Review by Shadowdoom9 (Andi) for Dillinger Escape Plan, The - One of Us Is the Killer (2013)
Ever since their 1997 formation, The Dillinger Escape Plan have combined death metal, hardcore, and art-prog to spawn the genre mathcore, or more specifically grind-tech-math-metalcore. They've released 5 awesome albums at that point, and one of them is another killer album, One of Us is the Killer!
On their fifth album, TDEP have a lot of extreme in their hands, but some of it is lost to construct songs with more melodic motifs. Their song-craft journey that they can still poly-rhythmic thrash metalcore choruses more barbaric than Conan the Barbarian while making more poppy numbers that would allow them to guest appear in Conan the talk show. It may sound selling out, but they can still be as extreme as they want to be.
The album's smashing opener "Prancer" once again continues the tradition of swinging straight into action. Off beat melodies shine in a considerate pace. The chaos doesn't come down when they kick off "When I Lost My Bet", probably the album's best song. It weaves riffs and setting off blast beats more powerful than a time bomb. This is a manic, intense song with no control. The title track is start of the straight-forward experimentation in the album, with dreamy jazz verses and more catchy than extreme choruses. Despite the song sounding a bit different, it still feels like something TDEP would do.
"Hero of the Soviet Union" is a nice comeback to the Miss Machine era. It has chaotic rhythms and a breakdown that drives you out of a city down a (survivable) cliff as Greg Puciato screams his lungs out, "YOU SMEAR YOUR FILTH ACROSS THE WORLD!!" The next track "Nothing's Funny" is a nice mathcore song with funny sound effects like licks that sound like a scurrying swarm of locusts. "Understanding Decay" sounds like a song that didn't make it into Option Paralysis which is understandable. Groovy hooks break down into creepy melodic bass sections. "Paranoia Shields" is definitely a typical TDEP song that can be in any of their albums. Vocals range from threatening singing to vicious shouting and screaming, and the instruments range between odd leads, driving rhythms, and intricate drums.
When you see a song title like "CH 375 268 277 ARS" that sounds a book ISBN or something, you know that there's going to be a digitally distorted hardcore interlude going on, and there is! "Magic That I Held You Prisoner" has some wild riff-wrath similar to many of their other songs along with uncontrolled drumming and a melodic chorus. Another outstanding track is the sludgy "Crossburner". "Phone Home" Part 2, baby!! Moody bass and mechanical distortion scatter over guitars while making the song more violent than a deadly earthquake. The madness would have a good grip on you and shake you hard. This is one of the best songs that don't make my top 5 favorites in this album. Then there's one more track, "The Threat Posed by Nuclear Weapons", a fitting raging finale. The band fires more shots of mathcore adrenaline with face-breaking screaming. Then after calming down for a bit, the chaos gets back up again to finish off the song and the album.
Unlike other hardcore metalheads who can cause abuse to the innocent with their music and lyrics, TDEP knows who or mostly what they can take their abuse out on. TDEP are not a college hardcore band anymore, and have evolved into functioning adults who have unleashed their precision with no denial of fun chaos. They released an album that has a little more slow melody balanced with the usual contorted rage. You'll definitely be headbanging at some extreme choruses like metalheads always do....
Favorites: Prancer, When I Lost My Bet, One of Us is the Killer, Nothing's Funny, Paranoia Shields