Few acts are as synonymous with the idea of
insanity as The Dillinger Escape Plan. I remember hearing a story in high
school from an acquaintance that had just seen them live, claiming that lead singer
Greg Puciato had literally run across the room on the heads of the crowd, and
as more and more of my friends became fans of them, further wild accounts of
this band’s prowess and madness made it into my ears. Despite being a big fan
of other technical acts such as Norma Jean and Between the Buried & Me, I
had never found my way into any of Dillinger’s music, until my friend and
drummer for Hiss the Villain (who all but worships Bill Rymer) insisted I check
out their newest release, One of Us Is the Killer, which quickly proved
to me just how insane this act can be.
Despite being credited with creating the genre
of mathcore,[1] a
style over which they certainly hold mastery, The Dillinger Escape Plan is far
more diverse in their sound than that label suggests. While writing One of
Us is the Killer, the band's intention was to "consciously...push
ourselves into uncomfortable territory rhythmically,"[2]
and with that in mind, they manage to intermingle jazz and salsa rhythms with
the speed picking and chugs that define the mathcore feel, giving a refreshing
take on a sound that has already been beaten to death. Drummer Bill Rymer
easily earns his accolades, loading syncopated hits and polyrhythms into every
song, creating both percussive pipebombs and tiny ear-catching firecrackers.
Similarly, guitarist and primary composer Ben Weinman moves so quickly up and
down his neck that his hands must be bleeding. He layers intricate lines and
full chords to fill out the treble zone, while Liam Wilson dominates the
low-end with his roaring bass, absolutely ripping up the intro to
"Crossburner" with his distorted tones. And if the heaviness isn’t
enough, The Dillinger Escape Plan even has the audacity to add a horn section
and soundscapes to their varied metal, further diversifying their brand of
chaos.
By far, Dillinger’s sound on this record is
loaded with intensity and technicality, but as is too often the norm, the
extreme competence of the musicians sometimes causes the music to stray into
the territory of noise. Although a lot of their polyrhythms are aesthetically
pleasing, portions of songs like “Hero of the Soviet Union” and “When I Lost MyBet” are so rapid-fire and syncopated that the CD might as well be skipping.
Similarly, the riff that makes up the entirety of “CH 375 268 277 ARS” is
interesting, but so repetitive and unresolved in any way that it alienates the
listener more than it draws him in. Although I respect every risk that The
Dillinger Escape Plan takes on One of Us is the Killer (even the abuse
of odd accent cymbals as well as a xylophone), I’d be lying if I said there
aren’t a few moments where I am totally lost by their thought-driven
composition.
Despite some of the more soulless sections of
song, The Dillinger Escape Plan gets it right way more often than wrong, and
the best example of these four completely dominating is in the title track,
“One of Us is the Killer.” Sliding into existence with an almost-inaudible
arrangement, Puciato sings in a high falsetto, winding his melody between
Rymer's whispering cymbals until the chorus goes off like a nailbomb. Although
Dillinger adds their standard flair with polyrhythmic hits in the chorus and an
atonal 21/8(!!!) bridge, the overall structure of the song is simple and
palatable, causing their insanely technical choices accent the tune rather than
drive it. Furthermore, they create an emotional space that allows Puciato to
simply go off, his vocals running the gamut of sound from gentle high notes to
throaty screams and beyond as he contemplates the binary nature of unhealthy
relationships.[3]
With "One of Us is the Killer," The Dillinger Escape Plan finds the
perfect balance in loud/soft dynamics and simple/complex riffing, using
moderation in all senses to produce an excellent and intricate tune.
From the opening salvo of the album, it is quite
obvious just how good the musicians in The Dillinger Escape Plan are, but in my
opinion, no member is more interesting in his contributions than Greg Puciato.
There is a sheer, honest intensity that bleeds from his voice in every take, a
true connection between emotion and diction. His vocal performances stem from
true outbursts of feeling, which are sometimes so strong or violent that the
very microphone he is recording with gets mangled in the process.[4]
This experience of truly exploding during vocal takes is one that Puciato
describes as "fucking therapeutic,"[5]
as it allows him to come to terms with the subject matter of his songs. In an
interview with Chad Bowar, Puciato remarks that "if you're in the studio
screaming about something, you should relate to it,"[6]
and indeed, Greg embodies the visceral reactions inherent in his emotions,
channeling them through his voice to make the vocals on One of Us is the
Killer so real, he might as well be screaming in your backseat.
As with the sound of his vocals, Greg Puciato's
process for writing the lyrics those sounds will encapsulate is just as driven
and inspired. Unlike most vocalists, Puciato waits until right before recording
to pen the lyrics, sketching "blurts" and "blobs" until he
realizes the direction the song must take. As he puts it, "the reason you
create art is to get something out of you or learn something about yourself
that helps you move past something or grow in some way," and by writing
the lyrics to the entire record in a short amount of time, he is able to
maintain a "consistency and honesty" in capturing a certain moment of
his life.[7]
Of course, this hyperfocus placed on creation of
the lyrics over a short time span leaves little room for intricacy to enter the
writing. While some of Greg's ideas slip into poetics, such as the lines
"Drag the knife across the skin / tempted to succumb / carving fervor into
flesh / holy we've become" in "Understanding Decay,"[8]
the rush in which most of the writing happens leaves clichés littered
throughout and much of the rest as blatant statements. Indeed, the words to the
chorus of "Nothing's Funny" are so simple they come off as absolute
drivel: "Eventually the jokes aren't free and nothing's ever fun and
nothing's funny."[9]
However, knowing that Greg's writing process is focused on capturing the true
emotion in the words and presenting it brutally and uncut, the relative
unimagination of the lyrics is completely forgivable. Furthermore, as hackneyed
as the phrase "you are the scum of the earth" may be, I simply cannot
tire of hearing Greg rip those words from the bottom of his lungs.[10]
As Ben Weinman aptly puts it, "There is no
specific Dillinger way - there's no right or wrong way of doing things. [We]
just make it work."[11]
On One of Us is the Killer, The Dillinger Escape Plan pushes the
envelope in countless ways, but more importantly, pushes themselves into spaces
they've never explored themselves. Regardless of any shortcomings, this band
worked their asses off in making One of Us is the Killer into a unique
experience, which alone is something amazing to see and even more amazing to
hear. After spinning this record until it started skipping and then some, I can
truly say that I've never heard anything like The Dillinger Escape Plan, but
I'm very grateful that I did. It is a record fuming with anger and energy and
enthusiasm, extremely intricate, extremely diversified, and yet extremely
listenable, and I have no doubt I will be returning for more.
Tunes to Check Out:
1) One of Us is the Killer
2) Crossburner
3) Nothing's Funny
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