THE BEST OF ANTIDEPRESSIVE DELIVERY

Oh! What´s a surprise I have found here, interestingly, in sub genre "Tech/Extreme Prog Metal"! By the way, it´s a mistake probably - these guys are no metallists without doubts! So far from tech or extreme! They plays Vintage Prog in the vein of Deep Purple, Black Bonzo, Bigelf etc.

There are few reasons to pay attention to the album "The Best Of Antidepressive Delivery":

1. In despite the name, this is not a collection, but full-value studio record. I think it´s a joke at the hands of group.

2. Entire album is available to free download on band´s official site. Isn´t it good, especially today?

3. The music is a classical case of "nomen omen". It´s straight, uncomplicated, quite optimistic, bravurally played, with a fresh "Northern wind" scent. What can an ordinary depressionist to wish more?

4. The album is short, 41 minutes, also all tracks are relative short except the final (and the best) song "Alive", almost 14 min. long . But that´s a question: is a length good or bad?

Four stars because previous ADD album was certainly stronger.

A great Lifekeeper album.

Anti-Depressive Delivery is a relatively new blues rock/prog rock fusion, making an excellent case for a heavy prog band. This album, oddly named "The Best of..." isn't a compilation at all, but I guess does encompass some great music, so maybe it is their best...? The band combines a delightful mix of Hammond organ, slightly distorted bass, bluesy guitar, steady drum lines, and a delightful bluesy singer, too. This album is a short little 42 minute display of some fantastic throwbacks to the heavy prog bands of the 70s, featuring 6 killer tracks.

In Pine is a very strong opener. Opening with some simple guitar work before melding in with some bass and synth riffing, the song has a steady head bobbing rhythm and a catchy melody. The great synchronization between the Hammond and the guitar is a really nice sound reminiscent of those signature bands back in the 70s mixed with some modern herbs and spices. The song has a strong blues influence, mixed with a great hard rock and prog influence to make a great tone for the rest of the album. The track opens strong for an overall very strong album.

Glasses is a harder rocking track. It has a more serious tone that its predecessor, and a quicker more deliberate feel. The melody is infectious and, well, melodic. The singer in this band has such a great voice, really making any melody catchy and well developed. Each part in the band plays his part, whether its keeping the fantastic rhythm, filling out the music with chords, or helping push along the epic proggy breakdown leading to a keys solo that is really great, which really pushes that prog influence.

Lifekeeper, as I implied in my first line, is one of my favorite tracks on the album. It really has such a great dynamic and feel rather than just straight on blues rock. Over time this track has really grown on me. It has a really chill mood to it, keeping a more psychedelic sound with some really Richard Wright sounding backing keyboard layering. The melodies are powerful and emotional and compassionate. Overall, the track has one of the bets overall feels on the album.

Goodbye is a little ballad with a chill and funky sound. The song has a much less prog or even blues but more melopop ballad feel. The guitar work is nice, and the vocals are very emotional and compassionate.

True Love brings back that bluesy rock that we heard in the first track. It also mixes in some great hard rock influences and proggy dynamics. The Hammond-guitar duo again has a great sound, as well as the sax that's mixed in. The melody is again really catchy and emotional. The instrumental section features some fantastic soloing and really great bluesy instrumentation. Overall, this is another really great track on this fantastic and dynamic album.

Alive is the 13 minute epic of the album. Obviously prog from its length, the song is one of the best on the album. Featuring many different styles, from blues to psychedelic to hard rock to prog to so much more, the song is the most dynamic on the album on the album. Some of the parts are sweeping and melodic, others crunching and epic, others bluesy and sweet; the song is able to effortlessly weave together countless styles into a wonderful piece of music enjoyable by virtually any rock music listener.

