Dillinger Escape Plan

The Dillinger Escape Plan’s creative energy and unwavering artistic commitment has reverberated through underground subculture and in tastemaker circles alike for over a decade. One of Us is the Killer is the band’s defining work, conjuring the mindboggling chemical combinations found within their earliest missives of mathematical bombast while pushing forward into dense, atmospheric radicalism.

The press reaction was swift and unanimous. Big Cheese called it “a masterpiece in the art of heavy rock music” and Terrorizer emphasized the “greatness” of The Dillinger Escape Plan (both 5/5 reviews). Critics declared the band “leaders in a genre of precisely one” (Metal Hammer, 9/10); “enduringly peerless” (Rock Sound); “firing on cylinders, just as urgent as ever” (AP); “operating at the peak of their powers” (Kerrang!); “[every album] a carefully calculated masterpiece” (Metal Injection). Pitchfork offered an exclusive stream of OOUITK during release week.

The shock and awe of the band’s performance at Revolver’s Golden Gods Awards solidified the reputation TDEP maintains as perhaps the most formidable heavy music band on the planet. Kerrang! awarded the band’s most recent sold-out show in London a KKKKK review. Metallica invited The Dillinger Escape Plan to play at their Orion Music festival. They are veterans of Coachella, Bonnaroo, Soundwave, Reading et al. One of Us is the Killer was the second album issued through the band’s own imprint, Party Smasher Inc., this time in partnership with Sumerian Records (Animals As Leaders, †††) and BMG worldwide, including licensing deals with Grind House (Helmet, Funeral For A Friend) in Japan and Remote Control (Radiohead, Vampire Weekend) in Australia. The latest Dillinger Escape Plan album was recorded in Southern California with longtime producer Steve Evetts (Glassjaw, The Cure).

Dillinger's mind-bending meld of metal, rock, experimental ambience and melody first reared its head with a 6-track EP on hardcore indie Now Or Never Records, quickly followed by Under the Running Board EP on Relapse. The band earned a reputation as a fearless act on the live stage, committing their minds, bodies and spirits to the exhibition and visceral release of performance and often brutalizing stages, gear and themselves along the way. Calculating Infinity became the gold standard for the emerging "math-core"/"math-metal" movement, earning a place in author Martin Popoff's "Top 500 Heavy Metal Albums of All Time." Kerrang! included it in the "100 Best Rock Albums of All Time" and later presented the band with their Spirit of Independence Award.

Mike Patton invited The Dillinger Escape Plan on tour with Mr. Bungle, which eventually resulted in the collaborative EP on Epitaph, Irony is a Dead Scene. The band’s second full-length album, Miss Machine, blew the doors open, cementing TDEP’s legacy around the world. The album’s songs began the creative partnership between co-founder/songwriter Ben Weinman and singer Greg Puciato, both of them joined on the road for many months preceding the record by longtime bassist Liam Wilson.

Intense physical performer Weinman was named one of Spin's 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time, AP’s Top 10 Guitar Slingers and Guitar World's Top 25 Cult Guitarists. Puciato, whose similarly uncompromising presence and versatile vocal ability knows few boundaries, was #1 on Metal Sucks’ Top 25 Modern Metal Frontmen and included in Revolver’s Greatest Metal Frontmen of All Time. Ire Works precipitated The Dillinger Escape Plan’s national TV debut on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, as well as multiple international tours. At Soundwave, Nine Inch Nails invited them on-stage to perform "Wish."

The band's collaborative nature persists, with members of Dillinger forming “super-group” projects like Giraffe Tongue Orchestra and Killer Be Killed, with musicians from bands like Jane’s Addiction, Deftones, Mastodon, Sepultura, The Mars Volta, Queens of the Stone Age and many more, both on-stage and off. Weinman is a film composer, sought after remixer and co-writer/performer for artists as diverse as Kimbra and Wyclef. He’s spoken to students at Loyola University and was featured on the cover of Guitar World. Puciato’s band The Black Queen features producer Josh Eustis, touring guitarist of Nine Inch Nails. He’s guested with Deftones, Brazilian EDM act Mixhell and metal merchants Soulfly.

Option Paralysis arrived through Party Smasher Inc. not long before Revolver gave them an award for "Best Underground Band” and VH1's Metal Evolution declared them "The World's Most Dangerous Band." In Spin’s review, they noted the band “have been the metal standard-bearers of dizzying, time signature torture” combined with their ventures into “NIN-damaged, alt-rock superhero fantasies” and “Lollapalooza-era treat[s],” highlighting Puciato’s ability to maneuver from “sensitive-to-seething-to-soaring… to the harrowing edge.” One of Us is the Killer showcases Weinman, Puciato, Wilson (whose skills saw him featured on the cover of Bass Player) and drummer Billy Rymer (a highly-regarded player and teacher who once faced off against Mike Portnoy in a friendly “Drum Fight”) in top form, emphasizing the band’s fierce independence, staunch individualism and loyalty to a artistic unique vision that has long followed them on-stage and off.