Turns Out They Were Right

Miss Machine - Dillinger Escape Plan

I've heard these guys described as so many things, most memorably as a 'death metal Radiohead', so I had no idea what to expect when I put this CD on for the first time. I heard about these guys through their association with Mike Patton who, as regular readers will know, is my favorite guy on the planet. He filled in as a vocalist on a few of their earlier albums, but they've got a new guy for this one.

As it turned out, the 'death metal' description is definitely more appropriate than the 'Radiohead' one. The first track 'Panasonic Youth' opens abruptly with high volume screechy staccato guitars and some guy screaming his guts out, and pretty much continues in that vein. There's the occasional gently melodic relief section in about a third of the songs, but they're short and are mainly there to provide contrast to the full on noise fest of the rest of the album. And of course there's also the obligatory mellow song ('Unretrofied') near the end, which is only really mellow in comparison, it would still bury your average Feelers song.

But of course these guys aren't brainless meatheads, and once you get used to the ear melting barrage of noise you can see that they have a lot of talent, both in song craft and in technical skill. The rhythms and song structures are crazy and unpredictable, very reminiscent of Fantomas (but with much longer songs). The singer even has a very similar style to Mike Patton. And as you'd imagine, their drummer is a madman.

I'm very happy with this purchase, a new crazy art-metal album is exactly what I feel like listening to at the moment, and a quick perusal of their record label's mp3 downloads shows lots of other promising stuff for me to check out.