Disintegration of Thought Patterns During a Synthetic Mind Traveling Bliss

American Dripping is much more known in the underground in the Internet time. However, this is quite good information, because we are talking about an original, very technical and brutalized band, and I have the impression that it was largely overlooked at the time of its debut. Their beginnings date back to 1999, when they were still operating under the name Cadaverment, consisting of Tom Keiffer (bass), Bruce Moallem (drums), Sebastian Russo (guitars) and Joe Lornicz (vocals), playing garage, brutal death metal. A year later, the name was changed to Dripping, along the way a slightly different, more professional style was developed and demos, an ep and a compilation were released, and finally, in 2002, in a three-person line-up (Bruce added vocals in the studio), the official debut of this band was released - "Disintegration Of Thought Patterns During A Synthetic Mind Traveling Bliss". And the title itself reveals what an unconventional look at brutal death metal this album will have.

Because on the one hand, the brutality of Dripping's performance puts them close to the sounds of Deeds Of Flesh, Suffocation, Disgorge (American, not Mexican!) and Devourment, but on the other, "Disintegration Of Thought Patterns..." contains a large number of unusual/crazy/deviating solutions that assign this band into other, much more demanding and ambiguous areas. Dripping's debut is a piece of advanced extreme music for all those who accept musical extremes and have already heard some such music in their lives. "Disintegration Of Thought Patterns..." contains elements that, at first contact, may seem terribly overdone and impossible to get through - which sounds a bit funny, considering the album's short format, only 21 minutes long. Strangely enough, Dripping's extremes make sense and show that they can work together very well.

Overall, this is a weird but great album. Apart from technical perfection and catchy, slam breakdowns, "Disintegration Of Thought Patterns..." features rare and quite extravagant ideas. Spoken vocals, keyboard passages, reverbs and random volume up, soprano singing, cosmic inserts, computer rhythms (something à la hip-hop) and flamenco guitar ideas are just part of this explosive mix and it's nothing that is commonly associated with brutal death metal. And I know that for some it will be too much, and for others it will be a betrayal of extreme ideals, but Dripping's weirdness works great. First of all, the Americans found these additions very original and it sounds like they had a lot of fun with them, and they blend very naturally in metal parts of this material - crushing and creative. Take a look at "Within Myself", "Through The Storm", "Escape Into Orbital Infinity" and "Reflecting Identities" how they crush with hurricane blasts, slam breakdowns, Demilich/Lykathea Aflame guttural vocals (although the screamed ones aren't bad either), technical riffs and progressive inserts.

There is only one important thing - the album's duration is definitely too short, which I have already mentioned. In just about twenty minutes, before you start listening to it thoroughly, the material is almost finished - and in addition, album time is filled with non-metal elements. Also, you can complain about the slightly plonky production, but it does not disturb the overall readability and does not kill the heaviness of the guitars. Overall, Dripping created an extremely intriguing and difficult to imitate look at brutal death metal on their debut album. Still original to this day and perfect for fans of more famous Cephalic Carnage, Wormed and the newer face of Afterbirth.

Originally on A bit of subjectivism...in metal

Dripping is a very unique band within the world of slamming brutal death metal band. Only releasing very few things before going on a 20-21 year hiatus. Only now returning to the scene last year in 2023. Regardless this band is very popular for their odd style of slam with experimental tendencies. They only have one album which is “Disintegration of Thought Patterns During a Synthetic Mind Traveling Bliss”. It is 21 minutes of some of the weirdest yet heaviest slam I’ve ever heard.

First off let’s talk about the overall musical performance and approach. This album is very experimental and technical. With some slams and breakdowns coming out of complete nowhere at times. There’s also a lot of ambiance and samples thrown into the mix. Cutting out the music entirely or cutting straight into a slam or a breakdown to catch you off guard. When I first heard this album I was utterly floored by how weird yet ungodly intense the music is. The riffs just have this bizarre feeling and are written in such an odd way that it makes this record stand out. Nobody and I mean NOBODY sounds like this.

