and blown off all the chaff. The relative peace of the interludes can never overcome the ever-lurking violence.

I imagine a live performance would involve laptops and a wide array of effects. Cool from a technical standpoint, but not nearly as wrenching as the aural wreckage achieved on this album. The band's single-minded approach leaves nothing but desolation in its wake. Enthralling.

Jon Worley