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Rating: Hailing from New Jersey, the Dillinger Escape Plan blend new hardcore, jazz, and progressive metal.
This is also evident in their latest "Miss Machine" from 2004. As in previous albums (actually, only one of their previous works, 'Calculating Infinity,' can be defined as an "album," because the others are EPs with few songs), the frequency of rhythm changes or even genre changes is striking, with an almost Dantesque experimentalism but also with a sonic violence that challenges even the most resilient eardrum.
A true masterpiece of technique and originality, consisting of 11 tracks with a duration of 40 minutes. It opens with "Panasonic Youth," without hesitation, devoid of an intro, and immediately singer Greg Puciato pushes his vocal cords to the limit, but with excellent control technique, while the others create an atmosphere of anxiety, with jazz echoes in the last seconds. "Sunshine The Werewolf" picks up the style of the previous one, but here the American quintet restrains their fury a bit, without completely suppressing it. Right afterward, there's "Highway Robbery," where the rhythm is more uniform and Greg showcases excellent screaming, previously more hidden by growl; the dark atmosphere that characterizes the first two fades a bit. But it reignites, accompanied by devastating power, in "Van Damsel," the album's jewel.
In "Phone Home," they even attempt to dabble in industrial, without fully succeeding, but with an excellent final result. With force begins "We Are The Storm": the rhythm changes really often, and at one point it stops being hardcore to continue as jazz (with tones worthy of a beautiful dream) and re-explodes for the grand finale.
Just to take a break from all this aggressiveness, they insert a short track, "Crutch Field Tongs," featuring only machine-like noises in rhythm, but still keeping the atmosphere dark. "Setting Fire To Sleeping Giants," with a always uniform rhythm, is the track where growl is more absent; here too, however, there's a genre change, always in favor of calm jazz, for a few seconds. It is followed by "Baby's First Coffin," from the film "Underworld," another devastating piece, and certainly a light in the almost dark soundtrack of the film. "Unretrofied" is a piece tending towards nu-metal, one of the best of the genre, featuring just some jazz echoes; in the chorus, Greg shows he can also sing, with a pleasant timbre. We are closing: here is "The Perfect Design," almost 4 minutes, where in the last seconds, the fury just left behind extinguishes (with much style).
A powerful, innovative album, difficult to grasp at first impact, but which becomes appreciated over time.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Panasonic Youth (02:27)
We wrote these plans
Took the order the architecture
And followed them to the end
Until the gears ground cold and relentless
There was no remorse
We had none
We kept on with no trace of a regret
There was no remorse
I never saw any blood
No soul for the body
Watch them turn her scab
Covered skin into stone
Like a coal in the sky
Searching for the dawn
For the last time
Bloated with white eyes wide
We've come to an understanding
You lose, I profit
High noon and there ain't no secrets
No more excuses
Now our number's up
Let them lead us by the throat now
Just smile while the rope pulls tighter
Guilty is an understatement
The hourglass is never right side up
And all the time we try to tear the script up
Forgetting all the sour for the sweet
The paragraph has never been so empty
The lifeless test tube
The mother dies with infant in arms
The lifeless test tube, look what she's done
Evolution gave us a clock
That's always winding down
Evolution gave us a clock
That's always winding down
02 Baby's First Coffin (04:02)
Dear God
Protect Us
Come on
Laugh this time
She stares. Forever and then some never again
Polished, Barbwire Smile. Tricks and trade
She done. So cut her again, gut her again
Dear God
Protect us
Come on
Laugh this...
Silence tells us we're damned. Silence tells us we're damned.
Jesus we've gone and done it again. Jimmy’s got a new gun in his hand
Jesus we've gone and done it again. Jimmy’s got a new gun in his hand
You’re being a liar. You’re being a liar. You’re being a liar. You’re being a liar.
How could you doubt? He would never find out
You’re being a liar. Let’s start the show. You’re being a liar. I’m ready to go.
You’re being a liar. You’re being a liar. You’re being a liar. You’re being a liar.
How could you doubt? He would never find out
You’re being a liar. Let’s start the show. You’re being a liar. I’m ready to go.
The emperor is dead. The emperor is dead. Goodbye. Don’t cry.
Die. So long. Revenge. Defend. You know we brought the crowd to us
Staking time into the gust of wind to the face.
Never returning, favors take the prison to the man.
I could promise the world if we could travel through time.
Don’t back out here. Now relax and remember the promise of the sign.
I wish you could see yourself now...you look at me like a child...
The way you glide across the room, it’s drama of seduction.
Let go of it, Repunsel. Let it down.
Aim for the signal then bring it down with a smile....now...
Become the conductor...
The way you slide across the room...how wonderful.
A connection and the last cut still bleeds as good as the first one does.
It’s just the opening seed of a new flame.
I look at you like a child but not at all like you looked at me...
Grace is already dead. Now is the time to go back. Face what you’ve done
You should never said “Yes�?.
Grace is already dead. Now is the time to go back. Face what you’ve done
Grace is already dead.
Grace is already dead. Face the master.
You should never have said “Yes�? when you really mean “No.�?
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Other reviews
By Tomato Express Cake
They burst in as if it were nothing into the calm we had in our heads, and what strikes the most about this album is that they manage to maintain that impact throughout the entire CD.
Dillinger have set their sights on one goal: no more limits, no modular structures, destroy the canons of hardcore and show that even a band from our damned genre can stand beside and surpass any Dream Theater in terms of technique.
