Another album from The Dillinger Escape Plan and another batch of interpersonnel calamity, who knew? This albums casualties include drummer Chris Pennie exiting to join Coheed And Cambria and guitarist Brian Benoit being sidelined by nerve damage for the foreseeable future. In turn Gil Sharone of Stolen Babies fame has been brought onboard to handle the drums while Jeff Tuttle, formerly of Heads Will Roll, replaces Benoit in the live setting.

Of course line-up changes for The Dillinger Escape Plan are nothing new and if anything, the adversity seems to have once again emboldened the band even more. With the chances that they took to distance themselves from their copycats on 2004's "Miss Machine" paying serious dividends, it's obviously expected that "Ire Works" will take them even further. If this proves true, then the increased ambitiousness and outright adventurousness that the band take on this effort should elevate them from forum fodder into a household, or at least a shared apartment/parents basement name.

Make no mistake, you'll still get songs that pack the weapons grade ferocity and frenetic time changes the band rose to fame with; but these aren't necessarily the most interesting inclusions on this effort. Nay, the groups ever-burgeoning affixation on the collective works of Faith No More and Nine Inch Nails is where this album really draws blood. By juxtaposing some of the most engaging full-fledged melodies they have ever attempted with instrumental shifts and caustic aggression that sounds like guitar strings were replaced with concertina wire, "Ire Works" reaches farther than ever before.

The continual emergence of staccato aggression and bold electronic interruptions repeatedly antagonize the listener, even during the albums most mellow moments. It is these and the increased harmonies which cement The Dillinger Escape Plan's place at the head of the pack. Snotty, developed and completely intense, even the added instrumentation in the form of horns and keys doesn't seem out of place as the band have delivered what is surprisingly their most cohesive, yet combative release.

That's not to say it is a revelation though as it honestly doesn't move the band as far ahead as "Miss Machine" did. It's also a bit short and can end far too soon. Still, where "Miss Machine" laid down the framework for the expansion to come, "Ire Works" erects the complete twisted structure which towers above their peers.