The Dillinger Escape Plan - Irony is a Dead Scene

Although many bands of the initial hard rock hybridization of the late ‘80s have dwindled away – the Red Hot Chili Peppers have mellowed to commerciality; Jane’s Addiction continue to fumble over reunions – Mike Patton continues to redefine, reinvent and completely subvert the norm without the backdrop of a constant band. His most recent target: the shape-shifting stomp of math-metal gods the Dillinger Escape Plan. As pairing the skin-crawling shriek of Mike Patton with the gnashing, tempo changing heaviness of the Dillinger Escape Plan may sound like the ultimate musical incongruity; it probably is – and that is precisely what makes Irony is a Dead Scene the most welcomed and challenging release in the world of “metal” for quite some time. Despite this matrimony of initial opposites, the cohesion of this EP is uncanny. Dillinger’s raucous music trades punch for punch with Patton’s squall to keep the format perpetually evolving and extremely ambitious – check the knee-shaking intensity of their take on Aphex Twin’s electro-scorching classic “Come to Daddy.” While the Dillinger Escape Plan’s earlier releases carved vocals matching its music under the “hyper-technical metal” tag, Mike Patton adds previously unheard of dynamics to the their intelligence-bleeding slash-and-burn take on hardcore. “Rock Paper Scissors” slices, lashes and writhes with screaming time changes and an ADD-fueled rhythmic stomp that propels Patton’s “mental hospital patient” vocal vibe with a payoff of frenetic, chugging noise that proves how effectively these two reputations compliment each other. The Dillinger Escape Plan collide with their well known kinetic force – the guitars stab your mind like the piercing, serrated knives that register Richter scale-like heaviness. But what ascends this concise four song EP to new, uncharted heights in “metal” and its vast family tree is the accessory of Patton’s hyperactive demented babble and his additive of churning dynamics. Perhaps the most thrilling component to Irony is a Dead Scene is that it actually challenges the rigid rubric found in the vast majority of heavy music - and when only using four songs as an instrument to do so, that, in itself, speaks much louder than any typical headbanging riff or inaudible scream. [www.dillingerescapeplan.com]