[rwp-review id=”0″]
Ever since The Dillinger Escape Plan announced their breakup, it’s been nothing more than an emotional rollercoaster for many of the profoundly dedicated fans like myself. Luckily, the New Jersey-based mathcore quintet announced a sixth and final instalment to their studio discography and put the bookmark in the final chapter to consummate their career under the moniker “Dissociation”.
Dissociation cites itself as a revisit to the band’s Irony Is A Dead Scene EP, while experimenting in their own diversely unique form with a handful of different moves the band have made here. Hearing them on a whole different level of going haywire wouldn’t be nearly as close as I could describe. Going onto songs such as Limerant Death, Honey Suckle and Surrogate, Dillinger uses the sharpest extremities to perfect the lunacy that plagues throughout the record.
At the same time, Dillinger would give in to their usual versatile, musical emotive by spicing things up with different perspectives. For instance, Fugue goes on a Nine Inch Nails/Aphex Twin-style crossover where the entirety of the track stays in a non-vocalised condition, followed by clean, echoing and eerie guitar sections towards the end. This would see the return to Dillinger’s frenzy in Low Feels Blvd, which would also include a progressive jazzy lick to its essence halfway through, and then right back to their regular state of psychosis.
While Dillinger is known to have that one song that features an entirely different arrangement of instruments including their gear, Nothing to Forget’s symphonic approach is the first we ever see Dillinger take that kind of step, with Greg Puciato executing a bipolar take on his vocals, going from hysteria to lenient. But when the final song and title track Dissociation kicks in, the orchestra setting returns alongside the drum ‘n’ bass and Aphex Twin personality. Puciato then sings over the beats in a clean, harmonised attitude, where he would eventually pull the curtain at the very end, and calmly tenors the words “Finding a way to die alone”.
Everything regarding the tone and the production quality makes them out to be the perfect item in their crystallised state of grandeur. How they keep everything sounding in a top notch, swift state is incredible, considering the fact that they had Converge guitarist and well-renowned producer Kurt Ballou help bring out the essence that makes Dillinger and Dissonance what they’re supposed to be the end result.
I wouldn’t go so far to say Dissociation is the band’s swansong, as each and every other member intend to continue with different projects. But with this being the final brushstroke for Dillinger’s canvas put on for display in their chaotic, audible louvre, it sets itself as their picturesquely ingenious denouement. That being said, Dissociation’s presence as an LP and as the epic culmination to The Dillinger Escape Plan’s vocation is the most sensitive and enthralling picture-wrap of a masterpiece that anyone can journey through in metal.
