So Much Awesome
This week’s albums all come from favortie’s of the show, even though we have a mixed history with one of them. Happily, I can report that we are not all dissapointed with this releases! The First Impression, however, is another story…
Reviews:
The Dillinger Escape Plan – Dissociation (Party Smasher Inc.)
Red Fang – Only Ghosts (Relapse)
Anciients – Voice from the Void (Season of Mist)
First Impression:
Starkill – “Through the Darkness” taken from Shadow Sleep out November 4th from Prosthetic Records
The Dillinger Escape Plan – Dissociation
Red Fang – Only Ghosts
Anciients – Voice Of The Void
The Sideshow Podcast 
I wouldn’t say I didn’t have a problem with Fugue. I agree it doesn’t fit and that it was the main thing that screwed up the flow of the first half the album. They have dabbled with those sounds in the past but I don’t recall there ever being a full song. If they wanted to include it, it should have been towards the end of the album. I guess the reason I (I won’t speak for nick) didn’t harp on it so much is that the rest of the album more than made up for it. – Brian
What’s also interesting is that the band has already noted they had a bunch more songs that could have pushed this to a double album. So that begs the question – why was Fugue picked over any of those?
As for Allegaeon, I finally put it on again yesterday, toward the end of the work day. I was enjoying it more, but it still wasn’t greatly exciting me (I am gonna partially blame the end of the work day too). However, I did check where I was at some point and saw I had about half the album left and was like, “damn this thing is long!” I’ll continue to try it, but I still can’t put my finger on why I am not in love with them.
That’s a good point about Dillinger having more songs than they released on the album. I forget that bands often record more material than they intend to release on an album. So the only explanations I can come up with for including “Fugue” on Dissociation are that the band wanted to appeal to a wider audience or that the wanted to make a statement. They might have wanted to appeal to “the kids” who like this new-fangled modern day electronica (which is what it was called in my day). Or they might be saying that they like that kind of music and want to try to stretch the boundaries of what could be considered metal. Because as you point out, they could have easily replaced “Fugue” with another mathcore song and nobody would have complained.
I’m with you guys on Dissociation by Dillinger Escape Plan. I have one additional comment and one bone to pick. My comment is that on the album, I detect a bit of a Mastodon influence specifically on the songs “Symptom of Terminal Illness” and “Honeysuckle.” Both songs have a somewhat proggy feel to them that remind me of Mastodon. Maybe I’m reading too much into the fact that two members of Dillinger are in side projects with two members of Mastodon (Killer Be Killed and Giraffe Tongue Orchestra), but I can’t help but hear the influence when listening to those songs.
As for a bone to pick, that would be with the song “Fugue.” In no way, shape, or form is this song metal. I can’t exactly say that I’m familiar with EDM (other than knowing what the letters stand for), so I’ll take your word for it that this song is EDM. But I do know that this song doesn’t fit in the context of this album. Smack dab in the middle of some crazy, spastic mathcore we get the bleeps and bloops of “Fugue.” Then in the second half of the song we get some barely audible low bass notes. What’s up with that? If that’s your cup of tea, that’s fine. But my bone to pick is that you guys didn’t seem to have a problem with “Fugue” yet you had a problem with Allegaeon unplugging their electric guitar for a few minutes on “Proponent for Sentience” and going acoustic. At least Allegaeon is still playing a guitar. Who knows what Dillinger is doing on “Fugue.”