The Dillinger Escape Plan produce wildly ferocious, heavily metallic compositions blended with hardcore punk elements and jazz time signatures. These works showcase exceptional courage in music, exacting playing skill, carefully designed intricate arrangements, and demanding physical stamina. Publications aimed at guitarists and drummers regularly profile the group’s guitarists and drummer. Their extreme depth and intellectual demands resist easy summary, evoking the exploratory ethos of the Mahavishnu Orchestra, the intricate heavy metal of later Death, Cynic’s lone death-metal statement, and the progressive hard rock of Rush. Live appearances summon the chaotic energy of early Guns N’ Roses concerts, while the refined artistry behind their sound impresses admirers of sophisticated art-rock acts such as Radiohead.
The Dillinger Escape Plan originated from the fairly ordinary hardcore band Arcane, whose final show included vocalist Dimitri Minakakis, guitarists Ben Weinman and Derrick Brantley, drummer Chris Pennie, and fill-in bassist Adam Doll. Under the new name Dillinger Escape Plan, this lineup performed twice before Brantley departed. The remaining members cut a demo that the fledgling Now or Never Records agreed to issue on CD. Shortly before their first tour, guitarist John Fulton joined. The Dillinger Escape Plan’s frantic, ferocious, and occasionally violently erratic concerts quickly became a topic of conversation throughout the hardcore community. Representatives from Relapse Records learned of a standout appearance at Philadelphia’s Stalag 13 and caught the band at another Pennsylvania show. A multi-album contract soon followed.
Fulton exited just before the 1998 release of the label’s debut EP, Under the Running Board, on which Weinman performed all guitar parts. The three-song preview heightened excitement for the 1999 full-length debut, Calculating Infinity, an astonishingly ferocious, mathematically precise, and imaginative work of extraordinary technical scope. Prior to recording, Doll suffered a severe car accident that left him partially paralyzed and unable to continue with the band. Around the same period, Jesuit guitarist Brian Benoit replaced Fulton. The album achieved underground success, spawning imitators and drawing praise from both niche and mainstream outlets. Its visibility also reached former Faith No More singer Mike Patton, who, after viewing a video of the group, invited them to tour in support of his experimental project Mr. Bungle. The band recruited former M.O.D. bassist and fellow New Jersey native Jeff Wood for temporary live duties.
After the Mr. Bungle tour, the Dillinger Escape Plan launched an extended series of headlining and co-headlining dates with Candiria, crisscrossing the United States. Their concerts grew more elaborate, adding samples, lighting, pyrotechnics, and, on occasion, a fire breather. Following months of intensive touring, including appearances at the Warped Tour and March Metal Meltdown, the group dismissed Wood—who continued leading his own project Shat—and found a permanent replacement for Doll in Philadelphia resident Liam. In 2000, Now or Never reissued the self-titled record with extra tracks. After a European run with Botch, the Dillinger Escape Plan parted ways with Minakakis. They performed a handful of instrumental shows and two final concerts with him, one at Japan’s Beast Feast Festival and another near their hometown. The band then launched an online search for a new vocalist, posting an instrumental version of “43% Burnt” and inviting candidates to record vocals over it. While reviewing submissions, the group remained active, cutting two tracks for a Black Flag tribute album, preparing new material that Patton would later sing, and appearing at Krazy Fest in Louisville, Kentucky, with Coalesce singer Sean Ingram filling in.
In late 2001 the band met singer Greg Puciato, whose submitted recording had impressed them. After two rehearsals they offered him the position, which he accepted. Puciato debuted at the 2001 CMJ Music Festival in New York City. His imposing stage presence and precise screaming quickly won over audiences during a national headlining tour that was interrupted when System of a Down invited the group to Europe in spring 2002. In March 2002 the Dillinger Escape Plan confirmed that their Mike Patton-fronted EP, Irony Is a Dead Scene, would appear on Epitaph. Puciato’s first full-length outing arrived with 2004’s Miss Machine. June 2006 brought the covers EP Plagiarism, and in 2007 drummer Chris Pennie departed, replaced by Gil Sharone of Stolen Babies for the inventive November 2007 release Ire Works. After Ire Works the Dillinger Escape Plan left Relapse to establish their own imprint, Party Smasher. Through that label they issued their fourth studio album, Option Paralysis, in 2010. Their fifth album, the more aggressive One of Us Is the Killer, followed on the same imprint in 2013. After its release, Weinman and Puciato stepped back to pursue outside projects—Giraffe Tongue Orchestra for the former, the Black Queen and Killer Be Killed for the latter—before reconvening in late 2015 to record a sixth album. Titled Dissociation, it appeared in October 2016 accompanied by an announcement that it would likely be their final effort. The band completed a farewell tour and entered indefinite hiatus in 2017.
