CALCULATING INFINITY

Masterpiece!!!Yes!! you may not now that but this record was the first one characterized as ''Math-core", been actually the founder of a totally new scene(some think that Candiria were the first one's).This album IS progressive with the full meaning of this world,because it just introduce us in in definately new kind of rock music: a perfect innovating micture of grindcore, noise ,ambient, prog metal(you will realise that straight from the beginning with ''Sugar coated sour",which is just like listening Watchtower ten times faster!)and even experimental jazz. I'm not going to analyze the songs one by one,all of them are perfect!! Just listen to 4th grade dropout,Jim fear ,calculating infinity, weekend sex change....Agressive,morbid,paranoid but at the same time technical and complex with riffs and ''melodies'' changing at the nick of time,this album is a perfect example(believe there are also many more!!)of how prog metal ( or even metal generally;) must be played in the 21st century.

Amazing. This is truly one of the most unique "rock" bands of the past three decades. Yes, grind was around long before THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN with bands like Napalm Death and jazz and metal have been aggregated in the past with bands like Atheist and Cynic, but never have they been mixed together in a single band so perfectly... and "Calculating Infinity" is a prime example.

Unpredictable song direction, awe-inspiring tempo changes and signatures, mile a minute riffs, and amazing drum work are some things I'd say concerning the description of songs on this album. Never will one find themselves bored with these songs and in fact, I have often found myself listening to songs numerous times before moving on to the next, only to repeat this listening practice. Despite the albums shorter length, it's hard to imagine someone feeling dissatisfied at it's end.

The ferocity of their songs is divided with the perfect placement of segue tracks that maintain the listener's attention and keep them attentive throughout the disc. The great thing about this album is that each song works on their own as well as a spin of the album being a gratifying listen.

This is an essential album for any extreme progressive metal fan or at least a recommended listen to any progressive rock fan who can dive into this album with an open mind. To those who plan to give it a listen in the future, before you write it off as structureless wankery try to take into consideration the "choreography" behind what's going on. If you find it difficult to digest at first, this incredible band gets even more fun to listen to once you become familiar with their music.

How far are Pantera and Slipknot from Chick Corea and CAB? "So close no matter how far" once upon a time said a "poet" and these guys put this phrase into practice. This album has so many elements put together that just myself i can find influences from hardcore, fusion, symphonic prog as it should be in the year 2000, drum 'n' bass and even from the paranoia of Psychotic Waltz !!One word can characterize this album, and this word is MAYHEM!These dudes made a new genre as i see it called progcore. "Open mind for a different view" said the same poet and that is the reason why this album is so good for me and should get the five stars. I am fan of more traditional things in progmetal and symphonic and space progrock but this blew my mind. It needs a lot of pacience and hundrends of listenings to get into the album so dont get disappointed or judge it after one or few listenings.Insist...

Calculating Infinity is The Dillinger Escape Plan's first stab at making an album. THis complete album is an amazing insane mix of many genres which include Metal, Hardcore, Experimental Rock, Jazz, Noise, Noisecore, Grind and Grindcore. Songs on this album sometimes just blow me away with its extreme variation, but at times just cumbersomely noisy and annoying.

But one thing that this album has really exceled in was making The Dillinger Escape Plan into a band that is not afraid to experiment with new heavy, distorted sounds mixed with some of the old Post-Hardcore sounds mixed in Jazz influences like many of their Hardcore/Noisecore counterparts. But I must say, this is far from being the best Progressive Rock album, since it is NOT Progressive Rock. It is just Experimental Grind- Death-Noisecore.

This is a very good album, but non-essential and not recommended since many would absolutely hate their brutally heavy sound and label it as noise.

2.5/5

I really don't get this type of music.

Earlier reviews of this album, here at progarchives, mention a hint of jazz on this album. But I do not see any evidence of this whatsoever. Jazz is the art of "deconstructing the constructed", or "disarranging the arranged", and, to me, involves a whole process of learning how to construct melodies and harmonies first, until you are ready to learn how to deconstruct.

The music in "Calculating Infinity" is more like disconnected pieces of rhythms and sounds. Rarely do the songs show a sense of melodic or harmonic progressions. The song "Calculating Infinity" is one that does, as do some parts of "The Running Board" and "4th Grade Dropout".

