SOUND BITES

If the sixth and self-professed final album from The Dillinger Escape Plan is indeed the end of the road for the influential mathcore/metal group, there's no doubt that they're going out on a high note. Their trademark frenzy is in full effect on Dissociation , while the tracklist is peppered with the sudden detours and out-of-nowhere genre experiments that have endeared the band to so many open-minded fans of their extreme excellence. This record is the sound of an incredible and diverse band emptying the tank, exploring every stray idea if only for a handful of seconds. They've never been for everybody, and there are few concessions to conventional wisdom here ( Symptom of Terminal Illness and the closing title track are the closest they come to "accessible", and even they would never be considered as anything approaching mainstream). With Dissociation , DEP go out as frantic and gloriously against the grain as they came; it's a dizzying, combustible, shap...

THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN One Of Us Is The Killer From: One Of Us Is The Killer Released: May 14 The main criticism of Dillinger Escape Plan's fifth album is its lack of surprises; indeed, there doesn't seem to be anything happening here that they haven't attempted before. But, that's hardly reason to dismiss it; if a more finely tuned attack and improved songwriting is bad for a band, I must have missed the memo. Calm down, hardcores, there's plenty of screaming on this album. There's also the album's title track, a slithering slow jam with a chorus that stabs and tears with expert precision, proof that DEP's greatest weapon isn't their talent but what they choose to do with it.