Monday, 2 September 2013

The Dillinger Escape Plan: 7 Of The Best

 
If anyone knows me, or has seen my Last.fm stats from the last few days pop up on their Facebook page you'll know that I've been addicted to this band, The Dillinger Escape Plan.
I've become a fan of theirs since their latest release in May, but to be honest I suppose I had kinda fallen out of them in the last few months but I recently listened to "Prancer", and I don't know what, but something clicked and for about 3 or 4 days I've literally listened to nothing but Dillinger.

I did this weeks Track Of The Week on single "Prancer" but I couldn't help myself doing this, plus the Nine Inch Nails one went over real well and got a few people interested so I thought I'd do this again and maybe start making this a regular piece on this blog (not sure about it being weekly but regular).

So yeah, like the NIN list this is MY list, if your don't down with it, let me know in the comments or on the Facebook page, whatever just don't be silent.
Like I said I have just gotten into Dillinger this last few months, after hearing the lead single "Prancer" I was literally in love, it was similar to what I felt when I first heard "Underwater Bimbos From Outer Space" by Every Time I Die, it was brutal and I think I might have just been in an angry, more brutal mood at the time.
I had resisted them for years, I know for a fact why I did this; I mistook them for The Gaslight Anthem and thought they were some indie band trying to be a punk band....yeah clearly I was wrong haha!
Enough of the intro (I've typed WAY too much tonight, I kinda just want to copy and paste now), here's the list, in no real order either, and again its less formal and more like a casual conversation.
Enjoy!


“Prancer"
I’ve actually went over this song in detail in this week’s Track Of The Week, so I don’t feel like I need to talk much about the track itself, but I suppose I can give some background to why it’s my clear, numero uno favourite Dillinger track.
Like I said above, I mistook these guys for The Gaslight Anthem for the longest time, and then I don’t know, for some reason I checked out “Prancer” and my mind was literally blown away! The heaviness, the constant thrashing, Greg Puciato’s wails, it was everything I loved in a song, and to tie it all off, it had a melody and tune to it that was catchy and I don’t know, fun I guess. After listening a few times I found their live performance at this year’s Golden Gods Awards show and that just sealed the deal; Dillinger Escape Plan were now one of my favourite bands. I went ahead and got a hold of their entire discography, and then bought tickets for their Glasgow show in November very soon after that.


“Milk Lizard”
After getting their back catalogue I went ahead and listened, and honestly it was a shock to me (much like when I first listened to Nine Inch Nails), there was obviously this metalcore vibe that was always there but they also had this sort of jazz-like experimental side where songs just didn’t run in a straight line, instead took sharp turns in tempo and feel. This did take me back a step, though luckily I had listened to a lot of Eighteen Visions (obviously) and their early work did the same, changing tempo and sound multiple times through a song, so this did help me get round this feature of Dillinger’s work.
With “Milk Lizard” though, man that’s just an amazing track, in a word its ‘fun’. It’s got this awesome energy that kicks in straight away, much like “Prancer”, it sounds like a Formula 1 race, it’s just so fast paced and then BANG, your hit with the slower chorus that’s a great example of this jazz-inspired uncertainty.
These slow choruses are needed; the listener needs time to recoup from the fiery pace of the verses, so fast that it takes all your concentration just to be able to make out what the hell Puciato’s saying!
As far as I remember this was one of the first songs that I really enjoyed from the get-go after having heard “Prancer”.


“Farewell, Mona Lisa”
This is a song that I have just recently gotten into (by recently I mean in the last few days), I mean I’ve always loved that start; the lone guitar strums echoing reminds me of like a western or something, very Clint Eastwood.
“Farewell…” really rides the unpredictability to its fullest, changing sound and tempo a number of times in the song to a number of different speeds and sounds. Though when the song gets slow, about a third of the way into the song it just strikes me, I guess it’s my love for slower songs (which has become way too apparent since reviewing songs as of late haha). Puciato’s vocals get clean though the intensity is still there in the building instrumentals in the background till it smashes into a sort of breakdown that leads to the climax of the song.


