THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN - Miss Machine
July 14, 2004, 20 years ago
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It's going to be hard for scribes everywhere to stay completely objective while reviewing the latest from The Dillinger Escape Plan. Aside from the group's hallowed and reverential nature amongst the press, the band's last (and first) full-length release, Calculating Infinity, has at times been heralded as one of the most important extreme records of the last decade. Whether or not Calculating Infinity actually lives up to said praise is debatable, but it makes the hype and lore surrounding Miss Machine all the more intense. In terms of the album itself, Miss Machine is a marked departure from the Dillinger we've known over the last five years. Though the complex mathcore wizardry has not been completely abandoned, it has mostly been replaced by structured songs, clean vocals and a sense of understanding where the chaos once ensued. There are instances when the band even strikes radio-friendly or Nine Inch Nails poses but, at the same time, those dispositions are usually immediately followed up by bursts of the oddest time signatures known to humankind. Miss Machine is a very good record, an auditory exercise whereby the Dillinger Escape Plan has proved to the world that it is more than a one-trick explosion, an album where the group has explored dynamic, texture and morose emotion like never before. However, the truth is that Miss Machine is also going to alienate a good portion of the faithful. Whether that's a good or bad phenomenon remains to be seen.
