The Dillinger Escape Plan
Ire Works

THE REVIEW

I certainly can't come and tell you that a bit of disappointment, even more than a bit..., didn't materialize inside me when, for the first time, I listened to the new album by The Dillinger Escape Plan.

I had already had the chance to read (discordant) reviews from some colleagues and had spoken to (reliable) people who had listened to it, and from this array of opinions, I hadn't formed an idea about the work's value (that's personal, of course), but I had understood that The Dillinger Escape Plan attempted the big shot, the one that if it goes well you rises high, not just in sales, but for earned merits. If it goes well... After all, their resume is such that it would make 90% of the bands that emerged in the last ten years pale in comparison, so it was logical for them to try to enter history in a definitive manner. And wanting to observe the situation from a detached point of view, not considering the admiration with which I have followed them throughout their career, one must admit that the foundational ideas of "Ire Works" could have been the right ones to achieve the modeling of a hypothetically perfect evolutionary synthesis of what sound, beyond genres, has managed to produce precisely in the last decade.

The elements were all there, but for the first time since The Dillinger Escape Plan have existed, they were not able to apply and coalesce them as such a risky variety of material treated would have required. Because the metal (already multi-contaminated and laden with hardcore, as they understand it), which meets non-metal musical structures (to say avant, would be giving them a prize they don't deserve), which incorporates a glitch-derived electronic sound, that then chooses to add violin, cello, trumpet, orchestrations, rock, jazz, a blatant catchiness and more, must start with the assumption that it has a very high probability of failing. And The Dillinger Escape Plan came close to failure, not having succeeded in making all this concrete, nor having given it a complete sense. It's no wonder that when the album ends, you remain as if waiting for something else to happen because it's clear they haven't fully expressed their immense potential.

By giving up parts of "massive sonic explosion" and "intrinsic danger" they took on a responsibility that backfired. Many ingredients, but very static when taken individually, and they end up being a lure, because what's left of the various mixed genres you know what remains? Pop. And this reveals the essence of The Dillinger Escape Plan in 2007 (with a lineup where only Ben Weinman from the original formation survives), that of wanting to compose a robust and contaminated pop album, maybe as Mike Patton might understand it, intent on mixing Faith No More and Fantômas, but still pop and also a bit polished. Which is not bad, but it is a statement that must be made explicit. Sure, "Ire Works" needs to be absorbed repeatedly to grasp its different nuances, but it is equally evident that it has many shadows and highlights a band that made the primary mistake of considering themselves omnipotent.