THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN: Option Paralysis

Produced by Steve Evetts

Released: March 22

I have to admit that it took an album or two for The Dillinger Escape Plan to click with me. For an old campaigner like myself, the signal to noise ratio was too lopsided. I couldn't understand it.

Now of course, it all makes sense, and I look forward to how I am going to be amazed by the frenetic five piece each time they do something new. With album number four, they continue to make some of the finest extreme noise there is, conforming only to the rule that there are no rules. While the plethora of copy-cats bands continue to appear and then disappear in slightly more time than it takes to whip a MySpace page together, Dillinger continue to forge so far ahead that it will take something incredible to catch them. So while Option Paralysis doesn't show them taking any enormous stylistic leaps, it underlines their reputation as simply the best band of their kind.

Option Paralysis strips away the electronic incursions of Ire Works whilst retaining some of the melodic aspects as well as the ferocious technical turmoil for which they are renown. "Farewell, Mona Lisa" is the most accessible and hooky track, with Greg Puciato exhibiting the full range of his vocal acrobatics including an impressive melodic croon. But then they step out into completely capricious, avant-garde jazz-metal psychosis where time-signatures and traditional arrangements mean nothing. "Room Full of Eyes" is perhaps the stand-out example on this album of The Dillinger Escape Plan at its chaotic best, making the starkest possible contrast to the brooding piano ballad "Widower" featuring master jazz pianist (and long-time David Bowie colloborator) Mark Garson. But even calling "Widower" a ballad is a stretch when one considers the hardcore mayhem it eventually becomes. "I Wouldn't If You Didn't" is virtually the last word in unpredictibility, slowing down, speeding up, veering off, lurching back, and ending up nowhere near where it began. In a band where keeping time seems almost irrelevant, Billy Rymer's drumming display is simply mind-boggling, somehow keeping Ben Weinman's ever-changing storm of riffs on track in spite of the band's utterly non-linear songwriting style, and Puciato is simply untouchable in his schizophrenic vocal abilities. Only Patton comes close, and even he can't growl with such terrifying import.

Option Paralysis is proof yet again that The Dillinger Escape Plan is one of the best bands in the world. Ignore this at your peril.

1. Farewell, Mona Lisa
2. Good Neighbor
3. Gold Teeth on a Bum
4. Crystal Morning
5. Endless Endings
6. Widower
7. Room Full of Eyes
8. Chinese Whispers
9. I Wouldn't If You Didn't
10. Parasitic Twins

Rating: 98%