The Dillinger Escape (from New Jersey) Plan

By gaiJEN, stranger in a strange land

he DEP is from New Jersey and they sound angry about it. Or maybe they aren't. Maybe, this math-core/hard-core/iron ore (ok, now I'm just rhyming) band is just upset that Wolfram Alpha came along and now anyone can do differential calculus. Who knows.

To describe DEP I would have to follow in the tradition of a previous President and make some crazy words up. Words like "faceplosion" and "aural-rape." This band is hard. Hard to listen to, hard to follow, hard to like, just hard. I went to their show once; I was mildly disappointed that no one was set on fire. My husband assured me this was mostly due to venue restrictions (I'm looking at you Rock and Roll Hotel...) and not the inclinations of the band. Fire, he said, was routinely used in their frenetic live show performances and that if every member of the band wasn't suffering from third degree burns by last call, then they would put cigarettes out in each others' eyes. To say I was disappointed to miss immolation-as-performance is an understatement.

Here are those words about the music I promised, unapologetically ripped from someone else's review (Do I have to do attributable citations for these things – this is the internet right? Isn't it all plagiarism of some sort?); their music has been described thusly:

"[as having] incredible intensity, impossible time-signature changes, billion-mile-an-hour interplay solos and second-by-second melodic alterations...The overall result is a relentless power drill blast of hydro-metallic-hardcore that constantly herks, stops, starts, speeds up, slows down, screams, taunts, rocks, drones and trudges, all while exciting the left brain's engineering faculties. Wanna build a rocket spaceship? Buy a Dillinger Escape Plan album! I did, and now I'm in prison for setting fire to an entire state!"

(Fine, here is the source review.)

My personal interest in music hinges on the stories songs tell us and in the absence of narrative, my interest wanes. I'm not sure that DEP's lyrics are in English. They may not even be human sounds. It could be the composite of sounds nightmares make when they have nightmares. However, I happen to live with someone who is fluent in Metal, with native-speaker proficiency in the dialects of Death and Hardcore, who swears that the gutteral howlings and epiglottis-ripping screams are, in fact, words. Here is what I found down the rabbit hole:

gaiJEN: Norm, why do you like this sh..tuff? DEP is just noise beating up on more noise inside of a giant noise cement mixer.
Norm: Dillinger Escape Plan doesn't sound like anyone else. I like the fact that – with most metal you have a riff, a brief melody that identifies the artist. But [DEP] is so arrhythmic, their chord structures are very dissonant – it is not a pleasing sound to most people.
gJ: Isn't the point of music to be 'pleasing sounds', however you define 'pleasing'?
N: I'd say that not all music is meant to sound pleasing to the ear, but rather to appeal to different emotions. DEP appeals to the "I'm going to kick you in the face" emotion.
gJ: What is your favorite DEP song?
N: (immediately answers) 'Sunshine the Werewolf.'
gJ: You didn't have to think too hard about that.
N: I like all of their songs. I'm not sure why I like 'Sunshine the Werewolf.' I just do. Ask me tomorrow and I'll probably have a different favorite.*
gJ: How many DEP shows have you been to?
N: Three – they put on one of the most entertaining shows I've ever experienced.
gJ: How did you discover Dillinger?
N: Gabriel told me to check out their CD.
gJ: This Gabriel sounds like a suspicious character...
N: I wouldn't trust him.
gJ: DEP doesn't sound like anyone else, but do they have any obvious musical influences?
N: I would say Nine Inch Nails and (conversation interrupted by a radio advertisement for the Creed reunion tour; much eye rolling ensues) I wish Creed would go on tour with Nickleback and Limp Bizkit...one fortuitous plane crash later...
gJ: Ooo – a three-fer.
N: I shudder at the thought of that tribute album...
gJ: It's a dark place. Let's not go there. Anyway – 'metal' is this huge genre of music – what kind of metal is DEP?
N: Math metal.
gJ: And that means...
N: they have varying time signatures.
gJ: Like the square root of 4 over 4? (chuckles)
N: I award you no points and may god have mercy on your soul.
gJ: Let's see... atonal, discordant, unpleasing to the ear... have I left anything out?
N: [Greg] Puciato's voice sounds like a buzz saw about to cut your face off...
gJ: Any words of advice for those looking to ease into DEP?
N: There is no easing in. I suppose the EP they did with Mike Patton when they were between singers... gJ: Is that the one with the 'Come to Daddy' song?
N: Yeah [EP is called Irony is a Dead Scene] 'Hollywood Squares' and 'When Good Dogs Do Bad Things' are also on the EP.
gJ: One last question – what do you have to say to the people who claim that the existance of metal music is a sign of all that is wrong with our society?
N: To quote George Bush, "I don't really care what they think."
gJ: Hiyo!!

A word of caution: Norm has had years of training – listening to songs whose titles describe acts that would get you excommunicated from most major religions and a few of the minor ones. He is considered, in some circles to have "metal running through his veins" though, when asked to confirm this said, "That is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard." He cites DEP as one of his favorite bands and says lofty sounding things like, "they are pioneers in their scene." I don't even know what that means, quite honestly, but even if metal isn't your "thing," give DEP a listen. At least it will give you a new plot point on the frame-of-reference-scattergram you call your life.

* I asked him later – it was still 'Sunshine the Werewolf'.