THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN Issues Post-European Tour Update

THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN frontman Greg Puciato has issued the following update:

"We just wrapped up a quick two weeks of European shows, starting in Long Island and finishing up in Finland. Every show was invigorating for us, including a lot of places we haven't played in a really long time.

"Our producer, Steve Evetts, had a revelation and decided that he will no longer be producing records but would rather come with us and do lights for free, so if anyone wants a free light guy, he's your guy!

"In typical light guy fashion, the quality of the shows quickly became measured by 'how killer the lights were' that night.

"When we go in to the studio in a month, Steve will probably have strobe lights and a smoke machine in the vocal booth.

"Anyhow, we played with a ton of great bands over in Europe, in a ton of unsuspecting places that kick hordes of ass like Poland and Belgium. What did we learn? We learned that Alex Skolnick from TESTAMENT pretty much drives the school bus of metal guitar soloing...blindfolded, and with his feet. We learned that 99% of Europeans have never seen a Mexican. We learned that German bus drivers think it's OK to drink beer and drive because they are 'rock and rollers!'

"We have a month and a few days to finish writing our new album, 'Option Paralysis', before we record from the end of August to the beginning of October. We'll be checking in from our MySpace and Twitter accounts and all that stuff, and we'll be sneaking you song titles and snippets of demos as well as behind-the-scenes videos from now until the release."

Bassist Liam Wilson adds: "For our friends at home, let's recount some of last month's hijinx from the road. We spent two weeks in the States, touring to and from Bonnaroo in Tennessee and beyond, followed by three more in Europe doing mostly festivals, with highlights including Quart in Norway, Dour in Belgium and Ilosaarirock in Finland.

"This was the first time in Europe with our new drummer Billy [Rymer], who rivals me for the title of 'Band's Pickiest Eater' as well as the first time we played 'Mouth of Ghosts' and 'Horsehunter' over there, and both seemed to go over quite well.

"Krakow, of all the cities we visited, surprised me the most this time around; there's really something special happening there. Whether a backstage has wireless access more or less determined the mood of the day, and when we could not find any WiFi (pronounced 'wiffy'),we were forced to do extreme things, like asking each other questions about whether we'd be more likely to bang Bea Arthur or Natalie Portman under circumstances not fit to admit or share here.

"We dumped out our proverbial 40s for Michael Jackson in Vienna, expecting him to stage the biggest comeback of his career and jump out of his coffin during his televised service...unfortunately, that didn't happen. The world was weird with him in it, but I guarantee it's going to get even weirder without him.

"Speaking of weird, the 'Option Paralysis' recording is supposed to start in about a month. Seems like only yesterday we were in California recording 'Ire Works', and now we're headed back again... buy that ticket, take that ride."

THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN recently inked a deal with Season Of Mist Records. The band's fourth studio album, Option Paralysis", will be released in early 2010 in collaboration with the band's brand new label.

According to guitarist Ben Weinman, the band's new "official creative umbrella" for all things THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN has been dubbed Party Smasher Inc. He states, "After over a decade of touring and making music we have realized that there is the right way of doing things, the wrong way of doing things, and then the DILLINGER way of doing things. Party Smasher Inc. will represent our collected efforts on all things DILLINGER-related."

Ben recently spoke to U.K.'s Rock Sound magazine about the progress of the songwriting sessions for the new album. "The new songs sound dark and evil," he stated. "Very early '90s thrash-influenced.

"Lately I have been realizing the purpose of why I started DILLINGER all those years ago. It was to make people truly uncomfortable and to make them not feel accepting of what is happening in their surroundings. When I was growing up, I discovered metal and it interested me, I liked that it was dark and talked about the fact that the world is not all puppy dogs and ice cream cones. But then it just got ridiculous, humorous. I look at black metal bands and they are supposed to be so evil. But it's not real. It's about fiction. About goblins and the gates of hell; pretty much a bad horror movie.

"The music we are writing is influenced by the feelings I get when I hear and see the real evils of this world. Horrible things that make me really question if there is a God or not. This shit is not comfortable, the world is not comfortable, babies are getting raped in your town for God's sake. Young girls are being sold as sex slaves, but most people sitting at their computers downloading music don't want to know. They want to sit on a message board or play fantasy football while their mommy makes them a sandwich."