Ire Works is the third studio album by American band the Dillinger Escape Plan. The album was released in the UK on November 5, 2007, in the US on November 13 through Relapse Records, and in Japan on November 28. The album was their last album on Relapse.[1] The album is Gil Sharone's first and last album with the band and their first without founding drummer Chris Pennie. Lead guitarist Ben Weinman plays guitar alone on the record, due to Brian Benoit's injury. The album is described as mathcore,[2]post-hardcore,[3] and metalcore, incorporating a wide variety of influences including electronic music.[4][5]
According to an interview in Terrorizer magazine, this is their last album on the Relapse Records label.[6] The album was critically successful, debuting on the Billboard 200 at number 142 with 7,000 copies scanned,[7] but was later corrected when it was revealed that Relapse somehow forgot to scan the pre-release album sales, which made the first week total actually around 11,000. The album features guest vocals by band's former vocalist Dimitri Minakakis (on "Fix Your Face") and Mastodon's Brent Hinds (on "Horse Hunter").
Background
After a successful reception and tour to Miss Machine, the band began recording new material. However, drummer Chris Pennie left the band to join Coheed and Cambria as the band's permanent drummer after the departure of their former drummer. Shortly after, new drummer Gil Sharone was hired by Dillinger and performed the drum tracks on the album.
During the Miss Machine tours, guitarist Brian Benoit developed nerve damage in his left hand and was forced to quit the band. Instead of hiring a new guitarist, Ben Weinman played all of the album's guitar tracks. Jeff Tuttle was later hired as the band's touring guitarist. Once again, the band hired metalcore producer Steve Evetts. Former vocalist Dimitri Minakakis makes guest vocals on the track "Fix Your Face", and has appeared on stage with the band many times.
The artwork was created by Shelby Cinca of Frodus and Decahedron.[8] He was chosen by the band for his sci-fi/futurist-influenced visual sensibilities. The artwork is also a subtle reference to Bloom's Taxonomy of Learning, as a URL pointing to "ireworks.net" is written in small, almost hidden text on the album's official lyric sheet. The triangle on the album contains the same basic colors shown on the Bloom's Taxonomy of Learning pyramid, though the actual artwork uses gradients versus having different levels of shading.
[9]
^"Ire Works". Archived from the original on November 21, 2007. Retrieved December 2, 2007.((cite web)): CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
