Woe betide the genre named after the worst kind of homework. “Mathcore” elicits as many cringes as it does exaltations from those in the know. An outer layer of maths let alone a core would send most scurrying away fast as legs can carry them. The Dillinger Escape Plan (DEP) is the band for which the title is “derived” and on this, their fifth record sees DEP’s evolution best served by a step back from total chaos.
Prancer draws barrages of rhythmic gatling-gun fire, threatening to send battle hardened moshers diving for foxholes. The title track soothes much like Mike Patton at the height of a Xanax bender. Insofar Dillinger is concerned; they’re uncharacteristically straightforward, lathering up frenzied jazz fusion sparingly. Screamer Greg Puciato allows his reddening larynx the song off, drawing ears in.
Paranoia Shields references Patton’s funkier, faith-deprived period riding a unhinged devil’s carousel undulating slap bass and sinister intent. Madness is reflected back in shattered mirrors in Nothing’s Funny, Puciato’s snarling irony snowballed atop rickety percussion and mammoth-sized plunges on guitar.
Guitar nerds will sit slack-jawed bearing witness to convoluted bouts of stuttering djent and rhythms in signatures assembled in a TARDIS (or DeLorean, of course.) Weinman and co.’s cerebral scattergun approach has yielded to purity of purpose, supplanting their usual interrupted musical vision. It’s starkly evident in Crossburner, inspiring awe with flashes of explosive, mind-bending guitar, propelling forward without indulgently experimenting for the sake of it.
Despite sanding down their burrs, DEP still run their sweaty metalcore ship into the red, bearing a course straight into disaster. The ride feels uneasy and full of terrors but its one well worth the fare.
BY TOM VALCANIS
Best Track: One Of Us Is The Killer
If You Like These, You’ll Like This: MR. BUNGLE, UNEXPECT, CONVERGE
In A Word: Frantic
