A Scanner Darkly- A Scanner Darkly (2006)

I had started in on doing a lengthy writeup on this album before I went to the A Scanner Darkly last.fm page and realized that the description on said site was as good if not better than anything I was going to write. So here it is:

"As a humble tribute to Philip K. Dick (one of the greatest science fiction writers- and one of the best novelists of the 20th century) A Scanner Darkly draws influence from Dick’s hallucinogenic alternate-realities and the seemingly incompatible musical worlds of sludge, drone, grindcore and prog-rock to create their own synergetic brand of sci-fi metal that is as intelligent as it is brutal!

Alternately lightning fast, brutally crushing and whimsically self-referential, ASD’s self-titled debut is both a tribute to- and an embodiment of- the paranoid, psychotic world of Philip K. Dick."

Combining some totally awesome tunes with a devotion to all things Philip K. Dick (Dickish?), one of my favorite writers, is a huge win in my book. Don't make the same mistake I did and dismiss this band as simply metalcore and ignore them for years. 

Get it for FREE from Gilead Media's bandcamp.

This guy is out of print, but Amazon seems to still have physical copies.