Dillinger Escape Plan Under The Running Board CD

When The Dillinger Escape Plan initially released the three-song EP UNDER THE RUNNING BOARD, the louder, faster, and crazier arms race that had temporarily been put to rest kicked back in with a vengeance. Dillinger's blistering technique and complex mathematical time-signatures were breathtaking. Only the raw physicality of their shows kept them from being pure metal scientists. Opener "The Mullet Burden" presents a rapidly mutating storm of fretboard heroics and bludgeoning riffs, "Sandbox Magician" twists and turns with the precision of a drill, and "Abe The Cop" stops and starts on a dime, sounding like nothing less than pure industrial manufacturing. The special 2008 anniversary edition adds on nine live tracks that prove the band's dexterity isn't studio-aided.

Before they issued their full-length debut in 1999 (Calculating Infinity), the Dillinger Escape Plan issued a pair of EPs -- 1997's self-titled release, and 1998's Under the Running Board. The latter weighed in at only a meager three tracks (and contained a running time of only 7:33), before being reissued ten years later -- almost to the exact day -- with an expanded track listing. Under the Running Board 2008 consists of 13 tracks total -- with the added ten tracks being almost all live recordings (save for an album-closing cover of Black Sabbath's "Paranoid"). Although it's been ten years since Under the Running Board first dropped, it's still as fierce as ever -- it sounded like very little else (for better of for worse) back in 1998. "The Mullet Burden," "Abe the Cop" -- they're all still equally ferocious blasts of metallic cacophony. ~ Greg Prato

Audio Mixer: Chris Badami.

Recording information: 12/1997-10/2000.