Another negative aspect of this album, for me, were the vocals. I do enjoy aggressive vocals, but I really do think the singing has to have some melodic variation. I enjoyed Opeth's "Ghost Reveries" very, very much (and the singing there is mostly grunting). In "Calculating Infinity", though, the vocals are basically screams from from the first song to the last.

I expected a lot more of this band, and was really dissapointed with this one. The musicians clearly show some musicianship, in the sense that what they play must have required lots of practice, but the lack of intelligent use of melody/harmony kill the outcome. The song "Calculating Infinity", along with respect to the artists, is what prevented me from giving this a one star review. Two stars is enough. Only for fans/collectors.

Probably the most overrated band in metal. I would put this in the noisecore genre, their is no sense of jazz or even much melody or harmony whatsoever. The vocals are just awful, it just sounds like some guy screaming boring lyrics at the top of his lungs for most of the album. Yes, there music is different from most bands in their genre, but that is not always a good thing. It's different because they seem to lack any skill for writing songs, they just scream louder then everyone else and play faster too.

I'm scared that this kind of "music" is just not bearable for well-trained and spoilt ears like mine! Don't get me wrong I'm not the type of listener who hates avant-garde in general.I even enjoy to listen to SOME experimental stuff. But not if it's just for the extremity's and novelty's sake and doesn't have much to do with music as we know it. And in my opinion this is the case here. The technical abilities of the musicians certainly are stainding out. They can play really fast in a breathtaking manner. But what it is good for when those extremely fast melodies that don't fit together at all are combined with a really alienating voice and lyrics that don't make any sense. Surprisingly there are even some "normal" passages but on the other hand they are too few and too little special either to save this piece of work.

Avant-garde is a highly critically acclaimed thing in general per se and visionaries and pioneers have usually a hard live to go. That's why I'm appreciating avant-garde music otherwise but these guys here I refuse to count even as such.It's just noise and environmental pollution and only good for completely insane fellows looking all the time for something completely different from anything else done before.

Masterpeice by all means. You can see that DEP are one of the most relentlessly innovative forces in music today. Many have tried to blindly categorize this band as noisecore simply because they create a very dissonant and chaotic sound with their music. Many say they have no melody and harmony when they do, but simply keep it hidden behind dissonance. Many say that it is not music, but what honestly is music nowadays, who draws the line. It seems to me that some pay much attention to them and will listen over and over again when others may listen to one track and dismiss it as people making "silly noises and trying to call it music" (or something similar, not a direct quote). You either love 'em or hate 'em.

PROS

It seems quite plain to me (as a composer, guitarist, drummer and bassist who also studies music) that this music is sheer genius. The intense polyrhythms that are created here are almost impossible to define and almost seem random. Time signatures are often very unusual and usually played at very fast tempos. The unusual tonalities and use of odd scales and modes are also very obvious. It is also obvious that these musicians are incredible, The guitarists are beyond virtuosic and use a whole range of techniques, the drummer who can pretty much do anything with (i think) a five peice kit and even the vocalist manages to fit his lyrics into the time signatures. But these musicians are not brutes, as we all know that being very fast and intense does not make good music. it is proven in many tracks that they can tone it down a notch. In 43% burnt there is a middle section where the guitars turn clean and the drummer uses softer techniques (although the section is still very complex). In 4th Grade Dropout there is a simple chord sequence which is not complex at all, its even in 4/4! Calculating Infinity is almost completely toned down and only has one time signature which remains the same all the way through (this song also has a clean chord sequence based section). So even though these musicians can create a very fast, uncompromising and chaotic assault, they can also tone it down and make a listener really feel. I could happily say that these musicians pay attention to pretty much all musical devices. Timbral techniques, timing, structure, dynamics, tonality, mood/feel/atmosphere, texture you name it.

Most importantly to me is the fact that this band is the only one recently that has reinvented rock music. The music is relentlessly dissonant, chaotic sounding and often goes far beyond any other progressive artist. It has aspects of many genres in it but still does not sound like any. It often contains the thick texture and fast rhythms and attitude of hardcore punk and modern hardcore (Black Flag, Converge). It has the crushing heaviness of grindcore and metal. It has the intellegent timings, tonalities and textural changes of prog and tech metal (Dream Theater, Meshuggah). In some tracks there are influences from electronica and drum and bass (*# and Weekend Sex Change). But then again you could not class the band under any of these genres. Thus "mathcore" was born as a genre title (yeah right) which i feel is still not fitting, the band themselves even deny this as it implies their music is without feeling and is based on being simply fast and technical. Even so, DEP created something truly unique and were the first "mathcore" band. They have a signature sound (especially signature rhythms) which define this genre and you cannot hear it in any band before DEP although many try immitating it today (Architects, although they are very different).

