This album has been heralded as potentially the final DEP record, and it’s somewhat incredible to reflect that they’ve been going for nearly two decades. Previous album One Of Us Is The Killer was as unrelenting as their legendarily intense stage show, but even on opener Limerent Death, it’s clear this is a different monster. Wanting Not So Much As To calls to 2004’s Miss Machine – technical and frantic, but not without nuance, while its spoken-word ending lends it an experimental air.
Fugue’s trip-hop turn recalls the glitch electronica found on their 2007 opus Ire Works, while thrashy Manufacturing Discontent and stomping Nothing To Forget showcase the band at their metallic and melodic best. Assertions of jazz tendencies have generally been pretty tenuous in the past. On Low Feels Blvd, however, there’s an inspired middle eight of a full jazz-fusion takeover, complete with horn section. It’s stunning, especially when normal service is resumed in a flurry of guitar stabs and virtuoso drumming. Modern prog rock is a broad church, yet within its walls there have been few bands as brazenly progressive as the DEP in the last two decades. They will be missed.
