Pitchfork

News of the Dillinger Escape Plan often reads like the sports page: ruptured disc, torn rotator cuff, tooth knocked out by guitar, foot broken by guitar. Bassist Liam Wilson once dubbed his band "The Dillinger Insurance Plan." DEP's brutal live shows (at New York's Virgin Megastore in 2005, singer Greg Puciato literally ran over the crowd) are partially responsible for the group's high rate of attrition. Only one member, guitarist Ben Weinman, remains from the original lineup.

Despite a turnover of four guitarists, two bassists, one singer, and one drummer, DEP's sound has retained its foundation, mathcore, which it nearly perfected on 1999's Calculating Infinity. Around that time, Converge, Cave In, and Botch also twisted hardcore punk into angular, metallic shapes. But DEP were twice as spastic and technical, spraying odd meters and dissonant lines like epileptic machine gunners. Calculating Infinity was an instant classic, inspiring a new generation of mathcore bands like Psyopus, the End, and Thumbscrew.

However, DEP branched out. In 2001, vocalist Dimitri Minakakis left the band. Irony Is a Dead Scene followed, an explosive collaboration with Mike Patton (Faith No More, Mr. Bungle) which included a cover of Aphex Twin's "Come to Daddy". In DEP, Puciato replaced Minakakis' one-note bark with an extremely wide range. 2004's Miss Machine deployed this range over varied tempos, electronics, and occasional pop moments. Faith No More and Nine Inch Nails were obvious influences; on 2006's Plagiarism covers EP, Puciato did a note-perfect Trent Reznor-- and a passable Justin Timberlake. Such moves are pure Patton, and Puciato's voice is startlingly similar in timbre.

But unlike Patton, DEP don't colonize their experiments. Inevitably songs return to quirky, jerky cores. On Ire Works, the "Living Colour as white boys" falsettos of "Black Bubblegum" are startling at first-- not to mention its recent performance on "Late Night with Conan O'Brien". But even such a poppy song has a churning, abrasive bridge. Half of Ire Works is still mathcore. Unlike Calculating Infinity's sprawling roundhouse kicks, though, Ire Works throws short, hard jabs. Most songs clock in well under three minutes. New drummer Gil Sharone is much to credit for the punchiness. His predecessor, Chris Pennie, was a formidable technician, but Sharone adds a palpable sense of groove. More than ever, DEP have songs.

They're also the band's most colorful to date. Glitchy electronics palpitate "Sick on Sunday" and "When Acting as a Wave". Strings flutter like insect wings on "When Acting as a Particle". The piano soundscape of "Dead as History" could come from NIN's The Fragile. "Milk Lizard" oozes sleazy horns over saucy rock, while "Mouth of Ghosts" unfurls psychedelic, jazzy jamming. These are elephants in the mathcore room; then again, Faith No More was about elephants in the room, and DEP now pick up where Faith No More left off.