The Dillinger Escape Plan
One of us is the Killer

What the fuck is mathcore? I saw that when searching information about this band, it seems to be another subgenre within the extreme metal. Not that I see any difference between that and any other “insert fave word here”-core or for that matter modern melodic death metal with two singer or groove metal. All go about the vocals in a similar fashion and all structure their songs quite similarly with growly vocals in the verses and a clean sung chorus. Did I say that I believe all share the same singer? it sounds that way. So what the hell is this mathcore. It was called noisecore by some writer in the past and to me that is a much better name than mathcore at least when The Dillinger Escape Plan’s latest album is concerned. Mathematics are both structured and completely logical as well as predictable all the time, which is something that this album is not, well it is very predictable. As this is the first album I hear by this band, it may well be so that they have abandoned their path and gone for something like chaoscore.

It is said that unusual time signatures and such is a sign of matchore, this is something this guys have. Other than that they might just as well have borrowed musical sheets from Hatebreed, Gojira, Dagoba, Scar Symmetry and whatever else they are called as the music is not that different from any other metalcore-thing. The singer is the same, it is weird but they all sound alike and the bands also sound very much alike. Why is that? This is the fifth album by these guys and the first that I actually hear from them, I have heard and read a lot about them but not heard them until now. I can’t say that I am impressed, certainly not as impressed as other reviewers seem to be by this album. Sure the sound is good, excellent production and it sounds well made but it also sounds like a middle of the road album sounds. I cannot give it a worse rating as it is too good for that and I cannot give it a better rating as it is too bad for that. I think that if there has ever been a middle of the road album this year, this is it, prefect bang in the middle. 40 minutes on something completely ordinary, thirteen times. Some would call that wasting 520 minutes or almost nine hours.

I don’t want to go that far, I like music and this is rather good in its best moments. The title track I really like for instance. But the album suffers from incoherency, and it has no flow whatsoever and that is what keeps it from being better. It is not progressive, it is not something you need to listen again and again to understand, it is just pointless attempts to stand out in what has long been an overcrowded arena. If this is the best they have to offer, then I am not interested in any deeper exploration of their music. What it also is, it is very predictable as it sounds just like I thought they should sound after reading other peoples reviews of other bands where these guys were mentioned, that is not a good sign.

Maybe it is just down to me being overly critical and maybe I don’t understand all the subtleties in the genre as there are quite a few that agree that it is a brilliant album. All the glory to them seeing something great in a piece where I see ordinary. My view of this album is that it is okay but nothing to write home about and nothing that will take any more of my time for any foreseeable time.

HHHHHHH