There are a lot of elements and flavors being thrown in here. For instance, there are a lot of different scrams and gurgles being presented here. There isn't anything one-dimensional about the vocals. Sometimes they’re layered or have a trade-off. It’s a very bombastic and chaotic listen that might be overwhelming at first because nothing stays still for a long period of time. The music is constantly technical and changing riffs and sections. Making this thing unpredictable in its nature.

The drumming is one of the best aspects of the album. The blast beats are ungodly fast-paced and are technically impressive. It’s mind-blowing how fast and precise they are yet having this feeling of uncontrollable energy. The same can be said for everything on this album. Even with the violent, random, and unpredictable nature of the music. It’s very well written and has a wide variety of blistering sections and tempos. No matter how fast or slow they are. The breakdowns are where the drums reach their heaviest. Especially when they’re bass-boosted.

The album is a quick snap to the neck and is immediately finished right after you hit okay. With 21 minutes the band packed so many sounds and noises that is crazy how fast the album flows and seems to end. Because it feels much longer than 21 minutes. It doesn’t overstay its welcome and doesn’t have a moment of filler. Not one section in my eyes is boring or placed just for the sake of being crazy. Things are placed randomly because they fit the song.

The production of this album is surprisingly well done. It’s drenched in rawness don’t get me wrong. But I genuinely hear each riff and instrument very well. The drums are loud and animalistic sounding, the bass sounds very good and nasty, and the guitars have an extremely thick tone to them. This album has a lot of rhythm and groove and doesn’t constantly retreat to a slam like most generic slam bands do. The band always has a new riff or section to spice things up.

The guitars are really fucking nasty and unhinged. There is so much technical riffing going on and fast-picked chugs. The guitars always have an intense feeling to them, sometimes slowing down to create a heavy slam while the drums continue blasting away. There are a lot of wacky solos and sweeps and tapping going on here. The slams are not overdone and are placed perfectly throughout the album. That way they come out of nowhere and catch you completely off guard. Melting your face off with its brutality and unapologetic attitude. There’s so much groove as well, and it flows together perfectly.

This album is pure insanity. With Dripping now playing shows again I’m curious to see if any new material will come out. But if it doesn’t I won’t be disappointed. Because this album is a great one-off. It’s unique, heavy, technical, and groovy. Containing so many elements that could make the album sound weird or messy. Yet everything is played and done perfectly even though some of the samples or ambiance might sound weird. If you’re looking for an extremely tight and heavy slam album. That’ll machine gun you down with unpredictable riffs and breakdowns. This album is for you. Fantastic shit.

Dripping were a very short lived band out of Clifton, New Jersey. The band originally formed under the name "Cadaverment" but eventually switched to Dripping after only releasing two demos. In the span of 2 years, the band would release one album and two EP's which would really define their strange but unique style.

A cool fact about the band members is that they originally were influenced by rap and still managed to birth one of the heaviest and strangest albums of their kind. The "experimental" aspect of the band is derived from their interesting and strange use of samples. Some of the samples they use are extremely bizarre. They're either ambient noises which sometimes fit with the theme, small portions of rap or pop songs or just completely random shit ranging from melodic instrumentals to part of an interview. It's really bizarre, but it's also interesting.

The slams are indescribable, heavy is too small of a word to describe it. Another unique thing about this album are the emphasis on the drums during the slams. There's some sort of bass boost added onto the drums, which just makes everything a million times more brutal. These aren't even the ordinary, shitty, boring slams that modern slam bands do, these slams are on the level of Devourment heavy and are actually interesting.

Probably the most outstanding part about this album are the vocals. They remind me a lot of Cryptopsy, except more guttural. There are two separate guys doing the screams and gutturals and god damn, they fit together perfectly. Sebastian Russo does the gutturals and they sound like some sort of frog-amphibian monster straight out of horror movie, and the other guy doing the screams sounds like a deranged motherfucker who's about to massacre an entire family. Jesus Christ, the slam in 1:30 in the song Within Myself is a perfect example of the insane vocal work. An absolute skull crushing riff plays which is already heavy on its own plays, and Sebastian Russo does a long garggly growl while the other guy does insane screams.

