The Dillinger Escape Plan releases their new record Dissociation in what will be their final album. These New Jersey mathcore juggernauts are intent in going out with a bang and this record proves to be their most ambitious work to date. Dissociation tries topping every imaginative creation from their back catalog to varying results. Listening to the record is akin to walking through a disoriented Picasso museum, single compositions filling the void of entire rooms with intricate detail. Though perhaps the most appealing aspect to hear this time round is not a band releasing "Part VI" of the Dillinger Escape Plan film series, but a fiery piece of work that has all the intense creativity from their origins some two decades prior.
“Limerent Death” kicks through the gates in what has become typical D.E.P. insanity between dissonant guitar chugs, halfway breakdowns, time changes, vocals lost somewhere between a howl and a whine. “I gave you everything you wanted, you were everything to me” couldn’t be more appropriate. Then showing a completely different flavor “Symptoms of Terminal Illness” gets serious in an epic piece with near gothic tendencies. The pleading of “promise me I won’t die… please don’t turn on that light…” may as well close off one of their legendary live performances, stage antics and all.
In a torrent of quick paced intensity normally reserved for shorter affairs the breakneck paced “Wanting Not So Much to as to” packs together enough wallop to fill a dozen different songs. Its spoken word midsections reveal messages that vocalist Puciato wants to stay with you indefinitely. Working a full-length instrumental such as “Fugue” that follows isn’t new for Dillinger amidst its electric drum glitches, metal garbles and haunting echoes. Atmospheric pressure on display here sets mood you might find within a zombie video game title, starting as a mansion chase and slowing to a crawl.
The relenting “Low Feels Blvd” segue towards its halfway point is remarkably refreshing, an extensive solo of progressive metal variety and a horn section in full support. Though an artistic excess at the end point feels choppily misplaced like a live element that doesn’t quite cut it. Come “Surrogate” the sort of fervent formula fixed into each of these pieces feel crushingly brutal, leaving little room for reprieve. Brief textures of solace are tainted in off kilter chords, echoing agreeable sentiments of ‘trying to survive this place’ gets hopelessly lost in a distortion pedal.
As if the technical proficiency of Dillinger were not profound enough “Honeysuckle” inches along through jazz riffs, apocalyptic elements and what feels like a hundred plus changeovers. In an effort for the arts the noise gets outright claustrophobic, at times intoxicatingly insufferable. “Manufacturing Discontent” is unapologetically relentless from start to finish, carrying what must be a distinct message that gets lost in the noise somewhere midway. As quiet-intense breakdown cuts the song up into pieces in what feels like a mashup of ideas, only the end point brings a welcomed reprieve.
After a torrent of chaos the frantic “Apologies Not Included” sounds surprisingly consistent, making use of breakdowns that don’t rip the track to shreds but carefully (if at all possible) moves to the next moment. Oddly enough “Apologies” in its briefness becomes the most straightforward song on record. The pattern somewhat continues in doomsday tension of “Nothing to Forget” until halfway through the beast of a track gets surprisingly beautiful in violin backed singing, carefully orchestrated in symphonic detail. Though that very breakdown is soon forgotten in as metallic fury swallows the thought whole.
Though not surprising this time round a viola stringed introduction complementing darkened synth tones and drum machine glitches almost feels appropriate for title closing track “Dissociation.” This may very well be the individual swan song that the band has been waiting years to produce. Twenty years onward in an obscure, fringe genre of metal as this one has made The Dillinger Escape Plan leave their mark. The love of the game is still there, with numerous tour dates to follow, though in a calculated decision the end of the Dillinger arc has finally arrived. The band will be touring as always in full support of their Dissociation album, one that expands and bellows like a raging bull. Though it’s just this time round that the album just so happens to be their last.