Angry Metal Guy

The Dillinger Escape Plan // Option Paralysis
Rating: 4.0/5.0 — Gripping
Label: Seasons of Mist / Party Smasher
Websites: myspace.com/DillingerEscapePlan
Release Dates: EU: 22.03.2010 | US: 03.23.2010

The Dillinger Escape Plan‘s fourth record, Option Paralysis, has been one of the most anticipated records of this year so far. And for good reason, people are really taken by this band and their unique style. DEP has released some seriously wacky, sporadic records in the past that are both crazy and challenging and yet so very enticing and addictive—even teaming up with Mike Patton (and others) on an EP called Irony Is a Dead Scene. They’re a very hard band to stick into a genre, bordering on technical metal and hardcore as well as pulling in influences from industrial, jazz, acoustic rock and well, you name it, they can do it. That makes them feel very fresh—but can they maintain that freshness on Option Paralysis?

I could probably sum the review up in one word which answers the aforementioned question: yes. Option Paralysis, while not a terrible stretch from Ire Works, is still remarkably fun, layered and interesting to listen to. The band is able to keep themselves firmly straddling that border between experimental, progressive and sporadic and great poppy sensibility. While some have remarked that they want more blast and scream, from these guys, this Angry Metal Guy thinks it’s damn fresh to hear a band that is able to work clean parts, jazz piano solos and surf guitar tone onto an album without once coming off as feeling forced or even pretentious.

Instead, every track is a sonic adventure of beautifully structured and smartly written parts that blend with seemingly little effort. Vocalist Greg Puciato is definitely part of the reason for this, with a voice that can easily be described as “malleable.” There are very few vocalist I’ve heard like him who have the ability to take on a variety of vocal tones and ranges so that one could actually get the impression that there are different individuals singing different tracks throughout this album. Ranging between Patton and Claudio Sanchez (from Coheed & Cambria—which despite the band being lame, is not an insult), Puciato is remarkable. While being more of a death metal than hardcore kind of guy, I would prefer that he was a bit more guttural in his growls and less hardcore, one cannot deny that the sound works.

Of course, Puciato is far from the only member of this band and they all perform admirably. The music ranges between technical and ridiculous, to simplistic and heavy and even into the  more acoustic, as stated earlier, and everything is convincingly done and cohesive. This is one of those records that’s hard to choose standout tracks from, but “Gold Teeth on a Bum” is one of my favorites for its unique vocal performance and the big build at the end. “Widower”, filled with jazz piano and almost late NIN feel, is another fantastic track that I kept coming back to repeatedly. And, while every track on the second half of this album is great, “Chinese Whispers” stands out for its very cool rhythmic approach and a totally ridiculously intense vocal delivery.

The biggest issue with this record is that there are a few throwaway “aggressive” tracks that feel a little less cohesive with the whole, when the band has proven to be so effective at building tracks into perfectly executed chaos. There appears to be more energy for the big, epic and clean parts than there really is for the “mathcore” segments that the band has become so famous for. Both “Crystal Morning” and “Endless Endings” feel like filler and that’s a bit of a bummer, but as a smaller part of a very impressive whole, that is hardly an issue because DEP has once again managed to produce a gripping, brilliant album. Look for this record to be littering year-end top 10 lists. And check it out for yourself.

Tommy from Between the Buried and Me has posted a message on their MySpace page updating about their studio process.  After 5 weeks of recording they have finished with their new album, The Great Misdirect.  It is scheduled to be out on the 27th of October.  Here’s the post:

hello everyone… writing to update everyone on whats going on with us at the moment. we have FINISHED! tracking our new record and we are spending this week mixing/mastering and all that fun stuff. its hard to believe we’ve been recording for 5 weeks already. everything went really smooth and we are very confident in the fact that this is some of the best material we’ve ever created. can’t wait for all of you to hear it! we have LOTS of footage from the studio that will hopefully be part of a special edition dvd that will come with the new record… we will also be posting some studio videos in the next few months. our touring plans are starting to come together and we’ll be putting up dates tomorrow, so be sure and keep checking back for that info. below is the album’s title and tracklist. more updates as they happen! hope everyone had a good weekend.

