Review by Felix on June 14, 2020.

If one wants to travel from Norway to Finland, she or he has to cross the beautiful land of Pippi Longstocking, but the way from Dimmu Borgir to Darkwoods My Betrothed is shorter, not only with respect to the alphabet. Despite a few explosive blast beats driven outbursts, the Finnish group cannot completely deny its influence. The aesthetics and vibrations of the often-used keyboards definitely sent greetings to Shagrath and the rest of his gang, in particular in songs like 'The Crow and Warrior', where the keys want to set dramatic impulses by brief, alarming synthetic staccatos. I don’t want to say that the band floated with the tide, but it seems that DMB were on an endless journey in order to find their preferred style. Their debut presented ice-cold, predominantly mega-fast black metal with insane, high-pitched vocals, the second album was heavily influenced by melancholic emotions and here we have aggressive, then modern black metal with pretty complex yet accessible song patterns. If they had released these albums under different names, probably nobody would have found a connection between them. This inner restlessness has an impact on songs like the opener. It suffers from its heterogeneity and its single parts do not build a coherent overall picture.

And let the truth be told, it’s not only the opener which fails to convince with stirring melodies. Witch-Hunts is characterized by a lot of acceptable, but not very exciting parts. There is a pretty black atmosphere and a more than solid degree of musicianship, but all in all, the farewell album of DMB is rather an enlargement than an enrichment of the worldwide black metal production. By the way, what about the production? It does not meet my expectation in view of the dominance of the keyboards. The guitars do not have a formative influence and the vocals must struggle in order to be heard. A veil of mist lies over the entire mix, it slightly lacks transparency. Especially the nuances of the drumming drown in the sea of keyboard sounds. I don’t say that the mix sucks, by far not. Yet it is also not flawless and so it matches the quality of the song material in an astonishing manner. And so, I return to the compositions. DMB present a little highlight, the comparatively straight and strict 'Burn, Witch, Burn'. Its fast parts score with dynamic, the mid-paced sequences meander without suffering from a massive quality loss. However, one song cannot make up for the deficiencies of the remaining material.

In hindsight, DMB’s departure was a logical step, because their discography lacked vision and, I am sorry to say that, authenticity. It does not make much sense to offer almost more styles than albums. No doubt, they never released a really weak full-length, but in a world with 10.000 competitors, they did not have the features it needs to be a step ahead of the pack. Friends of mid-harsh, slightly pompous black metal can check this work, but from my point of view, everybody who wants to get in touch with the restless formation from Suomi should prefer their pretty raging debut. By the way, Pippi Longstocking’s restlessness is more enjoyable.

Rating: 6.7 out of 10

Review by Death8699 on May 15, 2019.

In your face thrash metal galore!! These native Californian's put together one hellov a good release here. Be it the music, the production quality, the mixing, vocals, the whole deal Death Angel marks into their discography. Every song on here averages 4-5 minutes in length. Definitely worth checking this album out. Pure thrash metal to the core. I think this is one of their top releases to date. If you have a contention regarding that, just listen to the whole album and you'll see what I'm talking about. I don't think there will be any arguments on how good this release is.

The guitar sound quality is a little bit muffled because of the production , but not enough to count this as one of their best releases. The energy is way high on here. You can feel the vibe of the album it's totally upbeat thrash and vocal destruction. I like every song on here. Things seem to fall into place. The rhythms, the leads, the vocals and the music overall are superb. I cannot get enough of this release. It's one of those albums you can play and hear different things each time you play it. Kind of like Metallica's albums of the 80's. This one chalks up within the realm of Act III.

Riff-tastic album, if you're a guitar player then you can hear what I'm talking about. The vocals compliment the music. Not too harsh, just enough to emit cosmic energy to this. The background music is good as well. Every song on here with worth mentioning. So, if you're a fan of thrash metal and you don't have this, get it! All I can say is just that they conquered in every aspect on here. Totally worth getting. I'm not sure of the new release it's coming out on May 31st. So, we'll have to make a comparison as to which one has the best energy and music! For now, we have to focus on past releases.

In summation, Death Angel chalks up one heck of a good release here. All the songs are good, and everything flows smoothly. I was taken aback when I heard this album. Totally rips in every sense of the word. The one thing that I'd take out though are the chronic leads. That's the only beef I have for the album. They would score higher if it weren't for those annoying leads. Otherwise, simply close to a masterpiece. So yeah, shout your opinion on this. I'm sure it'll be positive. Get this album ASAP!!

Rating: 9 out of 10

Review by Arek on November 22, 2016.

The Evil Divide consists of 10 pieces of thrash speed metal which, after three years of silence, Death Angel and Nuclear Blast want to kick our asses with. The proposed thrash is a portion of music from the pinnacle of the class. These 45 minutes of fast American thumping clad in a black/white cover should satisfy all thrash maniacs.

I must admit that I was not a follower of the Church of Death Angel. They charmed me with album The Ultra-Violence, but my enchantment was fading away with each following album, until I finally forgot about the band. After their 2001 reunion I approached their publications like a child that got severely burned - with morbid caution. It was after The Dream Calls For Blood that their music started to entice me again. Moreover, review of that album was also going to appear to infect the others with this Filipino bug but for reasons unknown (read - laziness) it was never formulated. The first, even fragmental hearings of The Evil Divide swept the other vision away like an avalanche.

The eighth child of Americans has all the advantages. There's the energy, the momentum, correct tempo - sometimes in hyper-speed - (Cause For Alarm, Father Of Lies, Hell To Pay) there's melody (whole thing but especially - Lost), there's a message (as a whole). Virtually every song can do something to attract. The only thing that it lacks for me it's the guitar sound, they could be a little meatier, but such is the style of Death Angel and you either agree with them or out you go. I've often gotten pissed off when I read about the superiority of the new Anthrax over Death Angel. But I do not want to stand on either side of the barricade, because I like both bands, and if I may add something here, personally I prefer the previous Anthrax.

And, since we are on the subject of Anthrax, it’s the themes from Among The Living I find on The Moth, and crossover structure is very characteristic on Cause For Alarm. After repeated ‘molestation’ of The Evil Divide I could go on talking about each song, but listening to the whole album would be a way better choice. I encourage you sincerely! I also deliberately did not choose my favorites because the entire album is my favorite, which I already know, will take place in my Top of the Year.

Not one heavy metal, speed, thrash maniac should disregard The Evil Divide, and if I'm wrong I'll throw the first stone at myself. So I surrender my assertion to be deeply analyzed, best with the sounds of Death Angel!

Rating: 9 out of 10