Review by UnhinderedbyTalent for Dog Fashion Disco - Adultery (2006)

Not being at all familiar with Mr Bungle and reading the various comments across the Metal Academy forums on this month’s Gateway featured album makes me think I come to Adultery with a less influenced mind in terms of comparators with the aforementioned band. Taken as a standalone release I think that Dog Fashion Disco manage to deliver a clever, multi-faceted and disturbing selection of songs on their sixth full-length. Along the way they encompass various styles of music, both inside and outside of the realm of metal but at the same time still manage to make the release sound challenging in a very bold and distinctly metal manner.

There is an inherent seediness to Adultery both in terms of the actual concept of “adultery” but also in how the record is written and performed. With a consistent application of corny lyrics, brash riffs and dark cabaret-like arrangements, it is an album that tells its story with a well-chewed, bloody and slightly infected tongue-in-cheek narrative. Although on the surface it does not take itself too seriously, there is in fact no neglect of the requirement to interfere with the normal construct of an album and song structures to still provide a very mature themed album. I would argue it is nigh on impossible to listen to the album through once and not feel its sticky, tacky fingers on your ears for days afterwards.

Whether it is through the dark country music overtones of Desert Grave or the deviously tender and creepy pop sensibilities that seep through across most sections, DFD are constantly sharing their wares with the listener. Urgent horns and racing bass lines keep the attention levels sharp throughout the record and changes of pace to bring in sultrier yet no less threatening tempos are more or less sprung on us like they are all part of one ongoing surprise. The constant sense of theatre is so key to the success of the record as it acts as an almost constant reminder of the need for the listener to put themselves in character for full benefit of the listening experience.

The promise from the artwork of something peculiar and at the same time loosely conceptual being contained in the record is more than delivered over fifty minutes of some of the most oddly charming and humorously riveting music I have heard in a long while.