There's really nothing to hate about this album, probably my only complaint are some of the sample choices which are just downright hideous and excruciatingly painful to listen to sometimes.

It really pains me to say this, because brutal death metal is always seen as somewhat of an underdog as far as the extreme metal community is concerned, but this album is one of only a handful of brutal death metal albums I'd actually consider to be pretty overrated. I don't mean overrated within the brutal death metal scene (pretty much everything is overrated by the BDM community as a whole, because none of the fans have anything resembling quality control), but even the metal community as a whole seemingly reveres this album like it were a collaborative Manilla Road/Iron Maiden/Bolt Thrower supergroup. Don't get me wrong, this is a really good album which borders on great, but I get the feeling that a lot of the people who enjoy it do so because they fixate on superficial elements which hardly hold up under scrutiny.

The core of the music here is, indeed, really good. Disintegration of Thought Patterns During a Synthetic Mind Traveling Bliss was released before slam really became A Thing, so to speak, so it's not as prone to tropes that would befall the style later, like deathcore influences or Abominable Putridity-styled slams or other unnecessary elements. Dripping are an East Coast band, which of course gives them an expected added level of catchiness - it’s even arguable that, given their relatively early arrival within the BDM scene, Dripping were a large influence on that region and are possibly the reason why so many New Jerseyan bands to this very day are so ridiculously good at writing slower parts. Dripping's slams aren't really designed to crush the listener, but they are ridiculously catchy. While most East Coast bands are good at mid-paced, hardcore-influenced groovy slams, Dripping's slams are more akin to what's essentially a very stripped-down Devourment. The guitar tone isn't particularly imposing, which gives the band's slams a strangely staccato feeling, like they're creeping and slithering wherever they go.

While I usually like it best when brutal death metal bands back up their slams with heaping amounts of blasts on the kick pedals, Dripping only use said blasts sparingly and are surprisingly no worse for wear because of it. Disintegration of Thought Patterns During a Synthetic Mind Traveling Bliss knows it's not the heaviest thing in the world and doesn't really try to be, so the light, mildly creepy but otherwise docile slams are mostly backed up by swinging, quirky little beats and only really go into full streams of bass pedal when the music starts to get agonizingly slow. The overall effect, as I've said, isn't exactly heavy, but it's catchy and interesting to listen to. Dripping's "creepy" vibes when slamming are helped along by the abnormally prominent bass guitar, which frequently pokes out of the depths of the mix to emphasize key melodies. The tone is nice and twangy, and the melodies actually sound pretty cool and eerie with the bass backing them up and putting a bit of punch behind them.

The riffs present here are ridiculously fast spikes of churning, tornadic tremolo backed up with ridiculously fast gravity blasts, like random bits of a 1990s Cryptopsy song, and it's probably the addition of these that allows most normal people to stomach this album for a longer period of time than they can usually tolerate your average everyday slam album. The melodies are malevolent and spiraling without being disjointed or pointless, and are a lot more memorable than most slam bands' attempts at riffs. There's also a lot of distorted, high-pitched, probably improvised weedling that lurks around corners like a ghost in a haunted house, exploding in bits of frenzied spasms when the listener least expects it.

I guess that's the big thing about this album - nothing's really about the heaviness, or the blunt force of the elements used. It's about as atmospherically-based as slam death metal can get, with the whole album just kind of whisking by you as you listen to it instead of punching you in the face. The band make the best of the rather weak and thin guitar tone in this way, since it sounds more suiting for creeping and slithering than it does for slamming (though I'd still prefer a more bass-heavy approach if I had a say in the matter). The vocals also work pretty well for this as well - the two primary modes of communication are low, gurgled purrs and harsh, wailing screams; the band also use a bit of weird spoken word every now and then. None of the three styles is particularly spectacular by itself, so what do the band do? Throw a bit of an echo over each of them and spread them out over the staccato slams, and voila - you've got some legitimately agonized vocals going on here, like someone cracking open the door to a quarantined cesspool and just letting the noises inside permeate the air.

