The Dillinger Escape Plan have one of the most singular discographies and important legacies in extreme-music history, and like so many great bands, that legacy is complicated.
The mathcore revolutionaries released their brilliantly dizzying debut, Calculating Infinity, in 1999, but then split amicably with screamer Dimitry Minakakis just two years later. Faith No More/Mr. Bungle wild man Mike Patton did a brief stint behind the mic, and then Dillinger welcomed Greg Puciato into the fold. He fronted the band from 2001 up through their breakup in late 2017.
A little over six years later, Dillinger are active again with Minakakis back in the lineup, alongside co-founding guitarist-songwriter Ben Weinman, to celebrate Calculating Infinity's 25th anniversary with a string of Brooklyn shows.
Taking these diverse eras and the band's dense catalog into account, we asked Revolver readers to select the single greatest Dillinger Escape Plan song of all time. See the top five vote-getters ranked accordingly below.
5. "One of Us Is the Killer"
Dillinger Escape Plan are mostly revered for their brain-scrambling heaviness and balcony-jumping antics — and rightly so. That being said, there was a softer, far more melodic side of their sound, and it never materialized better than on the title track of the band's 2013 album.
There's palpable tension and release between the restrained verses and the explosive choruses, as Greg Puciato's voice swerves between a sultry falsetto and a soulful wail. Killer, indeed.
4. "Milk Lizard"
Like "One of Us Is the Killer," "Milk Lizard" also boasts an infectiously catchy hook, but this one is surrounded by the sort of controlled chaos Dillinger had mastered by 2007's Ire Works.
It's as jazzy and convulsive as their previous works — and even boasts left-field trumpet blasts — but "Milk Lizard" also has a rock & roll swagger in its main riff that signaled where the band would go in the coming decade.
3. "Sunshine the Werewolf"
Five tumultuous years and two vocalists after Calculating Infinity, Dillinger returned with Puciato on the mic and sounded feral as ever on his debut album with the band, Miss Machine.
"Sunshine the Werewolf" is an obvious standout, a jittery, ants-in-pants skronk-fest with aneurism-inducing vocals and riffs so jagged they could tear a hole in the universe.
2. "Farewell Mona Lisa"
We deemed DEP's 2010 LP, Option Paralysis, their discography's weakest link, but that doesn't mean that the record's opening blitzkrieg, "Farewell, Mona Lisa," doesn't rule.
Puciato delivers one of the greatest vocal performances of his whole career, ranging from moody croons to gnashing screams, and the whole song builds to a momentous crescendo, keeping you on the edge of your seat the whole time.
1. "43% Burnt"
It kind of has to be this one, right? While Dillinger had a prolific and sonically adventurous career well beyond their genre-making debut, the sheer intensity of that record is still unmatched by all their countless copycats, and "43% Burnt" is its unfuckwithable highlight.
The nervy rhythms, cataclysmic blast beats and jazzy noodling are bonkers, Dimitri Minakakis' vocals are lawlessly wild, and while Dillinger never traded in breakdown hardcore, the mosh section that takes the cut to its face-battering conclusion is utterly nasty and totally iconic.