-tommy w/ BTBAM

“The Great Misdirect”

1. Mirrors
2. Obfuscation
3. Disease, Injury, Madness
4. Fossil Genera – A Feed from Cloud Mountain
5. Desert of Song
6. Swim to the Moon

Here’s the link.

Unexpect – In A Flesh Aquarium
Rating: 4.5/5
Band website: http://www.unexpect.com
Label: The End Records

In ages past super-grindy sporadic insanity was really the territory (should I say.. TERRORtory!! *cough*) of grind bands and then, more recently, it became part of the ‘metalcore’ scene as bands like Into the Moat and Between the Buried and Me began co-opting the sporadic nature of super tech bands into their sound. Apparently, however, Unexpect missed the memo that you need to either be grindcore or have a sentence for a name to sound like they do. And how do they sound? Aside from sounding totally awesome, they sound like “sporadicore meets how-Arcturus-wanted-to-sound-but-never-had-the-production-for meets Mr. Bungle/Primus.”

But really, In A Flesh Aquarium is probably one of the freshest things I’ve heard in the metal scene in a long time. These silly canucks have really managed to piece something together that is both creative and progressive while being terribly heavy and managing to avoid ubiquitous metal cliché. They blend a fine variety of creative instrumentation with a vocal approach that involves about 3 vocalists (from the sounds of it), including death growls, black metal screams and female vocals–but they don’t just rely on instrumentation and differentiated vocals define their sound; they write truly interesting and innovative music. They combine in jazz elements as well as sporadic grind stuff and they occasional nod towards good old-fashioned Norsky black metal and older goth stuff like Moonspell or Theatre of Tragedy. This dark, near goth, feel that they create is often offset by a grind aspect and then re-built with subtle violin melodies and female vocals or keyboards. Somehow all of this is seemlessly built into a sound–probably the most impressive part of the whole project–somehow they manage to make all of these sporadic influences part of a cohesive whole.

The album flows very well, though because of my admittedly poor (read: no) experience with French a lot of the lyrics are pretty much gibberish to me. There is a sense of insanity that permeates the whole record and doesn’t need lyrics (a conveniant blend of English and French) to get across. Each song is individual, but the whole album is definitely a cohesive point of excellent heavy metal writing. However, this is definitely an earphone album, if one ever existed. Because of how much differential instrumentation there is, the number of changes in voicing, etc., it sometimes is very hard to follow unless you’re listening to it very closely. The intricacies will be totally lost on you if you don’t really give it a serious, close listen. Those who have the patience to do so will be greatly rewarded by one of the best albums to have been released in the scene in a very, very long time.

Into the Moat – The Design (Metal Blade, 2005)

Rating: 3.5/5.0

“Holy shit,” I thought to myself when I put this record in, “what the fuck is this?” It all got better from there.  Every swirling, sporadic beat on this album is put perfectly into place, so that it’s practically impossible to groove to, but also impossible to turn off.

I think the best way to describe Into the Moat, for those of you who are unfamiliar with the band, is to put it like this.  Imagine that you had the craziest grindcore you can think of (Gore Beyond Necropsy, for example), with it’s 30 second ideas all thrown into 5 minute songs.  Now, top this off with lyrics about war, and what seems to me to be some sort of gladitorial combat, that are thrown atop this insanity in sporadic bursts, sometimes splitting words into syllables to make it fit the never constant rhythm. Take this technicality, add hardcore breakdowns and fantastic, crisp production (courtesy of the lads in the band and Erik Rutan).  This, my friends, is Into the Moat.

This album is huge on so many levels.  While taking root in traditional grind and hardcore, it merges them in a sporadic foray of incredible musicianship.  Not once does they stop to give you time to breathe or think about the technicality, the brutality, the sheer genius of the song writing until the record is over and your looking at the CD player wondering what the hell just hit you.

What makes this all more impressive is that this is really a debut album from a very young band.  Their first incarnation was a formation in 2001 where the drummer wrote all the music. They were signed to Lovelost Records in 2003, but they only produced an EP.  So for a first time full-length, they’ve produced a monster of a record.

If you’re at all into technical music, buy this record.  You might not listen to it that often, but you will certainly be blown away by what you hear, and anyone who is a fan of genre progression, originality and sheer talent should get their hands on this.

Interview Taken from Unchain the Underground – Written by me in 2005