For those on your holidaze good list, lookin' for some good metal, check out Dillinger Escape Plan (DEP). They just came through town, opening for Mastodon,
and worked their amps like a skate park. Even the photographers in
the pit were getting kicked in the head as the band members dove into
the crowd repeatedly, and the fans reciprocated. Their music is a lot of frenetic fun to see live, and their energy is contagious.
Taking
cues from Deadguy, but adding its own jazz, technical, and violent
flair, New Jersey's Dillinger Escape Plan (DEP) formed in early-1997.
Fans of technical metal, hardcore, a bit of jazz, Deadguy, and
violence need not look any further.
Check out their Reverb Nation Page here.
Artist Summary
Genres: Metal / Mathcore/ Experimental
Label: Season of Mist / Party Smasher Inc, Relapse Records
Management: self-managed, for PR-, Big Machine Media
More About Dillinger Escape PlanAt first glance, Option Paralysis seems like a highly inappropriate title to describe the constantly evolving output of The Dillinger Escape Plan. But
once you’re faced with the cumulative power and vision of guitarist Ben
Weinman, vocalist Greg Puciato, bassist Liam Wilson, guitarist Jeff
Tuttle and new drummer Billy Rymer, you’ll wonder—right after you pick
yourself up off the floor—why more bands don’t achieve similar
force-of-nature status.
“The title Option Paralysis represents
being in a situation where you have so many choices you can’t decide,
and end up being frozen,” says founding member Weinman about the mindset
permeating the band’s fifth full-length album. “Back in the
early days when I started to discover music, go to shows and find out
about new bands, there were ‘filters’ from various circumstances –
geography, economic status, etc - which deeply affected how a band
sounded and what they stood for.
Now, everyone is
going through the same filter—namely computers and the internet—and
everyone has the same circumstances: Everybody’s seeing the same thing
for the first time at the very same time, simultaneously all over the
world. That very system is negatively affecting art and has created a
situation where everything is influencing itself and art is not based on
struggle, personal scarcity or unique and personal inspiration. This
cultural revolutions is a big part of what determines our mission. We’re
not listening to any of the bands around us for some kind of input as
to what we should sound like. At this point, we’re using our own
accomplishments as a measurement of what we need to do next.”
From their early days in the late-’90s as short-haired Rutgers, New
Jersey, college students delivering hyper-complex thrash to audiences of
boorish long-haired surly metalheads, to performing with Nine Inch Nails on the pioneering electronic band’s farewell shows, the Dillinger Escape Plan have merely one prerogative: to go forward in ALL directions simultaneously.
I was laughing to see the descriptions above in red. On Thursday, I literally got a fortune cookie that said "You
can't ride in all directions at one time." It was very appropriate,
as this season is extremely busy on all fronts and I've been finding
myself double and even triple booked and having to make some tough
choices. Then the kids and I ended up fighting off some nasty virus
and we ended up cancelling everything today, to hang out by the fire, watch movies and get well. Option Paralysis indeed. After
seeing DEP open for Mastodon, however, I think if anyone could pull off
going forward in ALL directions simultaneously, figuratively and
literally, they could!
Their groundbreaking 1999 debut full-length, Calculating Infinity, is
inarguably the essential technical-metal talisman for the 21st century,
melding hardcore’s blinding rage with a musical vision that made most
progressive-rock bands sound positively lazy by comparison. Irony Is A
Dead Scene, the band’s 2002 collaboration with Mike Patton, maintained
their patented extremity while exploring electronic textures. The 2004
follow-up, Miss Machine, (the first record to showcase frontman,
Puciato) was a distillation of the band’s work thus far, while including
jaw-dropping flirtations with mainstream metal (“Unretrofied”) that
further enforced Dillinger’s desire—and ability—to take their music
wherever the hell they wanted. 2007’s Ire Works had the band finding
inspiration from underground glitch and breakcore electronica, as well
as indigenous music genres, in a world seemingly overrun with metalcore
bores and screamo trend-hoppers. The Dillinger Escape Plan’s unerring
sweat equity has consistently found resonance with listeners on both
sides of the stages the band trod upon.
Option Paralysis marks the beginning of another trajectory in the
DEP mythology. After aligning themselves with the renowned Relapse label
for most of their career, the band entered into a deal with the French
label SEASON OF MIST to put out OPTION PARALYSIS, tagging their new
PARTY SMASHER INC label. “We signed a pretty traditional record deal
with them for one record,” explains Weinman. “What’s exciting is that
Michael [Berberian, SOM label founder] is a really big music fan and has
a great understanding of how we operate. He was totally aware of the
possibilities and limitations of working with a band like us—he’s not
expecting pop hits—and he’s been extremely enthusiastic to dive right in
and make it work for everyone.”
Produced by Steve Evetts, Dillinger’s new music is positively
abundant with possibilities. Drummer Billy Rymer, whom Weinman describes
as “young and hungry,” now occupies the engine room that powers the
band. Frontman, Puciato has always had a knack with a bellow that could
make reciting a grocery list seem like an exhortation to open the mouth
of Hell. But feeling some of the lyrics on Paralysis, you can’t
positively determine if the singer is handing down indictments
(“Farewell, Mona Lisa”) or feeling emotionally wounded. “This record is
concept driven but there is still a very emotional and personal aspect
to his lyrics,” says Weinman soberly. “He’s going through transitional
stages in his life right now.” Nothing so eloquently supports that
statement than the six and-a-half-minute “Widower,” where the band are
joined by veteran David Bowie keyboardist Mike Garson for an aural
excursion that incorporates piano-trio jazz, tender balladry and
anthemic power. While there’s no shortage of DEP plasma-balls on
Paralysis (“Room Full Of Eyes,” “Good Neighbor”), the band keep things
fresh with the math-rock/free-jazz convergence of “I Wouldn’t If You
Didn’t,” the electro-tweaked “Chinese Whispers” and the closing
“Parasitic Twins.” The latter track sports lead vocals courtesy of
guitarist Tuttle, as well as Beach Boys-styled harmonies and a major-key
Weinman solo that’s more Clapton (ca. Derek And The Dominos) than
calculus crush. Clearly, this is not your older brother’s Dillinger
Escape Plan. “We’re just trying to make music we can be stimulated by,”
says Weinman about the assorted directions and sonic vistas on Option
Paralysis. “We consider ourselves songwriters, which is kind of odd when
you consider the kind of band most would consider us.”
After years of deliberately challenging themselves, as well as the
preconceived notions of critics and the strict genre-specific zealots of
the world’s underground music scenes, the big question remains: What is
the mission of the Dillinger Escape Plan? It’s a question Weinman
addresses with equal parts melancholy, unwavering determination and
humor. “I’ve been trying for a while to have someone explain that to
me,” he says, laughing. “Seriously, Option Paralysis represents why
we’re here and why we’re still making music. We started at a time when
there wasn’t all this access to the larger world. Our only goal was to
make a small dent in the scene that we were in. The fact we’ve made it
this far and that we’re still relevant is really special to me. I feel
that it is extremely important for bands like us to continue to
represent the ethic and attitude that was present during a time that
doesn't exist anymore."
“That,” he says, pausing to smile. “And I have to pay my mortgage somehow…”
