Dillinger Escape Plan – Option Paralysis (Party Smasher Inc./Season of Mist)
Monday, 18th March 2013
Quite the odd scene seeing DEP without the Relapse tag next to it. It’s almost like when In Flames jumped from Nuclear Blast in 2006 for Come Clarity. For a lot of people these bands and labels are intertwined…perhaps Blistering shouldn’t be so resistant to change, eh?
At any rate, as the preeminent math/spazz/whatever core band, DEP isn’t on top of the mountain for no reason and Option Paralysis, in its over-the-top, brazen glory merely reinforces that no one should fuck with Dillinger. Well, we wouldn’t want to fight singer Greg Puciato anyway – the dude is ripped. The album is coarse and blatantly technical, oftentimes unifying the band’s mandatory early works with the experimentation that started with 2004’s Miss Machine. If anything, it’s a step up from 2007’s solid Ire Works.
Opener and lead single “Farewell, Mona Lisa” goes for the gusto and always drifts into the atmospheric territory the band is increasingly growing fond of. Puciato asserts himself more on this album than ever before, taking charge of numbers like “Gold Teeth On A Bum” and “I Wouldn’t If You Didn’t,” which takes on a personal, relationship-based lyrical angle. The man sounds less and less like Mike Patton, that’s for sure.
Aside from jarring, live-worthy songs such as “Good Neighbor,” “Crystal Morning” and “Endless Endings,” the real capper is closer “Parasitic Twins.” A haunting, almost soundtrack-esque jam (this could have been on any one of David Lynch’s famed soundtrack’s from the mid-90’s), “Parasitic Twins” will most likely be the band’s most talked-about song, if only for its mass detour from the preceding songs.
Part of the allure behind Option Paralysis will be how their new-found freedom from Relapse will play out. For a band who is as hands-on as DEP (they’re self-managed; a daring move for an act of their size), the ability to do just as they please and have ample support could mean they’re poised to build on what with they started with on Ire Works. If the inherent strength of this record is any indication, no one is going to knock DEP off.
www.myspace.com/dillingerescapeplan
(This content originally appeared on Blistering.com)
