Dillinger Escape Plan listening party with Car Bomb
No one in their right mind would ever think of Northern Jersey as a place where culture originates, but its precisely that environments lack of culture that gave the [Dillinger Escape Plan ]part of its drive to come up with one of the most furiously innovative and technically demanding sounds in music. With its first two releases, the 1998 EP Under the Running Board and the following years full-length Calculating Infinity, the Dillinger Escape Plan worked audiences from metal, hardcore, and even modern jazz and avant-garde camps into a tizzy, creating one of the biggest sensations in underground music to date.
Though the band is often given credit for re-writing metals rules with its impossibly mathematical approach, other Jersey bands such as Ripping Corpse, Deadguy, and Human Remains set a similar precedent. What set Calculating Infinity apart, aside from its cold, distinctly suburban brutality, was the bands underlying appreciation for musical styles that arent heavy, as well as the 3-D mall poster-like tendency of the music to reveal intricate patterns and subtleties when you concentrate enough, or when your brain relaxes enough, for them to emerge from the otherwise relentlessly heavy din. Since that album, Dillinger announced its experimental intentions in no uncertain terms in the form of an electronic-leaning EP with Mike Patton and a 2003 sophomore full-length, Miss Machine, the latter of which saw the band depart wildly on some songs from audience expectations.
Earlier this year, the band announced the departure of drummer and co-founder Chris Pennie, a blow that was widely thought might sink Dillinger for good even after numerous lineup changes and losing people due to career-ending physical injuries. Pennie, who wrote the bands material alone with guitarist/bandleader Ben Weinman, possessed unbelievable chops leavened by his progressive tendencies and jaw-dropping finesse. New drummer Gil Sharone didnt have much experience playing this style of music but was recommended by a friend of the band who was intimately familiar with both his playing and Pennies. Whether or not he lives up to Pennies stature remains to be seen, four things are certain and bode well for the bands future: First, for a guy from L.A., he sure does have a thick Jersey accent; next, for someone who played with the band only days before recording began, he certainly holds his own and even brings groove to the table. Third, Dillingers back mere months after the shakeup, which is huge considering it took five years last time.
Lastly, new album, Ire Works shows the band for the first time striking a seamless balance between its heavy and experimental inclinations. Dillinger ushers in the new album with a DJ set tonight at Europa in an event, pricelessly billed as the New Wave of Brooklyn Heavy Metal, that also features performances by Long Islands [Car Bomb], who are pushing envelopes in its own right and Gianall for the low, low price of six bucks.
[Tonight at Club Europa.]