On The Dillinger Escape Plan

The Dillinger Escape Plan (TDEP) are a special group, and I would like to talk about why. I have probably listened to roughly 80% of their discography and I was enraptured by their unique style that sought to undo many of the comforts we have in conventional song-writing and musicianship.

Some years ago I was playing a video game called Bioshock in which you — the protagonist — crash land in the middle of the ocean in the opening chapter. The cause of your misfortune is not disclosed. The still floating, burning wreckage that was your plane is slowly sinking and so you are encouraged to alight. Into the nebulous ocean waters.

Fortunately a tower in the middle of the ocean is within swimming distance, it is your only hope for survival. After dragging your apparently capable self out of the ocean waters you enter the base of the tower. A banner reading “No gods or kings. Only man.” greets you. From here things get pretty crazy. An elevator takes you to an undersea city where the brightest scientific minds have created a safe haven for pushing the limits of what humanity can achieve. Unfettered by scruples, all fronts of scientific advancement have been pushed to dizzying heights. Humans have been augmented. They can run faster, they are much stronger and they can shoot fire from their finger-tips (because why not!?). Sub-human creatures act as enforcers of an unspoken law. However, all is not well in Rapture.

Greed and narcissism have won out over nobler pursuits. Self-improvement and self-glorification have enticed inhabitants of Rapture to set totalitarian goals leaving many scraping the bottom of the barrel. Medicaments that augment abilities are also highly addictive which fostered a group insanity within the populace. Their dignity stripped as well as their pockets. This is where you enter.

Cue the track “Fix your face” from TDEPs album “Ire Works”¹.

Delving deeper still into the mysteries of Rapture I continued to listen to TDEP. A better musical match for the peculiar horrors in this underworld is a tall order. Like the denizens of rapture, TDEP is truly manic and schizophrenic. Their track “Lurch”, a song about a stalker reflecting on the object of his desire is as creepy as it is frantic - “…your picture in my pocket I’m obsessed with you”.

Amidst this swirling chaos there are songs that are truly moments of quiet clarity. None more so than, to my mind, the title track from “Dissociation”. Tracks like these invite a more reflective and personal mode, albeit remaining true to the off-kilter sound TDEP work tirelessly to reproduce. A combination of two drum tracks in the chorus drawing in and out of the left and right sides of the stereo image create a sense of being in two states simultaneously. Two-minds. Indecision. Ambiguity. Two narratives, not intended to co-exist but somehow co-existing regardless. I have not heard a better musical representation of these concepts which speaks to the maturity TDEP achieved later in the bands career.

From a sound perspective, TDEP have opted for more barky, rock-sounding guitars - with blazingly high gain to be sure. They are not a metal band but they are also not quite, only a hardcore band. They have created a specific sound. All of these reasons are why TDEP are special and have become an irreplaceable part of the kind of music I have come to love.

I leave you with a final recommendation to listen to the track “When Good Dogs Do Bad Things” from “irony is a dead scene”. It is one of my personal favorites and an uncharacteristically long song for TDEP. It showcases their dynamism while staying true to the narrative they would go on to develop.

R.I.P. TDEP.

Notes

1. How is this from 2007?