The Dillinger Escape Plan is an American matcore band from New Jersey. The name of the group comes from the bank robber John Dillinger.
The band created a true mix of progressive metal and free jazz and pioneered math hardcore.
It was interesting to watch the guys, since none of the musical groups did such experiments.
The young and energetic members of The Dillinger Escape Plan have redefined the possibilities of hardcore. During its existence, the musical group has visited more than 50 countries around the world.
How did it all start with the Dillinger Escape Plan?
The Dillinger Escape Plan was formed in 1997 from the hardcore punk trio Arcane. Before the trio, Adam Doll, Craig McKeon, John Fulton and Chris Penny played in the bands Samsara and Malfactor (1992-1997).
With the support of Tom Apostolopus and Ben Weinman, the band recorded a self-titled demo of The Dillinger Escape Plan.
In 1997, the first EP was released on Nowor Never Records, which consisted of six tracks. After the release of the mini-album, there was a small tour of clubs in America. Shortly before the first tour with a new name, guitarist Derek Brantley left the band. He was replaced by John Fulton.
The Dillinger Escape Plan band became famous for their gigs, which are insanely wild and sometimes violent. Soon, the famous label Relapse Records drew attention to the group, with which she signed a contract. Soon a second EP was released called Under the Running Board. Almost immediately after the release of this release, Fulton left the band due to creative differences.
Calculating Infinity (1999-2001)
The first full-length album Calculating Infinity was released in 1999. Before recording the album, bassist Adam Doll was in a car accident. He was paralyzed due to a spinal injury.
The injury turned out to be serious only due to the fact that at the time of the collision, Adam bent over the disk. Guitar and bass parts were recorded by guitarist Weinman. Bass parts were mostly taken from Doll's work.
Before the start of the tour in support of the album, guitarist Brian Benoist joined the band. Jeff Wood of MOD played bass. Calculating Infinity was met with positive reviews from the underground and mainstream press. The band caught the attention of former Faith No More vocalist Mike Patton. He invited The Dillinger Escape Plan to tour with Mr. Bungle.
Every day, samples, lighting effects, fireworks, fire were added to the live performances of the group. The guys were not shy about doing experiments. After the tour, including performances on the Warped Tour and March Metal Melt Down, Wood left the band to work on a personal musical project.
In 2000, Now or Never Records re-released The Dillinger Escape Plan with the tracks. A little later, Minakakis left the group. The musician called the intensive schedule of concerts the main reason, but the group continues to communicate with him.
Irony Isa Dead Scene EP (2002-2003)
The Dillinger Escape Plan has begun an active search for a new vocalist. The announcement was posted on the band's official website. In addition, an instrumental version of 43% Burnt from the album Calculating Infinity was released.
Continuing the search, the vocal parts were performed by friends of the group, among whom was Sin Ingram from the band Coalesce and Mike Patton, who agreed to help the group in publishing an EP. When Mike Patton recorded the vocals, the EP was released and the band was already playing gigs with Greg Puciato.
The EP Irony Is a Dead Scene was released by Epitaph Records. The vocals on the album were performed by Mike Patton, Adam Doll helped with keyboards, sampled digital effects. The EP was the last release by The Dillinger Escape Plan, featuring Doll.
The EP featured four songs. One of them was a cover version of the Come To Daddy song by Aphex Twin. The album was also released on limited edition vinyl with the help of Buddyhead Records.
Album by The Dillinger Escape Plan: Miss Machine (2004-2005)
In late 2001, the band finally accepted Greg Puciato. For the first time he took part in a concert as part of the CMJ Music Festival 2001 in New York. The band soon recorded two songs for the Black Flag cover compilation.
In 2003, Baby's First Coffin was featured on the Underworld soundtrack compilation. By the way, this was the first officially released composition of the group with Greg on vocals. In 2004, the guys recorded a cover version of My Michelle. It was featured on the Guns N' Roses tribute album Bring You to Your Knees.
On July 20, 2004, the band's first full-length album featuring Puciato was released on Relapse Records. The release was called Miss Machine. The album was released with a circulation of 12 thousand copies in the first week of sales.
After the release of the album, fans of the Dillinger Escape Plan group were divided into two categories. The first ones were very critical of the band for excessive artistry and a strong difference from the first albums. And the latter, on the contrary, began to practically deify the group.
The controversial and rather controversial release was followed by concerts for two years. Basically, The Dillinger Escape Plan acted as headliners. However, she also performed as an opening act for such bands as Slipknot, System of a Down and Megadeth. The tour was not without injury. In late 2004, guitarist Benoit damaged the nerve endings on his left hand. And he was able to return to the stage only in 2005.
Plagiarism (2006)
In June 2006, an exclusive EP titled Plagiarism was released on iTunes. The release was a collection of cover versions performed by The Dillinger Escape Plan. That same year, the first DVD, Miss Machine: The DVD, was released. During the recording of Plagiarism, James Love played guitar. In the summer of 2006, the band went on tour as a support band with AFI and Coheed and Cambria.
Four shows before the end of the tour, Weinman went home for undisclosed personal reasons. Greg Puciato said that the reason was the growing tension between Weinman and Chris Penny. On August 4, the band played their first show as a four-piece in Indianapolis, Indiana, at the Murat Theater Egyptian Room. In 2007, it was announced that Weinman left the group due to health problems and insufficient financial situation.
While on tour, Coheed and Cambria approached Chris Penny to join them as their drummer on a full-time basis. Penny agreed. As a result, by the end of 2007 The Dillinger Escape Plan was left without a drummer.
Album by The Dillinger Escape Plan: Ire Works (2007-2009)
In 2007, the band completed work on the next full-length album, Ire Works, which was produced by Steve Evetts. Recording took place at his personal studio Omen Room in Los Angeles.
The drums were recorded at Sonikwire Studios in California. On June 15, 2007, The Dillinger Escape Plan announced the title of the album. She also announced that Chris Penny had moved to Coheed and Cambria. Instead of Chris, Gil Sharon of the Stolen Babies recorded drums on the album.
The album Ire Works was released on November 13, 2007, which debuted at number 142 on the Billboard 200 with sales of approximately 7 copies. However, the position soon changed, as the label Relapse Records did not take into account pre-sales. As a result of the recalculation, the figure increased to 11 thousand copies.
Guitarist Brian Benoit took part in the recording of the album. However, he was unable to take part in the subsequent tour due to illness. In his place was Jeff Tuttle from Capture the Flag (Tuttle did not participate in the recording). The album Ire Works found both commercial success and positive reviews from music critics.
An interesting comment appeared in an article on the pages of Allmusic: "The Dillinger Escape Plan needs to be careful, otherwise they have all the prerequisites to become something like Radiohead in metalcore." On February 6, 2008, two compositions of the group “broke through” on television in the United States.
The track Milk Lizard can be heard in the movie CSI: NY (episode Playing With Matches). The band played the song Black Bubblegum live as part of the TV show Late Night with Conan O'Brien. In January 2009, Gil Sharon left the band. Billy Rymer became the new drummer.
In 2009, The Dillinger Escape Plan performed in Australia at the Soundwave 2009 festival. At this festival, the guys shared the stage with Nine Inch Nails.
Albums by The Dillinger Escape Plan: Option Paralysis and One of Us Is the Killer
On May 27, 2009, Weinman announced that the band had formed the label Party Smasher Inc. This project was realized in collaboration with the French label Season of Mist. In May 2010, The Dillinger Escape Plan released their fourth album on the new label. Recorded by Steve Evetts.
The album was called Option Paralysis. According to Puciato, it became the toughest in the history of the group and in his musical career. The tour in support of the album began in December 2009 from North America.
In February and March, the band played several shows with Darkest Hour, Animals as Leaders and I Wrestled a Bear Once as headliners. The band received the Golden Gods award from Revolver magazine in the Best Underground Band category.
After touring Europe, the band participated in the Warped Tour 2010 festival (June 24 to August 15). On January 12, 2011, in an interview with Metal Injection Livecast, Greg Puciato revealed that the band was working on new material. And it will be released as an EP or as a full length album in 2012. However, in 2011 the band toured with the Deftones. It lasted nine weeks (from April to June).
At the end of 2011 and at the beginning of 2012 concerts with the Mastodon group took place in the USA and Great Britain. Then there was a performance at the Soundwave festival in Australia. In August 2012, Jeff Tuttle left the band.
On November 21, the group presented a video in which they announced the release of the album in the spring of 2013. She also announced the signing of a record deal with Sumerian Records.
On November 24, the band took part in the California Metalfest. She has performed with bands such as Killswitch Engage and As I Lay Dying. A few weeks after the shows, Weinman announced that James Love would be the new guitarist. He had already played with the band on tour in support of the Miss Machine album.
Album One of Us Is the Killer
On February 13, 2013, the title of the fifth album, One of Us Is the Killer, was announced. The album was released on May 14, 2013. The release was preceded by a six-minute teaser posted by the band on YouTube. On August 23, the first video clip of When I Lost My Bet appeared. The music video was directed by Mitch Massie.
In 2016, the band members announced that in 2017 the band would cease activities. The guys then released their latest album, Dissociation.
In 2017, The Dillinger Escape Plan performed a concert tour in support of the new album. The band members did not forget to keep their promise. At the last concert, the leader of the group announced the termination of the activities of the musical group.
The Dillinger Escape Plan is a musical band that, thanks to its informal views on hardcore, will remain in the hearts of billions of "fans".