And then the samples... *sigh* Dripping's samples actually kind of piss me off more than they normally would because of how the average listener will perceive them. People call Dripping "experimental" over this shit, and based on a description of it you would expect some sort of brutal death metal sonata, right? Alas, the samples are heavily disconnected from the music itself, usually serving as intros or interludes within songs rather than being firmly integrated into the meat of the music. The band don't really adapt their sound to fit whatever sample last played, either: as good as the music is, the band are still definitely playing the same sort of Cryptopsy-plus-Devourment stuff no matter whether the last sample was hip-hop, ambience or movie dialogue. The end result doesn't make the music feel "varied" or "experimental", it just feels disjointed. This isn't really helped by the fact that, all things considered, the songs don't really have any coherent sense of flow - the individual riffs and slams are all good, of course, but the songs essentially restart every time the band shift from slams to riffs and vice versa, to the point where I'm almost hesitant to call them "songs" proper.

This essentially makes Disintegration of Thought Patterns During a Synthetic Mind Traveling Bliss an album of moments rather than songs, but I don't want that to completely discredit this album's reputation. It's overrated, sure (though that might as well be because it's one of the most well-known Slam Albums for People Who Don't Like Slam™), but there's at least a logical basis for it - the album is catchy, riffy, unique and fun to immerse yourself in it for a while. I willingly paid $45 to own a CD copy of this; suffice to say it's pretty fucking good, and as long as you don't delude yourself into believing that Dripping were super geniuses as opposed to just solid musicians, you should definitely check this out.

I've always loved the avant-garde side of music and metal in particular. From the deranged tremolo picked wall of sound of Portal, to Mithras's angular and at the same time spacey sound, to Unexpect's classically charged musical revolving door and to later Gorguts's hyper-dissonant torture trips. So, when I looked these guys up and saw the reviews, I rushed to get my hands on it.

The closest thing I can compare this to is Traumatic Voyage. At some points, it has the same frantic chaotic feel, using rapid tremolo runs in an old school style. Unfortunately, it never uses the faster riffs for more than a split second before shifting to the bulk of the album, slam death metal. The slam portion of the album is about as generic as you can think of; you have your bass drops, single note chug riffs that go on for long periods of time, and syncopated drumming. At times, it gets you into a truly bone-crushing grove, but the problem is that every song is littered with these slam portions. It's kind of like how core bands misuse breakdowns, it's not intense if there is literally no buildup between the breakdowns and the breakdowns make up the majority of the songs. In other words, they present a lot of interesting ideas but they never develop them before resorting to slam sections. They aren’t even really excellent slams, like the kind Malignancy does on both of their albums.

What sets this album apart is the samples. There is a very unique selection of samples, and not just the horror movie type clips you see commonly in this type of music. You have operatic vocals over a classical piano part, electronic beeping, acoustic guitars, what sounds like a rap back beat, echoing voices and whispers, and part of a random interview. Now, some of the samples are quite effective in creating an out of this world type feel, but others just don't fit with the music and break the flow of the songs. As I said before, if they bulked up on standard death metal riffs, the samples would combine with them to create an effective crescendo. Instead, the slam riffs drag the album into the mud, making it at times extremely boring to listen to even though it only lasts around 20 minutes.