ALBUM OVERALL: An excellent blues rock/prog crossover, with countless other styles sprinkled in for a tasty mix of modern music and classic throwbacks. Anti-Depressive Delivery has really created a gem here. The album has such a chill sound to it, being able to mix sounds from bands such as The Rolling Stones and Lynyrd Skynyrd and then bands like Rush, Uriah Heep and Pink Floyd into a brand of music that is unique and highly enjoyable. The music can a little cheesy at times, but other than that there are very few flaws in the entire album. The album definitely grows on you, for the first time I listened to it I hated it, and now I love it! 4+ stars.

Norwegian band ANTIDEPRESSIVE DELIVERY was formed back in 2002, initially exploring a metal-oriented sound on their first production "Feel Melt Release" in 2004. Since then they have opted for a less aggressive sound, taking on more of a classic hard prog sound for their 2008 disc "Chain of Foods". "The Very Best of Antidepressive Delivery" is their latest effort, and was self-released in the spring of 2010.

I do have a hard time finding a good description of the music on "The Very Best of Antidepressive Delivery", but have eventually fallen back on the somewhat generic. This is sophisticated music with art rock aspirations, sporting top-notch vocal and instrumental contributions, good songs and very good production, so those looking for faults and flaws will be left disappointed. Recommended to those who like 70's-inspired, well-made, quality rock and progressive rock, in particular if you enjoy an album covering plenty of musical ground. And the digital version has, incidentally, been made available for free from the band's website.

The joyous nature of this band comes alive.

The Best Of AntiDepressive Delivery is a vintage Heavy Prog album, with 70's hard - rock instrumentation accompanied by warm vocals. Lyrics throughout the album are written about everyday experiences and problems like growing up and being rejected, (unfortunately) tapping into the audience.

This album starts off strong with two great songs, "In Pine" and "Glasses", giving you an impressive insight to the band's sound and how the remaining album with unfold. "In Pine" creeps upon the listen with strong, punchy Hammond with basic guitar interludes. During the melodious bridge, you get a sense of the powerful harmonies these Norwegian guys have, contrasting the 70's rock sound of the previous sections and clasping the heart. Along with the vocals you have some soft, minimal keys and a beautiful guitar work providing the melody. "Glasses" is one of my favorite tracks off this album. The guitar has a lessened impression on this song, but it is just replaced with a tasty drum groove and climaxes that are filled with bass licks. The song is great until half way, where it only gets better. Like being on a roller coaster, the first 2 minutes are just getting to the top of that huge, distant drop. The songs now drags you through some bass tension, an admirable keyboard solo, then a short but adequate guitar solo.

"Lifekeeper" is a longer track compared to the two previous songs, at only 8 minutes. The song is home to the best balance of both instrumentation and the great vocals. It also is more aimed at a softer atmosphere, never really getting the Deep Purple vibe like the other tracks. The lyrics seem to depict God as almost as a deceiving and playful figure, and telling the tale of man's journey to his realm. The music serves as an auditory representation of this voyage - eventually climaxing with more keyboarding and the guitar finally in the limelight.

The next track is where the album's feebleness beings to show. Thankfully this one is the shortest track and deservedly named "Goodbye". The track has minimal playing with cheesy lyrics and vocals. The song even begins with some scatting.

"True Love" continues the slight cheesiness, which is very easy to tell with it's title. The song though, has decent playing, and more characteristic singing. Not too good, nothing too terrible.

Finally the album tops off with "Alive", my second favorite track on the album. Arriving at 13:50 - the band arrives at their pinnacle. The song is like a prog stir fry. A giant pan filled with hot, delicious drum fills, keyboard solos, time signature changes, guitar pleasing and such. Honestly a 5 star song.

Overall, this album is great fun and shows a rare uplifting voice. It's just a blatant good time and a well made album. Oh and the artwork is good too.

First things first: this is not a compilation. That said, while I haven't heard the rest of this band's catalog, the extremely high quality of the music contained on this album makes me think that its title is nonetheless accurate. Anti-Depressive Delivery plays a kind of bluesy crossover prog that has "vintage" written all over it- everything from the guitars to the nigh- omnipresent organ sounds like it came straight out of the annals of classic rock. Despite this, "The Best of Antidepressive Delivery" is far from being yet another unoriginal poseur-and that's coming from someone who typically doesn't like this kind of "intentionally vintage" rock music. Too often I feel that this kind of music has all the parts in place but lacks the fire and passion that made the actual music of the 70s so good.

