A ‘Best Of’ release is a collection of the most memorable and commercially successful songs from a band’s extensive repertoire.

Meet Anti-Depressive Delivery, a Progressive Rock band from Norway who’s offering a ‘The Best of Anti-Depressive Delivery’ release as a free download on its website. Technically speaking, the release is basically NOT a ‘Best Of’ album, despite the misleading title. It’s actually their 3rd album to date, released in 2010 to positive worldwide reviews.

the-best-of-anti-depressive-delivery

  • Band Lineup

Pete Beck – Vocals / Bass
Christian Broholt – Guitars
Terje Kråbøl – Drums
Haakon-Marius Pettersen – Keyboards

anti-depressive-delivery

Before we move on, I just want to mention that Progressive Rock is turning out to be the desired style of this new decade. Already in 2011 alone, we have witnessed an explosion of Progressive Rock releases and Progressive Metal bands who’re choosing to follow their 70’s Prog Rock roots (yes I’m mainly referring to Opeth’s ‘Heritage’).

ADD is one of those young bands who qualifies as ‘hidden gem’, the reasons of which are record label issues and well, playing good quality music. Before I gave this release my first listen, I was quite attracted by both their album artwork and fun website layout (which you can check in the Links below). Sadly though, they definitely need more exposure: they have a mere 1,553 listeners on their Last.fm group.

This latest release of theirs features 6 songs with a total runtime of 41 mins of Classic Progressive Rock shot straight from the 70’s. Their style is similar to that of The Flower Kings, Beardfish, Spock’s Beard, Van Der Graaf Generator…

The album is packed with the best of the style, including the use of a Hammond organ, the powerful emotional vocals and last but not least, the fabulous harmony, counterpoint and melody writing. Musically speaking, the album doesn’t explore new grounds but simply follows the guidelines and foundations of Blues, Prog and Psychedelic Rock while giving them a modern touch.

I enjoyed this from beginning to end, with no noticeable bad moments or parts. The melodies change from positively bright to gloomy Blues, but the album certainly doesn’t lack the feelings and is overall a great ‘chill’ album.

One of my favorites here is ‘Lifekeeper’, a fun track which shows the band’s modern rendition of Blues Rock mixed with Prog. Deep Purple fans beware, there are some killer Hammond fills on this song which also remind me of Riverside’s Anno Domini High Definition, yet less intense and more Pub Rock Lynyrd Skynyrd oriented with solid rhythm.

The vocals play a huge role in the overall ambiance and feel of this album. Check out Pete Beke’s performance on ‘Goodbye’, a dark Jazz song that can also be compared to Soul music. He’s definitely good and his vocal style will grow more on the listener with time.

Another favorite of mine is ‘Alive’, the longest track on this release clocking at 14 mins. Walking along the lines of Spock’s Beard, this is where they add more Prog in to the mix as they go through several moods to reach an extended jam section which will surely please all Prog Rock fans.

Overall, this album might not be a real ‘Best Of’ according to definitions, but it’s surely the band’s best release to date. They have been improving their musical approach since they started back in 2002, and I know that their upcoming releases will get them more recognition. So here you go, download the album for free and give it a listen, you’ll enjoy it.

  • Links

Official Myspace

Official Website

Official Facebook Page

Update on 18-02-2017: Unfortunately, Anti Depressive Delivery has disbanded and the download link on their website is no longer working.