Dillinger Escape Plan, The - Calculating Infinity (1999) Reviews

Some of you know who Dillinger was, right? John Dillinger was a 1930s criminal known for his bank robberies and prison escapes. A friend of the band's, Matt Makowski was watching a documentary about John Dillinger which gave Matt the idea for the band name, The Dillinger Escape Plan! After that, TDEP went on to record two EPs; the self-titled EP and Under the Running Board. Both of those albums helped establish the genre mathcore, stemmed from a mix of grind-punk with thrash, experimental, and progressive metal. Then there was the first few of many line-up changes the band had throughout their career. Bassist Adam Doll suffered a major spinal injury in a minor car accident, which left him paralyzed from the chest below. He's OK, but he lost the dexterity to play bass and has since played keyboards with the band on brief occasions. Guitarist John Fulton left as well with Brian Benoit taking that spot. Vocalist Dimitri Minakakis would have his last studio effort with the band making this album.

The album title Calculating Infinity makes some sense because the music is so strange and complex that there are infinite possibilities of how their sound would go. That's one of the things about math metal that keeps it together. It's mathematical! After Dillinger's two grind-punk EPs, Calculating Infinity explodes in brilliant venomous combustion, expanding on the aggressive technical grindcore that would establish the band's signature mathcore.

Dillinger opens the gateway to mathcore with "Sugar Coated Sour" in a percussive barrage. Minakakis’ feral yells show some of the band's brutality, then around the 40-second mark, the band's inner jazz fusion comes in before continuing the artful yet punchy staccato descent into madness. Nothing else on this album can work on that compound inversion. Nothing except "43% Burnt", the most popular track in this album. The fans love it enough for the song to remain a staple in the band's stage setlist. The song opens with screeching chords, before continuing into what may be the anthem of mathcore. The last minute and a half is just a trance-inducing mantra that slowly fades out. I think that's the 43% of the song that's burnt. The song still has a lot of the potential the band has offered; a playful section, atmospheric guitar, enraged lyrics, and more tempo changes than most other bands' albums. Beautiful yet defiant! However, "Jim Fear" is pretty much more straight-forward than complicated. The mix is more overwhelming than impressive with visceral impact. "*#.." is an interlude that starts ambient before an aggressive yet soft-sounding metallic hardcore twist fades in.

"Destro's Secret" has more of Minakakis’ yelling along with grumbling and chanting, along with a jazzy interior before one of the more violent sections of the album. "The Running Board" is a song that probably works better in the Under the Running Board EP. After a chaotic minute, the song switches to a western noir theme that escalates into some more jazz fusion. Still there's no denying that the song is a hardcore anthem for metalheads. "Clip the Apex…Accept Instruction" continues the impeccable tightness with guitars of tangling destruction, then just when you think the band has settled their sound into sanity, the sound rises into an amp-ruining wall of noise.

Then just when your eardrums are about to burst, it switches to the title interlude. It's softer with some guitar crunch before building up building into the maximum tension needed for the next track. "4th Grade Dropout" continues the guitar string-striking terror, followed by a drum break that rises into melodic experimental post-hardcore. More hyper-speed repetition while keeping the band's creative steam! There's one more interlude here, "Weekend Sex Change" which is kind of a nice summarizing sound collage. "Variations on a Cocktail Dress" is a memorable closer for this album, once again putting together the band's destructive force with their small jazz movements. After Minakakis' roared out final lines, there's 3 minutes of silence, leading up to an eerie grating noise with samples from the 1959 Diary of Anne Frank film.

The album has the band's Cynic-like guitars, bass, and jazz breaks; extreme metal drumming that combines offbeat jazz with the aggressive technicality of Cryptopsy; and raw spine-chilling hardcore vocals. This would surely be appreciated by people who understand the band's chaotic complex genius. So mathematical!

Favorites: Sugar Coated Sour, 43% Burnt, The Running Board, Weekend Sex Change, Variations on a Cocktail Dress