Search - Dillinger Escape Plan :: Irony Is a Dead Scene

Patton & DEP: the world will neverknow their like again!

Campbell Roark | from under the floorboards and through the woods.. | 09/29/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Imagine Mike Patton in all his celestial glory fronting one of the most finely tuned precision thrassh out chaos-core (huh? whatever? I won't pretend to know the nominative of the sub-genre DEP are subsumed into: I could give two frux and a plastic spoon. They thrash) bands out there... Getting warmer?



I don't know where to begin. This is one of the most jaw droppingly abrasive, soul-shattering gorgeous, brooding, lung-slittingly ominous, skullbanging, moribundfreaking, pulse-accelerating, beyond hardcore, mind-incinerating, neck twitching, foot-tapping, eyebrow raising, involuntary air guitar improvising, leaving the souls of all who listen twisting in its wake sprinting, eye gouging, vein bursting, dynamic shredding, leaving on for hours at a time demanding, relentlessly deafening... INSANITY!!!!!!!!!!! THE BEST YOU WILL EVER HAVE!!!!! as Patton himself succinctly puts it.



From start to finish this thing just blows up in your face. Explodes on impact like an RPG-7 (and costs about as much too!) on an APC, turing the listener's brains into beef tartar. The final track is perhaps the most consistently twisted thing I have heard this month. Track 4: A straight-forward cover of Aphex Twin's 'Come to Daddy,' utterly thrashed out. Track 3 is my fave. It's the longest and most dynamic with a beautiful slow/melodic part towards the end. Track 1 is just nuts. Track 2 is more atmospheric, at least in the beginning, pre-the-massive-sanguine-crunch-fest.



Just get it. If you've come this far you've done so for a reason. If you're a fan of either of these: be it Patton (this is so much better than most of Tomahawk, i hate to say it but this is what i expected Tomahawk to sound like and was never quite as happy with the results...) or DEP (Dmitri's vox were the ONE thing that put me off about this group, patton, well- he's mike patton. Who the hell are you and what have you done?



You know you really want this.

"

Patton + DEP=Brilliance (duh!)

Wheelchair Assassin | The Great Concavity | 08/02/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"What do you do when your vocalist leaves after your band releases a classic EP ("Under The Running Board") and full-length album ("Calculating Infinity") that merely revolutionize the way legions of fans look at heavy metal? Well, if you're the Dillinger Escape Plan, you apparently bring in one of the most versatile and accomplished frontmen of the last quarter-century to do a one-off EP. That, my friends, is the (concise) story behind the Dillinger Escape Plan and Mike Patton's "Irony Is A Dead Scene," which despite its short running time is easily one of the most brilliant heavy-music releases of our young millenium. While Patton's and DEP's respective discographies vary wildly in both size and scope, on "Irony Is A Dead Scene" the guys sound as if they've been performing together for years. The schizophrenic, genre-bending weirdness that characterized Patton's most prominent bands, Faith No More and Mr. Bungle, is still present, but it's mixed with DEP's trademark insanity to produce a sound more like Faith No More or Bungle on steroids. With the demented virtuosos of DEP raging around him, Patton sounds even more unhinged than usual. He does deliver some piercing screams reminiscent of the band's former vocalist Dmitri, but he also adds frenetic vocal riffing, doomy singing and death-metalesque howls for one of the most eclectic performances in recent history. The three DEP/Patton originals, "Hollywood Squares," "Pig Latin," and "When Good Dogs Do Bad Things," all vacillate between the raging jazzy metal abundant on "Calculating Infinity" and the surreally bizarre interludes one would expect from a Patton project. Fortunately, the album sounds less like a forced mishmash of styles than an inspired meeting of minds that refuse to be limited by genre conventions or preconceived notions. Patton and DEP, with their wild, genre-bending creativity, merge signature elements of their respective backgrounds to create a whole new kind of insanity. The EP is capped off by a cover of Aphex Twin's "Come To Daddy," and while I haven't heard the original (although I have every intention of doing just that very soon), I CAN say with virtual certainty that DEP and Patton have succeeded in making it their own. This cover doesn't possess the sustained intensity offered by most DEP originals, but it's probably the most foreboding song in the band's all-too-small catalog; Patton's (apparently) electronically enhanced wail of "I want your SOUL!" should be enough to make just about anybody shudder. "Irony Is A Dead Scene" may only clock in at about 20 minutes, but in that brief space it may well accomplish nothing less than a total realignment of your perceptions regarding just what heavy music (or any music for that matter) can and can't be. For the open-minded fan, this EP promises reams of enjoyment. So dig in, and hope for a new DEP full-length soon, regardless of who's on the mic. It's just too bad this EP appears to be the extent of the Patton-DEP collaboration."

Pure.organized.insanity.

Tom | Saginaw, MI | 09/17/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"dillinger escape plan, quite possibly one of the most experimental and innovative musicians to be found on this place we call earth.
i don't think it's possible for anyone to find a vocalist with the same talent and uniqueness as one, mike patton. it seems as though he wants to explore every aspect of music known to man (tomahawk, dillinger, mr. bungle, faith no more, amongst many more) and then after he's done doing that, re-invent the concept and complete idea of music as human beings know it.
dillinger, fueled by raging (but jazz based) percussive section and chaotic bass work, is solid and stable on an extreme level. there's a very strong vertabrae to the music, even if the guitars and vocals were taken out, they'd still be interesting to listen to...
then the guitars...
a word for those guys is hard to come up with.
i don't understand how these guys do what they do, because i've tried it and found it's damn near impossible to write a line like like that and then write ANOTHER line on top of it to layer it even more. but, they still accomplish it. i'll bet anyone anything that in high school, these guys were math geniuses because it VERY clearly and evidently shows on their records. EVERYTHING is calculatated and planned out, showing that the possibilities go on into infinity.
usually if i listen to something with programming, it generically sounds 'industrial' to me, so i don't like it. this stuff fits in so well and sounds naturally. A+ to them.
Overall, yes... this record is different from say, Under the Running Board which had songs like the Mullet Burden... but I mean, come on, Hollywood Squares? Patton is genius. Even if he does make funny noises with his lips (and occasionally fart noises, etc, with mr. bungle) he still has one of the most piercing, and individual voices in music today.
I think that Mr. Bungle fans would especially appreciate this... Even though I do like the old DEP stuff, and I don't know what it would sound like with Patton performing with that in a studio or live, this must have been more of a fun record for them to do... My only question is, if they play live, is this stuff performed with the new vocalist? the cool thing is, before this, dillinger's vocals were a series of shrieks, screams... not that there's anything wrong with that, but patton added singing... dillinger's been around for quite some time, and to hear them with singing was a real treat/shock for me...
If you haven't bought this record, buy it. It's easily worth the money, even though it's an ep. ANY Dillinger is worth the money.
Also, if you want a visually appealing and planned out show, go watch these guys live. your perspective of visual props and actions will never ever be the same. what can i say, i'm in love.
if you like this, listen to mr. bungle!!!"