The Dillinger Escape Plan

Flying guitarists are a lot more common in this line of work than you might think.

Related Acts:

• Arcane (former band of Ben Weinman, Chris Pennie and Dmitri Minakakis)
• Coheed and Cambria (former drummer Chris Pennie currently plays in them)
• Jesuit (former guitarist Brian Benoit played in them, alongside future Converge bassist Nate Newton)
• Mike Patton (collaborated for one EP)
• Starkweather (Liam Wilson)

The Dillinger Escape Plan is a Metalcore band from New Jersey. They formed in 1997 after the split-up of Arcane, a fairly run-of-the-mill hardcore band that guitarist Ben Weinman, drummer Chris Pennie and singer Dmitri Minakakis played in. Building on the proto-mathcore sound of bands like Converge, Cave In and Botch, they developed an extremely technically demanding mathcore style based on speedy tempos, furious time-signature changes, shouted/screamed vocals and jarring shifts in rhythm and tone. Following the release of their first album, their music started to become even more experimental, incorporating sung vocals, industrial & electronic textures and a greater interest in melody.

Despite what the above description might suggest and their being arguably one of the most extreme bands in the world, they maintain a decidedly light-hearted approach to their music (especially in a genre known for po-faced-ness) and their songs are much more quirky and eccentric than might be expected. The band has had numerous lineup changes, to the point that lead guitarist Ben Weinman is the sole remaining founding member.

The current line-up consists of:

• Greg Puciato (vocals)
• Ben Weinman (guitar, backing vocals, piano, electronics, management)
• Jeff Tuttle (rhythm guitar, backing vocals)
• Liam Wilson (bass)
• Billy Rymer (drums)

Studio albums and other releases:

• The Dillinger Escape Plan (1997) - EP
• Under The Running Board (1998) - EP
• Calculating Infinity (1999)
• Irony is a Dead Scene (2002) - an EP-length collaboration with Mike Patton
• Miss Machine (2004)
• Plagiarism (2006) - EP
• Ire Works (2007)
• Option Paralysis (2010)

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The band provides examples of:

• Ascended Fanboy: Greg was a fan of the band prior to joining.
• Cover Version: Among others, "Come To Daddy" by Aphex Twin (recorded with Mike Patton on vocals), "Wish" by Nine Inch Nails (Greg and Ben later joined NIN onstage at a gig in Australia to perform the song) and "Fight The Power" by Public Enemy.
• Epic Rocking: "Mouth of Ghosts" and "Widower"
• Harsh Vocals
• I Am the Band: Ben Weinman is the band's main creative force, manager and only remaining founding member. He's not entirely happy with this arrangement, however; in an interview around the release of Option Paralysis, he said that he hoped the present Dillinger line-up would be the last one.
• Indecipherable Lyrics: Surprisingly averted - Greg's vocals are quite harsh but the lyrics remain easy to understand.
• Metalcore: A sub-genre called mathcore.
• Mohs Scale of Rock and Metal Hardness: Either a high 9 or a low 10. Their softer passages go down to anywhere from a 3 to a 6.
• Mood Whiplash: Happens pretty often, like on their cover of "Paranoid".
• Neoclassical Punk Zydeco Rockabilly: A weird mix of avant-garde metal, math rock, hardcore punk, jazz, noise, industrial and what have you.
• Performance Video: "Panasonic Youth" and "Farewell, Mona Lisa".
• Pun-Based Title: "Panasonic Youth", fnarr fnarr.
• Refuge in Audacity: Their live shows.
• Revolving Door Band: Two vocalists, five guitarists, three bassists and three drummers over the course of fourteen years.
• Rockers Smash Guitars: Hoo boy, definitely. And not just guitars either, for that matter.
• Scary Musician, Harmless Music: An inversion - they look like a harmless indie rock band, but just wait till you hear them play...
• Surprisingly Gentle Song: Started to pop up with more frequency from Miss Machine onwards. Examples include "Unretrofied", "Setting Fire to Sleeping Giants", "Black Bubblegum", "Milk Lizard", "Mouth of Ghosts", and "Widower" (the latter's an honest-to-goodness Power Ballad).
• Uncommon Time: Weird time signatures and stuttering off-beats are what their core sound is based around. In fact, Dillinger songs in Common Time are the exception, rather than the rule. To give you an idea of how prevalent this trope is, there is a rumour (probably apocryphal) that they determine their time signatures by throwing dice.
• Word Puree Title: "*#..".
• Word Salad Lyrics: The lyrics on Calculating Infinity consisted almost exclusively of this. Greg's lyrics are substantially less nonsensical.