The Dillinger
Escape Plan Miss Machine
The Hobo Review
Five Star: A look at albums
that are so good that they impress even the most cynical of critics. Very
few albums are superior enough to obtain a five star rating but occasionally
a band slips through the river of mediocrity that is the modern music industry
and they produce an album that restores our faith in the future of rock!
This series is a look at such albums.
The Dillinger Escape Plan got their big
break when a video from their 1999 debut full-length Calculating Infinity
caught the attention of none other than Mike Patton (of Faith No More,
Mr. Bungle & Fantamos). Patton met with the band, expressed his appreciation
of their music and invited them to come along on a Mr. Bungle tour, which
gave the album coverage previously undreamed of.
Their debut was aptly described by one
critic as a jaw-droppingly intense, mathematical, and inspired opus of
immense technical proportion. As the album became increasingly popular,
the band decided to re-release the album with a few bonus tracks under
the title Now Or Never. Soon after their now highly regarded vocalist Minakakis
departed from the band to pursue his own musical interests.
The band embarked on a nation-wide search.
They posted an instrumental version of their song 43% Burnt on their website
and hopeful candidates to download and send in the track with their own
vocals recorded. While the recordings flowed in the boys kept busy by recording
a few EPs with Mike Patton on vocals including the recording Irony
Is A Dead Scene.
The band finally found a replacement in
the form of one Greg Puciato a physically daunting man with an unbelievable
vocal range. The new group bonded instantly. Their collective creativity
led to the production of their first full-length in five years, entitled
Miss Machine.
It appears the five-year hiatus has done
the band nothing but good. Dillinger are now so technically proficient
that time-signatures are nothing but playthings - generic constraints are
laughable. (No disrespect intended, but) Puciatos voice wipes Minakakis
off the face of the earth crooning one minute, manically shrieking the
next, then roaring his lungs out mere seconds later in grindcore-esque
brutality. What separates Puciato from the majority of hardcore/emo (for
lack of a better word) vocalists is the perceived honesty in his voice
totally lacking in melodrama, instead thick and rich with emotional aggression.
Musically Dillinger hold a certain technical
flair that is generally unrivalled in its creativity, spontaneity and originality
fusing genius patches of chaotic jazz patterns with break-takingly powerful
hardcore breakdowns. Take "Phone Home", a track that starts with an eery
jazz beat as Puciato whispers: 'Take fire out of heaven's clenched fist
/ cracks slip between my desire to keep your broken heart bleeding'. Soon
enough Greg works himself into a violent rage which slowly builds in momentum
until it reaches the jaw-shattering crescendo: I made you, now you are
property I can't discard.
The brilliant "Sunshine The Werewolf" tears
through double-time apocalyptic madness only to break down into a clean,
melodic passage of guitars mid-song. In possible the most blunt, violent
outburst the vocalist roars: Without my existence you are nothing / without
my affection you wilt / we fucked like a nuclear war release ...fuck off
/ see how I let you down watching fallout fly back up.
The tracks "Setting Fire To Sleeping Giants"
and "Unretrofied" would not have found a place on the previous album, but
evidently the new openness of the band has allowed for an incorporation
of a greater number of musical elements from across a large range of genres.
"Unretrofied" voices the haunting cry of a man half machine or (a) machine
half man with a decidedly more clean, melodic chorus. "Setting Fire To
Sleeping Giants" has an almost poppy alt-rock feel which sticks until the
final thirty seconds tears your unsuspecting face off: they think this
body's a dead note / dancing to the beat / but they'll never see this corpse
coming 'till it kills them.
I think it was J. Loftus who coined the
term artful rage in his recent review and no term better describes
The Dillinger Escape Plan. The band have shattered so many boundaries simultaneously
by combining melody and aggression with an unparalleled lust for the creative
and adventurous practice of fusing punk, metal and jazz.
Easily the most brilliant, powerful and
important release of the year so far. Go buy it.
More Info
The Dillinger
Escape Plan Miss Machine
Rating: Genre: Hardcore-infused Neo-jazz
For Fans Of: Meshuggah, A Life
Once Lost
Best Track(s): Highway Robbery
& Panasonic Youth
Track Listing:
Panasonic Youth Sunshine The Werewolf Highway Robbery Van Damsel Phone Home We Are The Storm Crutch Field Tongs Setting Fire To Sleeping Giants Baby's First Coffin Unretrofied The Perfect Design
Posted by papa smurf:
fuc yeah brilliant mix of songs!@ the new singer fits in perfectly
Posted by ehy_key:
YEEAAHH realy great album
damn songs like Sunshine The Werewolf are so fat ...
PS: ich grόίe alle deutschen dillinger escape plan hφrer
Posted by jake:
this is the best record i have ever heard
Posted by Oddman:
brilliant, technical geniuses. comparable to no one, rivaled by very very few artists...if one cant respect their music, then go back to Britney Spears records
