The Dillinger Escape Plan. You remember The Dillinger Escape Plan? The band who pissed on other math metal bands? The band who rolled a pair of 12-sided dice to find time signatures? The band who made your ears bleed the first time you heard the Under The Running Board EP? The band whose mike-patton blessed cover of an Aphex Twin song recreated his intricate breakbeats perfectly?
well wear some black today, cause The Dillinger Escape Plan you know is dead.
The album opener, a re-worked version of DEP standard Unretrofied is shockingly straightforward 4/4, with a tempo that feels sluggish at best. short of some semi-technical basswork, this is barely recognizable as DEP. The vocal and guitar melodies are so middle of the road that i could in fact be listening to an Aiden song right now. When DEP formed they were genre-pushing evolutionaries of the hardcore scene. Now, it seems, they've cottoned on to the popularity of boring screamo.
Now, at the idea of DEP covering NIN, i was licking my chops. Back in 92, Wish was a sharp little slice of on-off-on-off eletropain. In the hands of DEP it could become a whirlwind, hammering reinterpretation. What do we get? The original song, minus the awesome production, trent reznors vocals, and and awesome video clip. The sound is, in summary, uninspired. Even reznor's infamous "fist ***" line sounds boring in vocalist Greg Puciato's delivery (which, by the way, doesnt even feature a good scream)
Massive Attack's Angel, the opener from their classic album Mezzanine, is another great song. It shares, in my opinion, the same moody inertia as parts of Phone Home off DEP's last album, Miss Machine. I could see them pulling this one off better than the NIN song, actually. And for the instrumental part, it at least partially pulls it off. While nothing original is added to the formula, the original overdriven bass, the soaring guitars, and then clattering beats are all beautifully present. But again, the vocals dissapoint, sounding like Mike Patton taking the piss out of Greg Puciato taking the piss out of the vocals on this song. sadly, the best cover on the album.
Soundgarden's Jesus Christ Pose at least feels up to tempo. The thundering drums work okay, and the guitars match the original pretty well. But pretty well is all we're in for. The minute the vocals come in, i get what i call the 'tom delonge instinct', that is, the instinct to remove the vocalists bottom jaw and shovel hot coals down his throat.
At this point i'd like to point something out: it's 2006. I think we're past the age of 'ironic' metal covers. Britney Spears, Aqua, and now Justin. However. To call this cover 'ironic' would be pretty innapropriate. i'd pretty much call this a note-for-note recreation that is scarily close to the new DEP sound. At least the vocals are, well, bearable.
The albums closer, The Perfect Design, feels like the band trying to apologise for what they've just done. Admittedly, it sounds like a weak attempt at previous DEP stuff. but it's still good enough to warrant the 1 star, which the rest of the album would not have gotten on its own.
I wasted my iTunes credit on this. Dont waste yours. Dont Bother. And just find religion and start praying for the Dillinger Escaple Plan now. Cause it'll take a miracle to save the band from this wreck of an EP.
