October 22, 1998 - The Dillinger Escape Plan and Under The Running Board

Eight days after my last release a new band joins my library when The Dillinger Escape Plan released their EP "Under The Running Board" on October 22, 1998. But who is The Dillinger Escape Plan? They are a five-piece metal band from Morris Plains, New Jersey and these guys are branching out into some new territory with their style being called either metalcore or mathcore. They consist of bassist Adam Doll, drummer Chris Pennie, rhythm guitarist John Fulton, lead guitarist Ben Weinman and lead singer Dimitri Minakakis. Dillinger don't sound like any other band at this time and it's hard to describe their chaotic style. Let's give them a listen!

The EP opens with a short song called "The Mullet Burden" and it's a perfect introduction as to what Dillinger is all about: super frantic, chaotic and unpredictable riffs and some high, in your face screaming from Minakakis. He's difficult to understand, but his high-pitched screams fit perfectly with the very busy music. The guitars, bass and drums are all pretty damn fast and it's pretty impressive that these guys can play such chaotic music in time with one another. A high-powered intro that makes you really wanna strap in for the rest of the EP! Up next is "Sandbox Magician" and it has some more fast-paced and frantic guitars and while that description is correct, it doesn't do proper justice to the different chaoses that they play. There's a slower part on this one that nicely breaks up the crazy parts and then they oddly end the song on a long and quiet fadeout. Aside from the ending, this was another pretty cool and at the time, quite unique song. Track 3 is "Abe The Cop" and after a slower opening they snap into another super fast riff that at times even makes thrash metal look slow! The speedy guitars sound great to me and Pennie plays a nice drum fill followed by some cool bass by Doll that drives a much more melodic part that even has a bit of clean vocals (though they are nothing special). They wrap things up on a nice note with some more super fast stuff and these guys are just firing off the short but sweet songs. The final track on the EP is a cover of Black Sabbath's "Paranoid" and it's played at possibly three or four times as fast as the original! I love it so much! It sounds great sped up and Minakakis screaming the vocals sounds sweet as well! They switch to a funky second verse with both female and clean vocals by Minakakis and it sounds so out of place, but also kinda good! Weinman then plays a pretty sweet guitar solo and then we have another funky part that is a bit heavier and this is a very unique cover that I was not expecting at all!. It's a speedy final verse to finish things off and I thought this was a really interesting and cool cover of a metal classic.

That is the end of "Under The Running Board" and for being just over 11 minutes long, I thought it was pretty good! This super fast and chaotic style which came to be called mathcore sounds pretty awesome to me and these guys seem really tight already. I especially loved the Black Sabbath cover, but the original songs were all solid as well. I look forward to the first full album from The Dillinger Escape Plan!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

July 24, 2001 - Avenged Sevenfold and Sounding The Seventh Trumpet

It's a double release day! On the same day as my last release another new band joins my library when Avenged Sevenfold released their debut album "Sounding The Seventh Trumpet" on July 24, 2001. But who are Avenged Sevenfold? They are a four-piece metalcore band from Huntington Beach, California consisting of Justin Sane (bass, piano), James "The Rev" Sullivan (drums, percussion), Zacky Vengeance (guitars, backing vocals) and M. Shadows (lead vocals, acoustic guitar, keyboards). Avenged play an interesting mix of heavy metalcore with screaming vocals, but also a very accesible style of metal with singing at others. Let's see what Avenged Sevenfold are all about! The album kicks off with a short intro called "To End The Rapture" and Vengeance plays a nice heavy rhythm guitar riff before coming right in with some soloing! He is just shredding it right from the get-go with some really wicked stuff and then we hear Shadows for the first time in his uni...
Read more

November 6, 2001 - As I Lay Dying and Beneath The Encasing Of Ashes

Two weeks after my last release a new band joins my library when As I Lay Dying released their debut album "Beneath The Encasing Of Ashes" on November 6, 2001. But who is As I Lay Dying? They are a four-piece metalcore band from San Diego, California consisting of lead singer Tim Lambesis, guitarist Evan White, bassist Noah Chase and drummer Jordan Mancino. As I Lay Dying are part of the budding metalcore scene and they play a very heavy style of metal and Lambesis does all screaming vocals. Let's see what AILD is all about! The album begins with the title track "Beneath The Encasing Of Ashes" and things start off with a pretty fast pace led by some heavy, chugging guitars and bass. They break things down not long after getting started and most of the song is at this slower, very brutal sounding pace. Chase's bass is super heavy, White plays some cool guitar that ranges from super low, all the way to super high, and Lambesis can hardly be understood he sound...
Read more

August 28, 2001 - Puddle Of Mudd and Come Clean

On the same day as my last release a new band briefly joins my library when Puddle of Mudd released their debut album "Come Clean" on August 28, 2001. But who is Puddle of Mudd? They are a four-piece post-grunge band from Kansas City, Missouri consisting of lead singer/guitarist Wes Scantlin, guitarist Paul Phillips, bassist Doug Ardito and drummer Greg Upchurch. I'm not a huge Puddle of Mudd fan, I only have two songs by them in my library, but they are both off this album and were both succesful singles. The first one is called "Blurry" and it's got a smooth and catchy light guitar riff that drives the song and Scantlin sings in a solid grunge-y voice overtop. They ramp nicely from the verse to the chorus and it's a nice heavy chorus with some louder guitars and a solid chorus sung by Scantlin. It's a little repetitive, but things still sound pretty smooth and solid and I think it's a good but not great song. The only other song I have is ...
Read more