Teufel's Tomb » Album Reviews » The Dillinger Escape Plan “Ire Works”
Album Reviews
The Dillinger Escape Plan “Ire Works”

The Dillinger Escape Plan
Ire Works

Genre:MathcoreFormat:CDTracks:13
Label:Relapse RecordsYear:2007

I have never been able to get into The Dillinger Escape Plan. The hype for the band has been incessant since Calculating Infinity, but what I’ve heard of the band has never interested me. Their albums shift units for Relapse and give the label a bit of mainstream press. Of course, one can say the same about Cephalic Carnage, and I can sometimes get behind them.

What turns me away from The Dillinger Escape Plan is the idea that if I don’t like them, I’m too stupid to get their music. It doesn’t matter how playing mathematically-inspired polyrhythms doesn’t mean an ass in a high hat if the songs are boring. No, I just don’t get it. I clearly lack the knowledge of music theory necessary to comprehend how great The Dillinger Escape Plan are and how singer Greg Puciato beats up Sturgeon’s Revelation with his cock alone.

The only “experimental” elements I hear on Ire Works (GET IT!?! IT’S A PUN) are some glitch noise on some songs, plus a few commercially-oriented tracks like “Black Bubblegum,” “Dead As History” and “Milk Lizard.”

Since when is becoming Faith No More and adding electronic music to mathy hardcore experimental? Farting into a microphone for twelve minutes and shouting names from the phone book would prompt cries of “MY GOD! THIS IS A DARING, INTROSPECTIVE WORK OF GENIUS!” from the more easily led Dillinger Escape Plan fans. Bait, cast, hook. They’ll follow the band anywhere.

The Dillinger Escape Plan do have some worth as a gateway band. If they eventually turn people on to Carbonized and Pan.Thy.Monium, that’s good. All the same, Ire Works is hardly worthy of such deafening, can’t-do-anything-wrong hype. Hey, DEP are on “top ten of 2007″ lists, so what do I know? Those lists surely aren’t influenced by advertising dollars and scenesterism! BAA! BAA!

This Album Is...
Mediocre
Very "Meh!" Not Worth The Money!
Review byThe Ultimate Mark
COMMENTS (24)
  1. Teufel wrote:
    July 2, 2009 at 2:12 am

    I feel pretty much the same way about this album and band. I never understood their appeal. Their music bores me to sleep.

  2. megatron wrote:
    July 2, 2009 at 2:27 am

    Mike Patton actually DID release a record with farting in the mic and shouting from the phonebook.

  3. Dysenteric wrote:
    July 2, 2009 at 2:48 am

    > “What turns me away from The Dillinger Escape Plan is the idea that if I don’t like them, I’m too stupid to get their music. It doesn’t matter how playing mathematically-inspired polyrhythms doesn’t mean an ass in a high hat if the songs are boring. No, I just don’t get it. I clearly lack the knowledge of music theory necessary to comprehend how great The Dillinger Escape Plan are and how singer Greg Puciato beats up Sturgeon’s Revelation with his cock alone.”

    When I was arguing that Genghis Tron sucked last year, I got that “you’re too stupid to like them” rebuttal thrown at me too. Is this a new ideology doing the rounds on the indie hipster circuit, or is this simply a time-tested argument?

    And another thing: what is ‘Ire Works’ a pun of?

  4. fffffff wrote:
    July 2, 2009 at 3:06 am

    Fireworks. Ire meaning anger.

  5. Hardcire Superstar wrote:
    July 2, 2009 at 4:55 am

    Yes, you clearly are too stupid to get the genius of DEP.

    • Teufel wrote:
      July 2, 2009 at 3:46 pm

      And you’re clearly too stupid to spell “Hardcore.”

      • al wrote:
        July 2, 2009 at 9:41 pm

        haha hes such an angry fanboy that he subconsciously wrote “Ire”. while angrily mashing.

        pfft…Avant-Garde art nerds. Maths wont help you HERE!

  6. asathor wrote:
    July 2, 2009 at 10:22 am

    Calculating Infinity was a pretty decent album, if only because the vocalist back then actually sounded pissed off. I stopped caring about this band all together once they got Greg “I want to be Mike Patton” Puciato.

  7. UpInSmoke wrote:
    July 2, 2009 at 12:45 pm

    Nothing about this band appeals to me, I don’t care what all the hype says or what people have to say about their “musical genius.”

  8. Fuck off wrote:
    July 2, 2009 at 4:45 pm

    I enjoy them but don’t think they are the best band ever. Also anyone that says you are too stupid to get a certain band deserves to have their testicles ripped out through their eye socket, last i checked intelligence is not a prerequisite for enjoyment. Honestly anyone that says that shit is probably mentally retarded any way.

