Every year or so, Transcending Obscurity releases an album I won’t shut up about — one I want all my friends to hear so I’m not alone in talking about it. Last year, despite landing what many would consider to be on the lower end of my list, I was keenly obsessed with Floating’s Hesitating Lights, an album that blew my mind with how off kilter it was. This year, continuing the trend of “whatever weird shit Hera’s into these days”, I want to introduce everyone to my favorite strange album of the year: Defect Designer‘s newest full-length, Depressants.

There are no words to describe how – excuse my French – fucking bonkers this album is. On a first listen, it impressed me immediately with how similar it sounded to other strange bands I have come to love in my life. From the vocal leanings of Sigh to the Diablo Swing Orchestra-like sonic aesthetics, Depressants sweeps the floor with your conventions of the avant-garde and has no thematic anchor except to show the listener a good time. Want female vocals that sound like they’re coming from the nearest den of debauchery? Look no further than “Body Count Of My Cow Tail”! Want to hide a delightful Easter egg in one of your most punishing tracks? Listen to “Carte Blanche”! Want to experience one of the strangest ways to appreciate hardcore? “I Heard Robespierre Screamed Like A Bitch” has you covered.

This album overflows with weird death metal that speaks to my avant-garde soul, infused with the most interesting sonic influences I can pick out from the smorgasbord of metal that Defect Designer has delivered. So many times I thought Defect Designer had finally exhausted their bag of tricks, and then they would transition to another set of music that didn’t sound like anything before it. Defect Designer reached into the abyss of death metal, gave it some jazz a la Backengrillen, and stretched the definition of avant-garde until everything sounds like everything at once. It’s prog death, it’s swing, it’s hardcore – it’s an amalgamation of things that should not work and yet this band created one of the most sonically interesting “prog death” albums this year.

I might say this a lot, but avant-garde prog death rarely finds nuance within its own composition. You will see what I mean in a bit.

Now, despite my praise, Depressants does have one issue. While some may think it might be the track structure and the way the overall musical themes seem to be disparate and disorganized, my main issue is how front-heavy the album is. Although the set-up feels intentional, especially with how “heavy” the first three tracks are, the first half is such a fun ride that the second half’s gradual fade is genuinely disappointing. Keeping the energy going is difficult, especially when your runtime is closer to an hour, but I think it would have been better if Depressants had its more energetic tracks spread throughout the album. For reference, think of the way Sigh structured Graveward: although not in the same genre, the album is off-kilter, but it has made sure that its experimental nature still had fuel in the tank to end with the fun and trumpet-heavy “Dwellers In A Dream”. In turn, “Wrong Future Forecast” is a great closer for an album of this weight and experimentation, surprising the listener with how orchestral (read: wall of sound) and heavy it gets. However, you might be tired (or put off) by the time you get to “As The Terracotta Dust Settles”. Like I said, it’s a whirlwind of a doozy.

Although this album may have some issues that are part of its composition and ingenuity, Depressants still kicks ass. If you know me, then you know that I like my death metal to be melodic, unhinged, and adventurous. I want my death metal to surprise me, but I also want it to be enjoyable, which tends to be difficult when the avant-garde is involved. It’s difficult to find a balance: the death metal needs to be aggressive and fast, but the avant-garde elements can easily bleed through too much. It either becomes too experimental or not interesting in terms of thematics, which may cause many to bail before the end of the album. However, I found Depressants strikes that balance in spades, and I had such a great time that I immediately knew it was landing on one of my lists. What a great year for avant-garde prog death!

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Depressants is available May 15 on Transcending Obscurity Records. For more information on Defect Designer, please visit their official Facebook and Instagram.