Source: Album Artwork
Writing a review of The Dillinger Escape plan will never really do the album justice. By now you will probably have heard the reports that this is supposedly the final Dillinger album before they call it quits for a while. Whilst it will be sad to see them go, their parting gift to us is up there with the one we got from Jesus.
Dissociation is, in no uncertain terms, one of the best albums The Dillinger Escape Plan have ever written. Where their last album, One Of Us Is The Killer had a bit more to cling on to in terms of catchy bits and less frenetic tempo changes, Dissociation is a harkening back to the absolute craziest of Dillinger’s material.
Even in songs like ‘Symptom Of Terminal Illness‘ and ‘Nothing To Forget‘, which are a bit more accessible, there is a creepy and dissonant feel that makes what could be a quite nice song, into something far more sinister, and therefore into an astoundingly good track.
The entire band is firing on all possible cylinders on this one, but Dissociation may be a career best from Greg Puciato. Just when you think that he can’t get any better as a vocalist, he brings yet a new style to his singing, a kind of weird screech most notably in ‘Limerent Death‘ that sounds like the “clean” vocals on last year’s Cattle Decapitation record.
Even in the Mars Volta-esque jazzy sections in ‘Surrogate‘ and other songs, Kurt Ballou’s influence in the mixing can be heard all over this record. The think production and crisp but still crunchy guitar tones are perfect for not just the spazzy lead sections, but also the grooves that Ben Weinman, Liam Wilson and Kevin Antreassian slam down on the table.
The eclectic ending to the album by way of the title track (which sounds suspiciously like The Black Queen…) and the Noisia/Godflesh mix of ‘Fugue‘ merely cement the idea that The Dillinger Escape Plan are capable of literally anything. None of this album sounds forced, or “done because we had to”, it all feels like an extension of their work. Dissociation is an album that could only have been written by Dillinger (by which we mean, could only have been written by one of the best bands on the planet).
This album is a difficult listen. Just by way of it being a Dillinger album it is intense, heavy, schizophrenic, all of the things that we would expect from Dillinger. The only reason this has been given a 9 instead of a 10 is because it is so difficult that there are going to be a lot of people who can’t vibe with it. But the best art is challenging, makes you think and feel, and that is exactly what Dissociation does. If this is truly the final Dillinger album, then we cannot think of a band who have ended on a bigger high.
So long and thanks for all the riffs.
