From their early days in the late-'90s as short-haired Rutgers, New Jersey, college students delivering hyper-complex thrash to audiences of boorish long-haired surly metalheads, to performing with NINE INCH NAILS on the pioneering electronic band's farewell shows, the DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN have merely one prerogative: to go forward in ALL directions simultaneously. Their groundbreaking 1999 debut full-length, "Calculating Infinity", is inarguably the essential technical-metal talisman for the 21st century, melding hardcore's blinding rage with a musical vision that made most progressive-rock bands sound positively lazy by comparison. "Irony Is A Dead Scene", the band's 2002 collaboration with Mike Patton, maintained their patented extremity while exploring electronic textures. The 2004 follow-up, "Miss Machine", (the first record to showcase frontman, Puciato) was a distillation of the band's work thus far, while including jaw-dropping flirtations with mainstream metal ("Unretrofied") that further enforced DILLINGER's desire-and ability-to take their music wherever the hell they wanted. 2007's "Ire Works" had the band finding inspiration from underground glitch and breakcore electronica, as well as indigenous music genres, in a world seemingly overrun with metalcore bores and screamo trend-hoppers. THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN's unerring sweat equity has consistently found resonance with listeners on both sides of the stages the band trod upon.
"Option Paralysis" marks the beginning of another trajectory in the DEP mythology. After aligning themselves with the renowned Relapse label for most of their career, the band entered into a deal with the French label SEASON OF MIST to put out "Option Paralysis", tagging their new PARTY SMASHER INC label. "We signed a pretty traditional record deal with them for one record," explains Weinman. "What's exciting is that Michael [Berberian, SOM label founder] is a really big music fan and has a great understanding of how we operate. He was totally aware of the possibilities and limitations of working with a band like us-he's not expecting pop hits-and he's been extremely enthusiastic to dive right in and make it work for everyone."