Ire Works, the third full-length album by The Dillinger Escape Plan, is the innovative tech-metal quintet’s most diverse release to date. Like many decade-old bands, the New Jersey outfit’s progression in style follows a natural path, but an ever-shifting lineup is just as responsible for the change in course.
Original drummer Chris Pennie quit before the recording of Ire Works to join Coheed and Cambria, leaving guitarist Ben Weinman as the final founding member; prior to that, nerve damage to the left hand and arm of guitarist Brian Benoit forced his indefinite hiatus. Yet the group pressed forward with Stolen Babies drummer Gil Sharone, who capably replaced Pennie’s dizzying beats, helping make Ire Works a precise and assailing album.
The biggest difference between Ire Works and the group’s last full-length, Miss Machine (2004), is that the glossy radio-rock moments are now more prominent. Vocalist Greg Puciato’s impressive vocal range covers barbarous screams, sassy falsettos, and angst-ridden outcries (evocative of Trent Reznor).
TRACK LISTING:
1. Fix Your Face
2. Lurch
3. Black Bubblegum
4. Sick On Sunday
5. When Acting As A Particle
6. Nong Eye Gong
7. When Acting As A Wave
8. 82588
9. Milk Lizard
10. Party Smasher
11. Dead As History
12. Horse Hunter
13. Mouth Of Ghosts