The Dillinger Escape Plan (DEP) is an American metalcore and mathcore band from Morris Plains, New Jersey. Formed in 1997, their musical style, modern and integrates elements jazz and progressive metal. The band's name (literally "Dillinger's escape plan") refers to American gangster John Dillinger. They are famous for their music, characterized by often complex rhythmic structures, exacerbated violence and very fast tempos, as for the intensity of their stage performances. Their influences include Refused, the Mahavishnu Orchestra, King Crimson, as well as Black Flag and Cynic.
First parts on major tours (Slayer and System of a Down, in particular), and especially the publication in 2002 of an EP in collaboration with Mike Patton, allowed them to acquire a certain notoriety. DEP has also been an inspiration for many groups such as Sikth, Psyopus, and Ion Dissonance. The group ends his career after a sixth and last album in 2017.
It was in March 1997 that Ben Weinman and Derrick Brantley, guitarists, Adam Doll, bassist, and Chris Pennie, all four from New Jersey and friends of high school, formed the first draft of The Dillinger Escape Plan, on the ashes of the Arcane hardcore punk band >>>. The singer Dimitri Minakakis joins the quartet, which starts writing compositions intended, according to them, to satisfy their most ruthless critics: themselves. Shortly after, they record a first eponymous mini-album of six titles, which will be released on Now or Never Records>.
The quintet then makes its first steps on stage in various locations: music stores, basements, punk squats, but also small and / or medium clubs in many states of the Northeast and Midwest. The intensity of their concerts quickly makes them gain notoriety, which attracts the attention of representatives of the label Relapse Records, who attend one of their concerts in Pennsylvania. This meeting eventually leads to the signing of a contract for several albums. After John Fulton's arrival in the fall of 1997 when he left in 1998, the band released a mini-album in October 1998 recorded in TraxEast Studios. Under the Running Board , a condensed eight-minute complex, energetic and technical music, is rather well received by fans and the specialized press >> >>>. Many articles in the international music press describe "Under the Running Board" as one of the best releases of the year >>>. The band then continues its tours, propagating an energy then rarely seen.