  9. wizardofgore wrote:
    July 3, 2009 at 9:06 am

    I’m not intelligent enough to enjoy slam metal

  10. Jared wrote:
    July 3, 2009 at 10:59 am

    I actually found this to be quite a favorable review.

  11. Tomes of Deceit wrote:
    July 6, 2009 at 8:07 pm

    Miss Machine is my favorite from them. That album is awesome. I’m not surprised that a lot of death metal fans don’t like DEP though.

    Ire Works had some cool elements but I didn’t like that all of the more intense tracks were so short. They didn’t seem like complete songs. And Black Bubble Gum is absolutely horrible.

    It’s ok to not like DEP, but anyone who denies their creativity or talent is probably just doing it out of spite for the band’s style, popularity, or fanbase.

    It’s like The Mars Volta. I can’t stand them anymore, but saying they lack creativity or talent would be a little foolish of me…

  12. Shaw wrote:
    July 8, 2009 at 7:43 am

    There is no theoretical knowledge required to enjoy bands like Dillinger Escape Plan, Dysrhythmia, Behold…the Arctopus etc. If one overcomes banalities like Suffocation, Gorgasm, Devourment and every other kind of stupid thing one will eventually be able to grasp real music.

    • The Ultimate Mark wrote:
      July 8, 2009 at 3:33 pm

      You do realize that by slagging off random death metal bands as “banal” and name-checking currently fashionable post-rock/”prog-metal” bands you validate my statement, right?

      • Shaw wrote:
        July 8, 2009 at 5:23 pm

        Those aren’t just random death metal bands, those are the ones that are hyped by the “true” fans. But that’s not important. There’s nothing fashionable about the prog-metal bands I mentioned, actually I don’t feel the need to call them metal. It’s just very well composed music with much thought and skill put into it, something you have to get into. And it’s also not a question of new or old, I could have named the late John Coltrane, Alban Berg or Keiji Haino but I found it more likely readers of this site would be familiar with the bands I named. We don’t have to argue about this. Suffocation and Devourment will always bore me the first time I hear them, it’s as easy as that.

        • Tomes of Deceit wrote:
          July 8, 2009 at 8:26 pm

          Lumping Suffocation and Devourment into the same category just shows your ignorance of death metal. I am a fan of DEP and Dysrythmia but it’s pretty obvious by reading your statements that you’re one of these textbook “enlightened” metal fans who doesn’t know a thing about death metal and thinks he’s beyond it.

          There’s nothing banal about Pierced from Within. It is, however, well composed music that you “have to get into”. How many times have you heard it? I bet you’ve given it a cursory listen to convince yourself that it fits your preconceptions, if even that.

          You’re the kind of fan that gives bands like DEP a bad name.

          • Tomes of Deceit wrote:
            July 8, 2009 at 8:27 pm

            And get your head out of your ass if you think there’s nothing fashionable about DEP.

             
          • Shaw wrote:
            July 9, 2009 at 12:26 am

            First off, thanks for the replies. I have to say that I have been quite a passionate DM fan for a couple of years and I did listen to Pierced from Within many times. There are still some bands of this genre I enjoy, e.g. Wormed, Pustulated, Shaarimoth but all that becomes boring after a while. You accuse me of having preconceptions and yet you yourself are preconcived aswell. Enough of the accusations. And just listening to a band that has a big fanbase does not make it fasionable.

             
  13. Tomes of Deceit wrote:
    July 9, 2009 at 12:00 pm

    Well, sorry that I got the wrong impression. I think I could be excused for making assumptions, though, in light of the general character of people who don’t consider suffocation to be “real music”.

  14. Tomes of Deceit wrote:
    July 19, 2009 at 7:05 pm

    Saying this band is a “gateway” for Pan.Thy.Monium and Carbonized is ridiculous. Neither of those bands has anyting to do with DEP. That’s typical of extreme metal listeners to look at other styles through these narrow lenses and compare it to something with more metal credibility that is completely irrelevant to the band in question.

  15. horny wrote:
    August 15, 2009 at 1:31 pm

    DEP suck, music has shit to do with techinical ability if you’ve nothing to say in the first place. DEP likes to give press releases saying how other DM bands are childish nonsense and they do songs about real shit (like murder man! people get fucking murdered! other bands NEVER talk about that, we’re fucking real). They don’t give their fanbase enough credit and are pandering to hipsters to shift more units among the barscenes where tech metal shares the stage with garage rock (wow so diverse, everyones a star!). DEP are fucking garbage, there is nothing but mindless noodling going on and they look like a bunch of fucking faggots.

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