The Dillinger Escape Plan
Dissociation

THE REVIEW

Let me say it, there couldn't be a better end for such an important group as this one, capable of holding their head high throughout their entire career, virtually never failing and keeping the name of the genre they've always loved to propose high.

I indeed find myself reviewing the album of a band now reached its natural conclusion. As strongly emphasized by Greg Puciato (the band's frontman), Dissociation definitively closes the career of the Dillinger Escape Plan. Sad, considering its quality, but true.

For those unfamiliar with the group, they offer a sound inspired by jazz, progressive, and rock, presenting this formula in a heavy key, sometimes adding noise experiments and seasoning everything with a pronounced hardcore vein. It is clear that the protagonists of the tracks are the countless odd times, polyrhythms, key changes, dissonances, harsh vocals, jazz-rooted guitar scores, and any other musical deviations that may cross your mind, all based on a scheme that, though at the verge of schizophrenia, is always omnipresent. Don't worry, after such a description anyone would remain confused. If it can make you feel better, even in this platter recurring elements are not lacking, instead, they are pushed beyond the permissible limit.

As you have well understood, then, madness is the leitmotif of the compositions discussed here. The opener would be enough to reiterate what has just been written, with a possessed Greg Puciato. In case you weren't entirely convinced, you could try listening to tracks like "Wanting Not So Much to as To", "Low Feels Blvd" or one among the author's favorites, "Honeysuckle" (proceed cautiously). Even dubstep finds its place in the instrumental "Fugue". Don't worry too much though, the Dillinger Escape Plan are also capable of offering more intimate and reflective moments, and you will be able to ascertain this with your own ears (assuming you've preserved your eardrums) in "Symptom of Terminal Illness", "Nothing To Forget" and the splendid "Dissociation", which has the task of closing the album and, ideally, the group's career.

Special mention for the excellent production curated by Steve Evetts, capable of giving a crystalline dimension to the band's sound.

It is thus indeed musical madness we're talking about, without a doubt, but in their total unpredictability, they demonstrate full awareness of their means, proposing a work that can be defined as mature. Certainly, we're not talking about an album accessible to all ears, but rather a work to which one must be willing to dedicate part of their time in order to understand the mechanisms hidden behind the complete absence of limits that they, in total recklessness, propose.

Dissociation is the album of complete maturity, it is the total affirmation of what was expressed in the previous and excellent One Of Us Is The Killer and is a conclusion that doesn't leave a bitter taste, but rather perfectly extremizes their style and consecrates them definitively in the pantheon of mathcore groups, closing the circle that began back in 1999 with Calculating Infinity.