EXCUSE ME.. BUT.. WHAT?

Many people have proven to be repeatedly ignorant and increasingly dissmisive about DEP. I find many who i ask upon for their opinion of the band give me odd answers. Many claim they have no structure when it is blindingly obvious that they do incude themes that repeat and come back its not just random. 43% burnt is a prime example of this as at the end of the song themes come back (slightly altered). This occurs in almost all of their songs. Many also claim that their is no jazz influence. Being brought up in a jazz community around jazz musicians and listening to much of the music myself i can safely say that there is a large jazz influence. Surely the unusual tonalities and fast complex timings immitate the likes of be-bop (not forgetting the quick and irregular phrasing of melodies). Lastly YES they DO have harmony and melody as i explained before, often hidden behind dissonances.

CONS

Yes i will admit there are cons, most noteably the singer. I like all genres of music including hardcore punk and i can appreciate the attitude and feeling that has gone into the vocals of DEP but yes, it is shouting. There is lots of it too and i admit it would be nice to have some singing or a singer who proves that he too is a real musician (i feel they made up for this on later material with their new singer and collaboration with Mike Patton). I also admit that this music is difficult to listen to at first and it takes a while for the music to sink in ( i also hated it originally). I am constantly scared that because i am a musician that i am ever- so-slightly biased towards technical music and maybe they should be more accessible (but then they would not make the music they do). The production quality seems very good (although intentionally a little grimey) but some aspects are not heard that i have only realised on listening to some live recordings. Some underlying technical riffs are hard to hear on the album version.

CONCLUSION

All in all i can understand someone not liking it as it is difficult to listen to but they should be appreciated for how interesting and different they truly are no matter what. I feel it is mandatory for DEP to be recognised for what they have done for rock music as it is one of the only truly different bands out there.

The album that revolutionized metal and hardcore, Calculating Infinity delivered an unheard of blend of extremely technical metal, hardcore and jazz. Though many have ventured to this territory, no one has been able to do it quite like The Dillinger Escape Plan. These guys are highly skilled and very creative, but difficult to tolerate at times. The music on this disc is brutal for all but a few minutes on this disc, and it's difficult to enjoy. Vocalist Dimitri Minakakis can certainly keep up with the other members, but his voice lacks depth and is just plain grating. There isn't much else you can do on top of such music, but the vocalists the band works with in the future have more of a personality and, thanks to their exceptional growth compositionally, are able to do much more. Nevertheless, tracks like "Sugar Coated Sour" and "43% Burnt" are fascinating tracks and are still played on a regular basis live.

While on future releases the band would develop more variety and memorability, this constantly jarring chaos still stands as one of the most challenging and innovative albums in the history of metal and hardcore.

When I first heard this album I was reminded of a man I saw on a street corner shouting his brains out through a megaphone. There was conviction and a sense of desperation in his voice, but in all honesty I couldn't decipher a single thing he was saying, and neither could anyone else passing by either. Oblivious to the bad acoustics and cheap megaphone, he railed on and possibly warned us about something, but in actuality he was wasting his entire afternoon since no one could hear him if they even cared.

Calculating Infinity has that aspect, but it also has a ton of musical energy to compensate for the relentless shouting about "stuff". Frantic and aggressive, the music lunges with ripping fast rhythms between hardcore, metal and even some grind influences while retaining a technical tightness usually reserved for technical metal and prog bands. The focus is mainly on the tempos and time signatures, thus the drummer is easily the most important member here, and does a fine job keeping busy while anchoring this whole project. The songs themselves are mostly noisy and violent pieces that can suddenly at any time shift into moments of jazzy fusion or just sheer ridiculous head-scratching weirdness for a brief spell for no apparent reason than to keep the listener guessing.

Meanwhile, far off on the horizon, a little penis wiggles in the wind.

The important thing about Calculating Infinity is that despite the seeming randomness to it all, I never get bored by the experience. Granted the vocals took some getting used to as they don't veer much from that constant yelling with occasional 'whispery' passages to add variety, and some of the atonal chugging sections begin to wear out their welcome just before the music shifts into something with hints of melody or a slow atmospheric passage...one never knows what will happen next. It's a fun record to be enjoyed by those into raucous music that has its roots in hardcore music while brandishing their instruments like seasoned aces with a fixation on time signatures and polyrhythms. Later on, the band would branch out towards more experimental realms and a better variance of vocalizations, but here is the group at its basic foundation, what they are essentially known for above all else.

