Episode 20: Ben Weinman of Dillinger Escape Plan

  Since I discovered "Heavy Metal" in my early teen I have always been drawn to it's extremes. Whether it was the extreme speed of Metallica's "Master of Puppets" album, or the even more extreme speed and unintelligible vocals of Indestroy (early Death Metal), I have always been on the look out for what was next. I wanted heavier, faster, louder, crazier concepts. For me that is what Metal has always been about. Look at where we started with Black Sabbath. At that time no one sounded like that. Look at what Anthrax did with "I'm The Man". In 1987 very few metals would listen to any rap, let alone think of mixing it with metal. But Metal progresses, whether Metalheads like it or not. In the last few years I discovered a band called "The Dillinger Escape Plan" and they are classified by some as "Math Metal" or "Mathcore". When I first heard that term, I had no idea what that term meant. All I knew was, that Dillinger had something new, something extreme. When I listen to them I hear elements of Jazz. This is especially evident on the new record, "One Of Us Is The Killer". There are moments on the record where I hear what sounds like a mash up of the Miles Davis classic "kind of blue" with Black Flag's "Damaged".  Listening to this record is a sonic and emotional journey. In episode 20 we caught up with Ben Weinman, guitarist of Dillinger, and talked with him about his new signature guitar and what it has been like driving Dillinger all these years. We also discuss, pedals, The Mayhem Festival, and new music.