Fortunately, that is not the case with this album. The songwriting is stellar, the musicianship is top-notch and the vocal delivery is varied and powerful. This is a wonderful album that is being distributed via free download by the band, so any fan of this kind of blues-based prog- rock would be remiss to miss out on this listen (assonance unintentional).

"In Pine" begins the album with a rather sedate guitar part which is quickly joined by percussion and keyboards. The song quickly drops into a nice rhythmic groove before vocals are added. A combination of these vocals with some awesome guitar parts gives the song a very strong melodic tone, and the addition of some vintage sounding organ makes the track feel like a classic. A more downtempo section adds variety as well before the song launches into a ripping guitar solo that leads back to the first motif. Overall, "In Pine" sets the tone of the album very well as well as being a great, high-energy song in and of itself.

"Glasses" follows, starting off with some psychedelic guitar and some awesome grooving bass and drums. Minimal keyboards enhance the dreamy effect, and when the vocals enter they take on a slightly more languid, melancholy feel to match the music. All the elements coalesce to create a song that's both spacey and driving, and an awesome instrumental section in the middle featuring dueling guitar and keyboards make this one of the most satisfying 4 minute songs I can think of offhand.

"Lifekeeper" begins with a single piano tone, played in various rhythms, before being joined by drums and guitar, which together begin a bombastic instrumental introduction to the song. This motif is dropped about a minute in, however, to be replaced by much more understated guitar, keyboards and bass as well as vocals. I'm really quite impressed by the vocals of this group; the singer seems equally confident belting out a high-energy anthem like "In Pine" and turning in a more emotionally nuanced, quieter performance here. I can hear shades of the Budgie song "Parents" in this first section of "Lifekeeper," and I definitely mean that as a complement. The addition of an organ only enhances the bluesy, classic rock feel. As the song begins to draw to a close, the vocals go from being a bit subdued to being extremely powerful and raw-sounding, and by the time an organ-backed guitar solo begins, quickly followed by a solo on said organ, you know you're listening to a bona-fide epic, a track that would be considered a classic if there were any justice in the world.

"Goodbye" begins on a jazzier note, with some awesome vocal harmonies and scatting, of all things. The song continues on this road, with some subdued piano serving as the main instrument behind absolutely stellar vocals, including some breathtaking falsetto. As the song progresses, however, it begins to deviate, adding synths and even some vocoded vocals. All these added sounds are arranged extremely well, however, and despite these more modern touches the song never loses the smoky, jazz-club feel. A wonderful song that packs a lot of content into its less than 4 minute running time.

"True Love" starts with a bit more up-tempo guitar riff, and makes use of some horns to set up some awesome instrumentation on the verse before the heavier, guitar riff-led chorus kicks in. Despite the less-than-cheerful lyrical subject matter (from what I can tell the song tells the story of a prostitute, but don't quote me on that) the song feels breezy and carefree, and another stellar guitar solo towards the end of the track seals this up as an incredibly diverse, satisfying track on an album full of songs that meet that description.

"Alive" is the last track of the album, as well as the longest. Beginning with some great guitar and organ, the track manages to pull off quite a bit of musical variety in only the first minute before vocals come in. This song in particular I think highlights one of the things that makes Anti-Depressive Delivery's music on this album so good; that is, that every instrument, no matter how much of a support role it's playing, now matter how far back in the mix it is, is playing interesting music. You could take some of these instrumental parts alone and have them be more interesting than some bands' primary melodies. The vocals continue to be excellent on the track, as does the songwriting, as "Alive" manages to switch between several diverse motifs seamlessly; never seeming forced and never getting boring. Every melodic motif the song brings up is catchy and pleasant to listen to, while still being musically interesting. The several excellent guitar solos certainly don't hurt the song either. "Alive" is certainly a worthy closer for the album and one of the freshest, most listenable songs I can think of-despite its vintage sensibilities.

