You hear people say “it’s not musical, it has no direction”. Actually, there is most definitely direction. If a human being does not explore the outskirts of the “common”; common pulses or common “gravity” of melody, then Dillinger will sound foreign. It will sound as if there is no purpose and only noise. Underneath it all, there is absolute purpose. Using Dillinger Escape Plan’s infamous track ”43% Burnt” as an example, without even being technical or too verbose about this, the dissonance is sculpted from the natural tendencies of half-whole diminshed scales. From the intro, the main dissonant chord, all through out, even at the point of the quick interlude at 0:35, you can consider a modulation occuring but still based on pivot notes of this “darker” mode the song is based around. Subtle rhythmic motifs keep surfacing as the song is unfolding. I don’t know 100% if learning the songs and performing them on a personal level (which I do) helps connect with the music that much more, but even if you don’t play an instrument, having this kind of art-music exposure over and over will perhaps help one understand it better. Notice I didn’t say help one like it. Liking it is always and will be always a subjective projection.
Many are looking for “musical direction” based on a presumption of what the direction should be or what the “color” of the melodic/dissonant (dissonance is still identifiable, hence it’s validity) movement should be. If you have no grasp of this musical pallette that creates this art-music then you will ostensibly feel misdirected listening to it. So listen to it more! Analyze it, not to death, but enough to start seeing the connective tissue of it all. You will eventually start hearing how things are connected throughout the music.
Now go buy the new CD “Option Paralysis”!
My guitar cover of “43% Burnt”
