The Dillinger Escape Plan Revisit Their Roots with Rabid Camden Town Forum Show [Show Review]

Back in 1999, The Dillinger Escape Plan recorded what would later become one of metal’s most influential and genre-defining records. Barely in their 20s and with only one EP under their belts, they stood on the foundations previously laid by Deadguy and changed their corner of metal forever. For almost 30 years, Calculating Infinity has stood as a beacon for defying the rules of what “Traditional Metalcore” sounded like and the gold standard of what Mathcore can be.

Sadly, due to a series of unfortunate events, including bassist Adam Doll being involved in a car accident, which ended his time in the band and lead singer Dimitri Minakakis deciding to leave the band to pursue non-music-related endeavours, Calculating Infinity would mark the beginning and the end of a chapter for them.

And so roll on to 2023 and the announcement that the band would play a series of three shows at the Brooklyn Paramount in New York with original singer Dimitri Minakakis, news that felt like a fantasy booking and years of prayers brought to life. Now, as a lifetime obsessive of this band and believing that this was truly a three shows and done deal, I flew out to Brooklyn for these shows and can confirm it was as magical and special an event as you could imagine. After really experiencing and living in that moment, it also dawned on me that there was absolutely no way in hell this would be the only shows they would do… And so here we are at the Kentish Town Forum in London, two years into an album celebration that was originally earmarked as a three-day event, ready to show our respects to a special space in time that will live for all time.

When booking my ticket for this show, there was a slight trepidation in seeing them for a second time on the same tour cycle, especially given what a spectacle the last show was. But ultimately, having not missed a Dillinger London show since I first saw them at the now-defunct LA2 in 2008, and, further still, getting another opportunity to celebrate this incredible era of Dillinger with original singer Dimitri Minakakis, it was a no-brainer. With the show having moved last minute from the Brixton Academy to the Camden Town Forum, we were now guaranteed great sound and a slightly more intimate setting. What we got was over an hour of arguably some of the most aggressive, raw and unapologetically in-your-face live show shenanigans you will ever be lucky enough to witness in 2026.

All of the songs from Calculating Infinity get their moment in the sun, in a different sequence than the recording but played with just as much bile and contempt as they were nearly three decades prior. Opening with instrumental track “*#..” before coming to a 10-15 second stand still blackout, until “Destros Secret” drops in like machine gun fire in the dark and turns the Forum into a giant human pyramid of wailing limbs and the amount of strobes that cause epileptics nightmares.

The panic and anxiety they inflict through complex riffs and completely off-kilter drumming in songs like “The Running Board”, “Clip The Apex… Accept Instruction” and “Variations On A Cocktail Dress” is like being sonically tased and having your nervous system readjusted. Whilst the technically driven, clinically structured and maliciously delivered tracks like “Weekend Sex Change” and “Jim Fear” bring about those manic and unhinged moments of prog and jazz-influenced chaos that this band would create a career out of.

The Dillinger Escape Plan ‘Calculating Infinity’ 2024 anniversary show flyer

Outside of the celebration of the songs from Calculating Infinity, they serve up some deep cuts for the diehards. “Monticello” from the band’s 1997 self-titled EP feels like a real one-of-one moment, whilst the three tracks from their 1998 EP Under The Running Board sound so much weightier and more cohesive than the original recordings. The familiar sight of seeing bassist Liam Wilson attacking his guitar like he’s trying to kill it and founding member and mastermind Ben Weiman jumping off the top of the PA stacks like he’s trying to kill himself brings more than just a feeling of nostalgia; it’s the calling cards of a now easily distinguishable and legendary band. For me, the sight of seeing frontman Dimitri Minakakis finally getting his flowers and the opportunity to celebrate his songs with their fans feels like a rare good news story within modern alternative music.

There’s no diminishing or overlooking the Greg Puciato era of Dillinger whatsoever; this is a celebration, not a replacement after all. And when you hear Dimitris screaming like a bear with its foot caught in a trap on “Sugar Coated Sour”, there’s no denying that a huge part of what makes these songs special has always and will always be him. The first of my two big highlights of the evening comes in the form of a Dillingerized cover of Aphex Twin classic “Come To Daddy”, which sees Dimitri take his talents on a tour of the Forum amongst the people. Barely recognisable from the original, with a huge injection of groove and a rare sighting of Weidman on vocals, this reimagining would honestly have been up there as a Dillinger classic had it been their own.

My second highlight being a slightly more obvious pick, but ending a show with “43% Burnt”, a song that went viral before going viral was even a thing. It will forever be one of the songs entrenched in the zeitgeist of the late 90s early 2000s hardcore and mathcore explosion. A song built on a now iconic panic riff, a wave of surgically precise drum blasts and an all-out vocal assault, it’s as close to perfect as you can get, and for the final time tonight the Forum feels like it’s going to collapse in on itself.

If this was the final time we see The Dillinger Escape Plan on these shores, then they can say they went out on the horse they rode in on nearly 30 years ago, and they leave the metal world a much better place than they found it.