One of the cultest names in American death metal, CIANIDE have stuck to their guns for over 30 years now, patiently building a canon that’s unrivaled in its consistency and trend-free philosophy. Theirs is a Metal of Death that’s simple, straightforward, and effectively primitive: blunt-force trauma informed by Hellhammer and Chicago forebears DeathStrike, but with a sewer-dredging atmosphere all its own.
Originally released in the year 2000, Divide and Conquer was a crucial, transitional album for CIANIDE. Over the course of their first three, equally classic albums – 1992’s The Dying Truth, 1994’s Descent Into Hell, and 1997’s Death, Doom and Destruction – CIANIDE had practically perfected the death-doom style, of course often kicking into righteously headbanging parts. It was that latter element that the power-trio would expand upon and explore across Divide and Conquer, the title itself symbolic of their increasingly crushing ways.
Contained on this absolutely DELUXE expanded edition are two different unique mixes of the album: the first is fully remastered – done “proper,” as CIANIDE would put it – with the sound equally warm but arguably more humid and certainly with even more low-end crush, while the second is the original mix as it was released in 2000. Also contained herein are two demos from the era – the three-song Promo 1998, and an unreleased three-song demo recorded in June 1999 – as well as a grinding studio outtake for early track “Choose Your Death” and a raw ‘n’ ripping cover of At War’s “Ordered to Kill.”
CIANIDE are the first and last word on classic Metal of Death, and this deluxe 2CD/3LP edition shall definitely be the last, ULTIMATE word on Divide and Conquer!
Released by:
Hells Headbangers (USA), 2020.
