MISS MACHINE

After the fiery maelstrom of pure chaos and fury that was Calculating Infinity, The Dillinger Escape Plan calmed down a bit on their second full length album Miss Machine, incorporating a more eclectic range of sounds into their material, with elements of alternative metal and post hardcore being woven through. Despite this, at its core, this is still another wild, mathcore album that simply cannot sit still for even a moment. Overall I genuinely prefer this to Calculating Infinity as well due to the fact that this feels more consistent and focused, without long stretches of time in which nothing of particular interest seems to happen, along with the more eclectic nature of this keeping the album fresh throughout.

One of the first things that immediately became apparent to me upon listening to the album was how much more revolved around clean, catchy hooks, songs like Highway Robbery balancing out fast paced, chaotic madness with a downright infectious chorus, ultimately being more reminiscient of a Mike Patton project than Botch or Converge, bringing in a far more lighthearted tone to the album, despite how heavy it is. With that said, the first 2 tracks of the album excellently shows off the more complex, violent sounding side of the band. Panasonic Youth frenetically switches between blindingly fast instrumentation and a more high pitched, distorted and groovy sound over the course of its 2 minute runtime until the bass becomes the main focus of the song, bringing in a powerful and catchy riff in amongst the screams and manic drumming. Sunshine The Werewolf continues down this path but with far more focus on extremely fast, yet precise shredding over the hardcore guitar chugs of Panasonic Youth, providing a distinctly different feel with an extremely impressive climax. This ends up stripping away all the aggression to create a more sinister tone, as Greg Puciato's screams become progressively more distorted and visceral, ending in an explosion of fury, the impact accentuated by the excellent use of a horn to really grab the listener's attention.

If there's one issue with this album, it's that there can be times where this can go into more generic mathcore territory rather than going all out and all over the place, but this is almost always an issue that's made extremely minor due to the fact that even these songs still carry enough energy and heaviness to work decently, despite being far less memorable. This is made even less problematic when the album will always be able to pick itself back immediately, such as following Van Damsel with the wonderfully odd, electronic tinged alt metal song Phone Home. While the album's lack of focus could definitely be seen as a downside in some respects, this is a rare case where I think the aggressive desire to change things up regularly ends up really adding to the album, like some kind of haphazardly sewn together... thing, not unlike the album art itself, bringing a unique feel to it that works exceptionally well in my eyes. Setting Fire To Sleeping Giants exemplifies this in multiple ways, not only sounding more along the lines of a more violent Faith No More song than a Dillinger Escape Plan one, but also by managing to be an absolute highlight, the vocals seemingly switching between a range of emotions so quickly. The vocals can go from eerie and sinister, to an upbeat, overall happy sounding hook, to furious screams in the space of 5 seconds without causing the song to suffer for it, all tied together with some downright awesome guitar and drum work that's able to consistently shift from melodic to rhythmic focus at the drop of a hat, perfectly adding impact to multiple sections in ways that are incredibly satisfying, making for one of the most entertaining alternative metal songs out there to me.

Despite the fact that this was a very large departure from the style of Calculating Infinity, toning down the chaos and complexity while ramping up the eclecticism, I believe that this was a change that worked exceptionally, leading to an album that, while messier in some regards, particularly in how unfocused it can occasionally feel, also manages to be far more refined in terms of the actual songwriting, the track being extremely distinct and largely high quality. The blending of post hardcore and alternative metal elements into the mix makes this a far more accessible album, without sacrificing a lot the core ferocity and madness that the band had put forth with their previous full length album and EP, leading to an extremely entertaining listening experience overall.

Best tracks: Panasonic Youth, Sunshine the Werewolf, Setting Fire To Sleeping Giants

Weakest tracks: Van Damsel, We Are The Storm

Verdict: While unfocused and messy in some respects, this is an extremely fun mathcore album that fuses some more accessible qualities in order to bring out some of the best of both sounds. While definitely not an album for everyone, if you're into this sort of heavier music and/or are a big fan of Mike Patton's work, this album will likely have something for you.