The production in this album is very fitting, with the guitar having a fuzzy, razor sharp tone except during the slam parts where it gains a bit of bulk. The bass climbs out of the mix every once in a while, and it provides a great counterpoint to the faster guitar parts. The drums remain fairly simple, though at times very rapid blast beats and double pass come into play, and they are very high in the mix with a high-pitched and thin tone. As far as the vocals, they have two kinds which are completely opposed in terms of quality. The first most predominant type is an ultra-guttural vocal that is sustained with no variation, to be honest I can't even hear him annunciate the words in the song, it really is as guttural as you can get without pitch shifting. The second type of vocal is a raspy combination of a grindcore and black metal scream, which does sharply punctuate the lyrics unfortunately this is used sparingly with the drain cleaner like vocals dominating the album. Overall the album has a thin but cavernous sound that fits the concept of the album well. This band does have a lot of potential and at times are a very enjoyable product, but they really aren't anything that will blow you away. Just don't come to the table expecting it to melt your mind and turn it inside out, and you will find a solid, if inconsistent album of slamming brutal death.

I have no idea where to start here, since this is my first review, so I’m just going to say that this CD is most defiantly, my favorite CD that I own. The overall tone of this album is so heavy and brutal with its slamming riffs, dual vocals and personally, my favorite aspect, the bass drops. I’m not much of a musician so I will not go into the musicianship of this album; instead, I will say, that I do think they are well done on this album and leave it at that.

I do think the slams can seem a bit uncreative and not very unique, but don’t let that fool you, they are still just as brutal as any slam riff from Devourment, Condemned (US) or Infernal Revulsion. Along with the disgusting guttural vocals, the slams tend to fit in with the songs very nicely.

With that, I will move on to the vocals. They are an amazing conjunction of very unique guttural, gurgle-y vocals with screams. I personally think the screams aren’t that amazing, but I’m not much of a fan of screams in general. They do help break up the monotonous feeling I get with some bands, on a positive note. The gutturals, on the other hand, are simply astounding. They are completely natural, I believe, very unique, one-of-a-kind and are just simply disgusting!

Last but not least, the bass drops. It is very appropriate that Dripping uses them since, from what I have heard, the members are heavily influenced by rap, which nobody could tell by listening to this. They seem to fit exquisitely with the beginning of their slams seems to add to the overall brutality of their work in a way I cannot begin to explain.

This album deserves nothing below a 90%, in my opinion, but not a 100% only due the small things including their less-than-perfect screams, and the fact that without the sometimes random samples, I wouldn’t be able to tell the songs apart. This album is still undoubtedly my favorite album of all time. It was a bitch trying to find it, and I highly recommend grabbing it if given the chance people.

This is one of my favorite CD’s, it is the type of album where when everything looks as though it is failing and when you get home at night you feel like fucking dying or killing some one, sit down with this CD and some drugs, eat them, and be ready to have your thought patterns dissolved in a synthetic mind traveling bliss. It is like a trip to another world altogether, even without the drugs. The entire CD has a heavy atmosphere that unveils itself in the first 10 seconds of the CD, and then just sucks you in for the ride, and you will just notice that you have not moved for the duration of the CD, and then just put it on repeat. It is just that amazing. The sound is superb, although I think the drums are way too loud and I have trouble hearing the other instruments at times, but mostly they manage to deliver it real hard.
This is a studio album and there are many extra tracks, weird samples and sound effects as well as crazy intros and outros for all of you freaks out there, and there is even a rap beat for roughly 10 seconds in there as well. There are some nice acoustic guitar tracks, but mostly this album is crazy off the wall, million-riffed death/grind. I would be very interested in the Dripping experience live, for outside of the studio this album must sound entirely different. All of the tracks are fucked with, nothing is just straight up, these guys must have made their sound guy commit suicide, either that or he lives with them or some shit, because this is just unbelievable studio work. To make a long story short, if you like death metal, you should get this.

If metal can be comparable to a religion, this cd just might be the bible. In my opinion, this album is extremely, extremely well written - note the emphasis. I can confidently say that I know this album better than the back of my hand. Who would have thought that it took a couple of guys with hip hop and R&B background to come up with such a masterpiece? The album has to be listened from beginning to end and in order; the whole cd flows. It tells a story if you will; a journey taken by the mind. They even included a voice clip of Bruce Lee, which if you listen to carefully sets the whole mood for the album. I'm not going to go into the meaning of the album since that is only what I have personally interpreted and may vary from person to person.

Although they are not one of those overly technical metal bands, their songs do contain rhythm changes laced with memorable, but not repetitive, riffs. The low chugging guitars and fast blast beats may give the impression of a typical death metal band but do not be mistaken. There is much more to this album than appears. Look past the fact that breakdowns have been way overdone by metal bands and listen without bias; rarely, if ever, have i heard breakdowns constructed and integrated so well into songs. Just to give you an idea of the range of the album, there are sections - although very minimum but that makes it that much more powerful - of dance music, opera, single blasts of explosion throughout the cd to emphasis climax, as well as an acoustic interlude. Now I must say something about the drumming. No drum machines nor triggers; it is absolutely fantastic. While he does play blast beats, he incorporates them into grooves without overuse. It is not constant; it is not forced. The drumming enhances the music with accents at appropriate times.

Honestly, I cannot think of anything bad about this album. As lame as it sounds, for what they were trying to do and the musical journey you embark on, I am left with only one word: perfection.

Ah, now here we have a band with possibly the coolest name ever holding responsibility for my favorite album next to Gut's Odour of Torture and Dead Infection's A Chapter of Accidents. That there may tell you something if you enjoy either of the aforementioned bands. Best of all, I bought this blindly.
I didn't know this place existed at the time, and couldn't find a single review for Dripping, anyway, but since I'm very simple, and the album title/band name was cool, I felt obligated to lay down six bucks.
Geez, I never get tired of this album. It just kicks so much ass.
Why?
1.) The vocals (both styles) are top notch. One is this ultra guttural drainage suction noise, and the other is a high pitched inhuman shriek.
2.) The drums have a really bizzare machine gun sound and amazingly aren't a drum machine. Not because they're godlessly fast (although they are pretty damn fast) but because they have an extremely robotic sound quality. Hmm... maybe that wasn't the right comparison. Oh well.
3.) The guitar is sharp all hell. At some points, it sounds like a big cartoonish drill is being plowed into my skull... other times, it goes into a big meaty breakdown that grooves you into a coma.
4.) The bass is... who am I kidding? I don't have any ear for bass.
5.) Then there are those samples. They must have scoured the board for quite a while to pick out the most irrelevant yet somehow awesome sample set. The best part of this is that they're strewn throughout the music with an almost militaristic precision. Not the stereotypical goregrind formula.
The only reason this gets ten points shaved off is because it can become kinda repetitive. If you ignore that, though, it's really a great album.
I can't recall the song title at the moment, but there's this one breakdown that never leaves my subconcious. It's just that awesome.

This is quite an unusual and unique item. On one hand, there is some of the most bassy, downright heavy guitar sounds I've heard, I think the microphones that were used to capture this were pushed right to the limit, sometimes you can hear the odd pop where the attack is probably too much for the diaphragm to take. Alongside this is the vocals that sound like an overfilled and longtime blocked toilet being flushed for the hundredth time, and some interesting, kind of jazzy drumwork. On the other hand is a bunch of the weirdest samples, beeps and other noise oddities that are just jumbled in, higgeldy-piggeldy, in some cases to great effect, and in others just plain confusingly. The CD runs for about 18 minutes, in which time there is certainly enough Devourment style slam riffs to get anybody whipped into a frenzy. Some fans of the ultra brutal end of the spectrum will probably get annoyed by the extra samples that happen quite regularly. Perhaps this is the only thing that lets it down. While being the markedly original assetof this release, along with the unchecked heaviness, I'm not too sure if it really works. In some cases, the tricks have been pulled off to provide interesting juxtapositions along the tracks, but the misses are much more noticeable. There is also a quite bad acoustic ('classical' according to the inlay) guitar track, that isn't as good as something Broken Hope might have done. When I don't mind listening to something that deviates from being metal, this is great to listen to though. On a side-note, the artwork is quite impressive, with some interting computer graphics.