“Black Bubblegum”
One thing I love about Dillinger is that they seem to be able to tackle any sort of song type, and on this one it seems like they take a pop song and add their own brand of metalcore/mathcore (some kind of “core”) and they produce an incredible sounding track.
Puciato screams very little in this song, sure he raises his voice and maybe even goes as far as yelling, but the highlight (at least for me) is his soft vocals during the choruses, just shows this bear of a man really can do practically anything vocal-range wise.
The song sounds clean, you can hear all vocals, you can hear all guitars and drums, the bass is clearly chugging away, all in all this is something that I had not really heard before from Dillinger; a clean sounding rock song, no sudden changes in the sound or tune, just straight-forward rock.
Also, that tune is sooo damn catchy, after listening to it you’ll literally be humming it all day long haha.

“One Of Us Is The Killer”
When I first got into the band their latest album had just hit shelves, and with “Prancer” being from it and my instant love for it I figured that ‘One Of Us Is The Killer’ would be the best place to start off. So I listened to it, it’s hard, it’s fast, it’s unpredictable, then I came to this song….yeah this isn’t fast, it’s got a pretty easy going song-scheme and it’s really not that hard apart from a few chorus appearances.
This was not what I thought Dillinger were about, but I listened and I came to love it after just one listen. Its charm was that it was slower and even almost methodical; when the harder thrash parts come up you get the sense that they are so well mapped out and that the band had been meticulous with the length of them, the placement, the instruments, everything about it. Though slower, I’d say it’s possibly one of the darkest tracks on the album.


“Paranoia Shields”
This is another case of being a song I have JUST gotten into majorly, I remember yesterday morning waking up and having this part of the song in my head, I knew it was Dillinger but had no idea what song it was. I don’t know where it came from either; just woke up and had this unbelievable urge to listen to this song, whatever it was.
So I found it and listened to it all, and loved it, I mean it’s got the usual sound of Dillinger; hard and thrashy at parts, tempo changes a-plenty, honestly I’d say it reminds me a lot of “Farewell, Mona Lisa” where it was the slower chorus part that caught my interest first and then I got my head around the heavy aspect of the track.


“Chinese Whispers”
This song is so damn similar to “Milk Lizard”; it’s got an insane pace during its verses, Puciato’s vocals are razor sharp and lightening quick but then when we hit the chorus the tempo smoothens out and we get a slower turn for the song.
It’s also got an aspect of “Black Bubblegum” where the tune is so catchy it could work easily as pop or dance track, plus the vocals are clear for the most part and it isn’t overly heavy or not for the majority of the song at least. Something that I haven’t spoken about really is the incredibly skilled Ben Weinman, Dillinger’s guitarist, his presence is obvious on every song but this one especially, the song’s tune would be nowhere near as catchy or rhythmic as it is if it wasn’t for his playing.
I also really like Greg lyrics here, I don’t know why, but they just seem to flow so well, sure they maybe aren’t the most complex he’s every written, but the simplicity works here.


“Heat Deaf Melted Grill”
I’ve added an eighth since “Prancer” had kinda been done already, plus this song is pretty short and doesn’t have too much going on.
I do remember I got into this the same time that I got into “Farewell, Mona Lisa”, it’s got this great opening violin that just paints such a moody picture; it sounds dark and twisted, like something straight out of a Tim Burton film. The song itself is almost instrumental, with not too many lyrics, and what there is I’m pretty sure is from the track “Gold Teeth On A Bum”, the real appeal of this song and what makes it one of my top tracks has to be the atmosphere it creates; with background hums and dark sounding instrumentals it just brings together something that sounds dark, similar to that of “One Of Us Is The Killer”.



So yeah, there you have it peeps, my favourite 7 (but it’s really kinda 8 isn’t it) songs by a band that have rapidly became one of the toppers on my list. Furious and fast, methodical and slow; The Dillinger Escape Plan seem to be able to do it all, and they do!

Hopefully any fans of the band enjoyed this list/review thingy but if you have a different list, let me know, don’t fret in posting it up.
Post in the comments, post your own list or head on over to the Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/theghostchant).

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