The Dillinger Escape Plan - One of Us is the Killer

Perhaps more than any other band, The Dillinger Escape Plan is responsible for the style of "mathcore" - a subgenre of heavy music which makes a virtue out of constructing the most convoluted rhythmic passages possible, and eviscerating any melodic theme which might attempt to emerge. Yet Dillinger has an instinct for something that many of their imitators fail to grasp - complete unpredictability lacks the capacity to surprise the listener. Where Dillinger distinguishes themselves is in their uncanny ability to set up an expectation, and then thwart it - sometimes in the coarse of mere seconds. You don't need to get past the first 10 minutes of One of Us is the Killer to have this experience time and time again, and the results can be mind boggling. It's exhilerating, and even if DEP's approach started and ended with this trick, it would be enough to have me coming back for each new album they release. Admittedly, this style of composition has a niche audience.

Within extreme metal and hardcore, DEP has few competitors from the standpoint of being a prototypical "musician's band" - Meshuggah being an obvious example. For me, contrasting the two groups gives insight into the divergence of the respective ethos of metal and hardcore. Meshuggah has spent a career cultivating an immersive and idiosyncratic musical landscape, and constrained their musical developments to the thorough exploration of its possibilities. To make the point more plainly, they've created a signature atmosphere. I would argue that this is one of the hallmarks of heavy metal (and often classical), as opposed to hardcore (and often jazz) - the attempt to make the listener forget that they are listening to a group of people playing instruments in a room.  Listening to DEP, the awareness of the band-as-musicians is never really absent. If I might naively borrow a theatrical concept that I know little about in order to frame my over-simplification: heavy metal leaves the fourth wall intact; hardcore never had one.

The upshot of that slightly abstruse excursion is that, stylistically, DEP seems content to throw anything and everything into the mix on their albums. This makes for a very interesting listen, but the impact of each song for a particular listener is likely to be something of a crapshoot. To take this discussion completely back to earth, when DEP aims for a mid-tempo track coupled with Greg Puciato's screaming/melodic hybrid vocals, I just don't think the results always sound particularly good.

Blah blah, here's a great track from One of Us is the Killer: