The Dillinger Escape Plan +Killer be Killed+ Giraffe Tongue Orchestra Complete Discography

So today I bring you guys my little story with The Dillinger Escape Plan, you see I live in Cordoba, Argentina, which has a form of popular music that mostly lower class listen to called Cuarteto, and I hate it, it's cross between Salsa or Merengue with Polka and Tarantella, it's very loud and uses high pitched instruments like accordions, cheesy keyboards and Wind Sections, literally make your ears hurt. People that listen to the music tend to listen to it very very very loud, like my new neighbors that had two teenage kids that would listen to this shit all day, I would knock on their door three to four times a day pleading with them to lower the volume,  they would lower it for half a hour and jack it up again after that, they were driving me crazy and this went on for three months. And I most note I'm a metal head I love listing to music loud, but I use headphone so I don't bother anyone. So one day I had finished working the night shift and these little shits had the music blasting at 9 in the morning so I flip out, I'm a bass player and I have a  colossal bass speaker, I connected it to my I pad and I put Dillinger`s Ire Works complete, things were falling all over the place in my house, I almost destroyed all off the window in my house, jajajaja. but Neighbors never put their music on ever again and they moved out a month later, so thank you Dillinger.

So guys enjoy my review of this bands albums and Side projects, one must note each review is from a individual post from my blog I just them all together in one post: 

The Dillinger Escape Plan

Calculating Infinity (1999)

Genre: Mathcore, Grindcore, Avant-Garde Metal, Alternative Metal

So this band is my great discovery of 2015, I had no idea that these guys existed. I had discovered them after listing to Killer be Killed, a super band that had Dillinger’s lead singer, Greg Puciato on Guitar and Vocals, so out of curiosity I sat down to listen to Dillinger’s catalogue and I couldn’t believe how good it was, so I’m going to start off reviewing  their first album Calculating Infinity, so here we go ( Note Greg isn’t on this album, the lead vocalist is Dimitri Minakakis):

Vocals and Lyrics: All I can say that Dimitri is very pist off about something. 8

Instrumentation:  The instrumentation is calculated chaos, its probably the best way to describe it.  8

Melody and/or Structure: The stuff is freaking complex it like King Crimson gone crazy. 12 

Sound, Production and Feeling: Pretty basic just the band and their onslaught to your ears, it sound isn’t as heavy, it more frantic and voilent. 8 

Songs: Short but Sweet, it keeps you wanting more. They know that if they overstay they will burn out the listener. 11

Originality: This is some elevated and complicated shit, these guys are really pushing the frontiers of metal. 12

Overall:  59

The Dillinger Escape Plan

Miss Machine (2004) Option Paralysis (2010) and One of us is a Killer

Genre: Mathcore and Experimental Metal

Today I'm going to do something similar to what I did with my previous review that I did for the Deftones, I'm going to talk about three Dillinger Escape Plan albums in one post, they are their second, fourth and fifth album. And why did a bunch these albums  together?

 Well because  they sound pretty similar to each other, and basically Dillinger consolidate their own sound and style, especially in their super technical musical execution, while experimenting a little on each project, with subtle effects on Guitar and Bass and production tricks, basically just enough to keep these albums out of the redundant territories. The track list on each one are super solid and have two types of songs super heavy freak out tracks and slower not as heavy experimental tracks.

Now in the case of Miss Machine it's the first album with Greg Puciato as the lead singer, and he  just does a killer job, plus   we have the first time the band experiments with slower tempo experimental songs with a touch of electronics. And the album has more pedal effects on Guitar and Bass, compared to Calculating Infinity their previous album.

Option Paralysis is probably the heaviest and most aggressive, Greg's sing has evolved, it has some melodic singing in the mix and there is some masterful use of piano on this album at moments, being played by the guitarist Ben Weinman.

And Last but not least we have, One of us is a Killer, this is a back to basics album, very meat and potatoes, songs are strip down but effective and some evolution in guitar techniques. 

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The Dillinger Escape Plan

Genre: Mathcore, Metal Core, Experimental Metal

Ire Works (2007)

Some intense shit in this Album, with some interesting contrasts with more mellow alternative metal tracks and some fascinating experimentation with glichy electronics and production; oh and one song they actually use a horn section which caught me totally by surprise. So the good thing of this  Album is at moments they actually  lets your head rest before they slam on "lets destroy the world apocalypse with our guitars mode", but the strongest moments on the album is where they dabble with new stuff or let Greg show off that he's a great melodic singer that can add melody to the songs without sounding wimpy or trying to sell out for a radio friendly track. Oh and Brent Hinds from Mastodon is a guest on one of the tracks.

