One of my favorite albums of all time! Man, it's seriously hard for me not to gush about how awesome I think this album is, but Symbols, Signals, And Noise has got to be one of the most ferocious, crushing, and adventuorus crustcore albums ever released. Formed in 1992, Disassociate merged ridiculously brutal metallic hardcore, grind, Discharge-style thrash, sludge, weird samples and swirling spacey electronic noise into a nuclear assault that to this day is impossible to compare to any other band. Live, they were a like an LSD fueled psychotropic blast vision, setting up multiple TV sets on stage that transmitted strobing images of neon pot leafs and pentagrams, and the band would sometimes come out in luchador masks or other headgear. Disassociate's burly dreadlocked singer Ralphie Boy possessed one of the most monstrous grindcore roars ever, too. I've seen these guys a bunch, and every show had them storming through walls of chaotic blastbeats, ripping thrash and doomy sludge. So awesome. Yet as blasting and brutal and sludgy as Disassociate got, they were also one of the catchiest grindcore bands ever, which is exemplified with their 1998 full-length Symbols, Signals & Noise. Hands down one of my favorite albums ever, this fifteen-track rager is right up there with Brutal Truth's best in terms of catchiness, heaviness, and experimentation that completely works. These songs are immense: "Blood In My Eye" has one of the most infectious breakdown riffs of all time, and a grooving chorus that is instantly unforgettable, and elsewhere the band launches into ultra catchy hardcore punk that has some of the greatest hooks you'll ever hear from a grind band. The last track on the album is a contorted dum n' bass remix of "Blood In My Eye", and it fuckin' kills. Totally essential.

This was the band's second album, and in my mind is their undisputed masterpiece. This LP is out of print to the best of my knowledge, but we just scored these in a warehouse find. Highly recommended.