Review Summary: Explosive and fun, just not very memorable
After their first EP in 1997, The Dillinger Escape Plan was quick in releasing their follow up entitled Under the Running Board the next year. Brief and to the to the point, Under the Running Board shows their potential to create something magnificent, yet fails to do so on its own. Containing all of the elements that made Calculating Infinity so great, just not quite there.
Under the Running Board is an extremely short EP consisting of three tracks clocking in at roughly seven and a half minutes. The first track entitled The Mullet Burden offers you your typical Dillinger track that's just as hard hitting as anything else they've written. At one point in the song a breakdown is established, just as soon as the listener gets the feel for the breakdown, it ends abruptly. This is something that The Dillinger Escape Plan have become known for. As soon as you think you know what's going to happen, the entire song takes a 180 and you're left baffled at what just happened.
The next track, Sandbox Magician, is easily the standout track here. The intro seamlessly infuses a jazz break just as good as anything on their later releases. Again going into the whole never knowing what to expect, the song then takes a few turns before ending on another jazz break. Sandbox Magician could have easily been a track on Calculating Infinity and is still a great reference point for anybody who doubts The Dillinger Escape Plan's ability to combine multiple genres flawlessly.
The main thing that brings this release down is it's just not as catchy as some of their other material. Songs like 43% Burnt, Sugar Coated Sour and Sunshine the Werewolf all have moments that stick in your head and cause these albums to have massive replay value. Under the Running Board is by no means a bad release, it's just over shadowed by its successors.