Overall: 63.4

Killer be Killed

Killer be Killed (2014)

Genre: Sludge Metal, Groove Metal

Here we have the first and only album from the super group Killer be Killed with Greg Puciato (The Dillinger Escape Plane), Max Cavalera (Soulfly, Cavalera Conspiracy, ex-Sepultura and ex-Nailbomb), Troy Sanders (Mastodon) and David Elitch (The Mars Volta and Antemasque). These guys have put out a pretty straight forward but extremely effective metal album that is highly recommendable for people getting into the heavier side of the genre.

Vocals and Lyrics: Greg, Max, and Troy really do a good job together each one taking turns on each track, they play off each other very well.  10

Instrumentation:  Instrumentally the band sounds great, good chemistry between them it seem as they have been playing for ages with each other.   7.5

Melody and/or Structure: Simple but direct super heavy songs, with good choruses and Greg and Troy  vocally add a good dose of melody to each song.  8

Sound, Production and Feeling: Album sounds great, the band is just rocking  out and letting a lot off steam, and we the listeners just hitch along for the ride. 8.5 

Songs: Surprisingly good songs for a super band, the album is super solid from front to back. 11

Originality: This album is a breath of fresh air in the stagnant world of heavy metal and thanks to it I discovered The Dillinger Escape Plan that left me in total in shock in how good these guys are the first time I listen to them. Also Max should reevaluate the crap his doing lately with Soulfly 10 

Overall: 55

Giraffe Tongue Orchestra

Broken Lines (2016)

Genre: Alternative Metal, Alternative Rock, Indie Rock

So finally I got around to the review this very interesting album that goes in a very different direction  that  I thought this super group would go, instead of being the heaviest most extreme thing ever it dive into alternative rock with a touch of metal and even having a popish flare at moments, not giving a F, jajaja, they basically just make engaging music in any of its forms.

Now who are the members of this super group? First we got Alice in Chains, William DuVall's whose vocal delivery really surprised me it's very different from what he does in Chains, he stretches his legs on this album shown off his whole vocal pallet, taking advantage he's not retrained by the somber mood of Alice's stuff (Note I'm not fan of Alice in Chains, even though they are a fantastic band they  never have been my cup of tea).

Now the guitar work on this album has been a bit of a letdown I was expecting much more having two technical interesting players like Ben Weinman from The  Dillinger Escape Plan and Brent Hinds from Mastodon, their playing is great and enjoyable, but I thought they would work on more complex stuff. What did surprise me was bass player Pete Griffin from Deathklok  his playing is great he makes some good fills and arrangements. On the Drum we have Thomas Pridgen from Mars Volta, brings that band intensity and energy when needed. And I must add the band actually uses a horn section at moments and some keys here and there, adding a lot of color to the songs they are in, probably scaring the hell out of hard core metal heads.

The Songs have a basic pop structure with a couple of surprises, now interesting  thing about this band is their use of melody, I can't put my finger on it, but they try some odd stuff. Also the musical styles they throw into the mix is pretty eclectic and they mix it up in a way that they have they own thing going on, it leaves you scratching your head the first time you listen to it but it grows on you pretty fast. 

Even though the band tries and mixes many musical styles the album is very focused and the track list is very solid, no fillers on this album, so I really recommend this album or at least give it a chance to grow on you. 

 

Overall: 55

The Dillinger Escape Plan

Dissociation (2016)

Genre: Mathcore, Metalcore  Experimental Metal, Alternative Metal

So it seems that this is the bands last album, and boy they go out with a bang, they try some interesting stuff in this production, it seems they didn't want to leave anything out, but what I liked the most was the two  incredible jazz inspired breaks,  a full on electronic inspired song  that's insane and a Deftones inspired ballad at the end. Also the stuff that  they normally do which is make insanely complex and violently aggressive metal still sound fresh and inventive. The album has a couple holy shit moments  and it's the best thing to come out in 2016 by far, so go out and get it, blast it out of your speakers and scare the shit out of your neighbors.

Overall: 61.1