Calculating Infinity is the perfect example of an album that takes the rulebook of its genre(s) and throws it out completely. It's the flawless melding of brutality and sophistication, of anger and despair, of hardcore euphoria and jazz-driven mathematics. And the members of The Dillinger Escape Plan were certainly aware of what they were doing too. Guitarist and figurehead Ben Weinman was once quoted as saying on The Independent:

"Calculating Infinity was us effectively ripping up the music theory book; if someone said 'don't harmonise with a second, it just sounds out of tune', then every single lead we did, we'd harmonise with a second. It sounded disgusting, but we did it".

This music is controlled rage, but just because it's controlled doesn't mean it's sterile or edgeless. The complex, labyrinthine arrangements are given plenty of vocal ammunition through Dimitri Minakakis' tortured, chilling screams. And I'll certainly give the band credit: they don't mess around when it comes to storming the gate early. "Sugar Coated Sour" is both a phenomenal thesis statement of the album's sound and practically a war cry for any listener interested in joining the band for this unique event. The dissonant guitar harmonies, impossibly precise drumkit grinding, and furious wailing are incredible markers of what you'll be hearing throughout this brief experience. About 90% of Calculating Infinity is a mixture of blinding speeds, jaw-dropping technical prowess, and the rare moment of unsettling reflection. Those calmer sections are a great way for the band to show their vast range of influences as well, such as the incredible polyrhythmic prog-oriented bridge of "43% Burnt" or the avant-jazz chord progressions of the slow melodic (?) section of "The Running Board." Even more curious are the few interludes that mark the record, leaning more on the avant-garde side of its identity. The title track and "*#.." are enjoyable Meshuggah-esque ditties that rely on strange rhythms and little diminished guitar "pops," while "Weekend Sex Change" combines sampling, depressive guitar melodies, and incredible drum soloing into one fascinating fusion.

The most impressive thing about Calculating Infinity is that both sides of its bipolar personality are so natural and well-represented. Many of us are aware of the various rumors surrounding the album's recording, most famously the decision to roll dice to determine each time signature. But it's strange to think that for something so, ahem, "calculated," that every bit of hardcore aggression and raw emotion can still come out in full force. Just listen to that utterly insane intro to "Jim Fear." It doesn't give us a moment's notice to prepare for the full-on assault of scorching fretwork and deranged screams, but everything manages to be very planned and pre-staged all the same. That whole song really comes together when you reach the next section and hear the complex runs across the fretboard in unison with the rabid drums, and that concept of "controlled anarchy" comes into play. Wanna know why it all works? Because the insane technicality and the angular "prog-meets-punk" riffing ensure that each emotional catharsis is earned. The Dillinger Escape Plan somehow have the ability to turn technical prowess into atmosphere, weaving in and out of disturbing musical passages; Dimitri is simply icing on the cake with the chaos he spews over it all. But each emotional release works because the band members are incredibly skilled at building us up to those moments. Much like Converge's Jane Doe, there's a respect and care that's given to each weird transition and tempo shift despite the hell being unleashed on top of the songwriting.

At the end of the day, Calculating Infinity is simply a mesmerizing paradox; it combines mathcore, hardcore punk, free jazz, avant-garde metal, and progressive metal, and somehow manages to treat them all as equals. If you want sophisticated songwriting and complex instrumentals, this album is essential. And if you just want to [%*!#] everyone up in the moshpit, then it's still essential.

Calculating infinity is one of the masterpieces of mathcore whether you like it or not. A lot of people just call it "noise" , and they are right because it is noise, but the album is more than that. Calculating infinity is just as important to metalcore and mathcore as it is to progressive metal and experimental metal, because it's not only loud, but it is beautiful. The jazz-like experimentation and time signatures also exist. The musicians are undeniably great at their instruments, just like jazz musicians. While people can dismiss the album by calling the lyrics meaningless (only because they're screamed most of the time) and just noise, it is more than just that, and it does take some good ears to listen to it just like other mathcore albums, you will find meaning and gorgeous music that lies under the barrier of screaming and "noise." 4.5 stars.