Overall, "The Best of Antidepressive Delivery" is one of those albums where everything just comes together perfectly. This is one of those albums I just can't listen to without mentally pausing every few minutes to think "wow, this is a great album." This is an album that deserves to be listened to, shared, and talked about, and I can't recommend it highly enough.

5/5

As pointed out before, The Best of Anti-Depressive Delivery is not a collection of the highest grossing or critically acclaimed tunes from their first 2 albums. It is a new material, and it definitely falls short of its name. Particularly coming off the outstanding Chain of Foods.

Stylistically The Best of Anti-Depressive Delivery is more similar to Chain of Foods the Feel. Melt. Release. Escape. , but only holds up in quality vocally and in production value. There are times the album even sounds like slightly modified versions of previous songs. The most glaring example is the second song on each album, Desert Machine on Chain of Foods and Glasses on The Best of Anti-Depressive Delivery which have an identical verse rhythm and song structure. It may seem like a lazy description, but aside from the similarities, it feels like the push was in a more popular classic rock direction and less of a progressive rock direction. The progressive elements are there, but few and far between. Occasionally, there is even a nightclub RnB sound to it, in particular on the song Goodbye. Ultimately, it comes across to this listener as watered down in comparison to the previous 2 albums.

Make no mistake, this is a good quasi-classic rock album and holds up well to other albums in that vein. But when I am reaching for an Anti-Depressive Delivery album that is truly the best of Anti-Depressive Delivery, it will not be The Best of Anti-Depressive Delivery. Good, but not essential. 3 stars.

What a comfort. When I stumbled upon "The Best Of Antidepressive Delivery", I assumed this was a compilation of ANTIDEPRESSIVE DELIVERY. And at the next moment, I wondered why they had given this album such a weird title. But I'm sure this opus has buzzy momentum and they would have played in their natural, intentional manner.

From the beginning of the first shot "In Pine", superb heavy rock tinged with industrial aroma gives it a passionate run. Quite acceptable, delightful soundscape will catch our heart immediately. Neither complicated melody line nor polyrhythmic basis is on their musical turf but fantastic vibes come out through our ears. Such a powerful, vivacious movement reminds us of something similar to the first album of Foreigner. The following "Glasses" is in the same vein. Sharp-edged but crispy drumming is quite enjoyable. The middle part tastes so-called progressive (slightly with complex rhythmic tips) that impresses us so much.

On the other hand, "Lifekeeper" is another romantic dramatic adventure with a delicious chorus and a mystic melodic culture. Good are energetic solo shouts in the middle part but let me say that we should get absorbed in their fragile beautiful backing choir. The latter spurt consists of their brilliant solo performances by guitars, keyboards, drums ... colourful wonderful sound structures are piled up in the last scene. Sounds like we are in another gorgeous world. "Goodbye" is, contrarily, a slow, tiny ballad with a simple instrumental formation. Mysteriously we are relieved after a kind of symbolic lifekeeper.

In "True Love", bluesy saxophone plays are good, the song itself is quite catchy and easygoing though. It's a bit interesting that such a pop, plain song comes amongst fantastic ones (of course, I say in a good sense really). And the epilogue "Alive" gets started with magnificent, potential alternative texture like one of Heavy Prog pioneer Rush. Guitar heaviness reminds us of the similarity too. The overall picture of this song is not so complicated but simultaneously we can enjoy a crossover-y mixture of authentic heavy rock and progressive rock. Suggest we would get immersed in dramatic interludes, powerful chorus rigidities, and theatrical development of the song's melody deployment. Also for the amazing, shocking epilogue, this album should be worth listening and calling "The Best" ... is it overestimating?

To be honest, I cannot recommend this album as a Heavy Prog one. But why don't you listen to such an authentic heavy rock creation? I love it really woohoo.