IS BRIAN BENOIT RE-JOINING THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN?

The Dillinger Escape Plan’s new guitarist may be their old guitarist.

In case you hadn’t heard, Jeff Tuttle quit the band (on amicable terms) earlier this year; yesterday, Ben Weinman posted the above photo of himself and Benoit jamming on his Facebook page, along with the hashtag “#dillingerescapeplan.” Now, while this obviously isn’t a 100% confirmation that Benoit is returning to the fold… well, it sure is interesting timing, ain’t it? I don’t think anyone should be surprised one bit if it turns out that Benoit is, indeed, back in the group.

And bringing back an old member to replace a new one is a brilliant idea. Benoit appeared on the band’s seminal 1999 full-length debut, Calculating Infinity, so he’s got cred; he doesn’t need to “prove” himself to the fans, so to speak. It’s a natural fit and pretty much an all-around win.

Here’s a kind of weird paradox, though: besides Weinman, none of the other current members of DEP were in the band at the same time as Benoit. In other words, he would be, in a weird way, re-joining a band he was never in. You can’t say that that happens very often, now, can you? I’m an asshole; Benoit also appeared on Miss Machine with Greg Puciato and Liam Wilson. Thanks to Rob from Metal Injection for pointing out my idiocy.

More news as it becomes available.

-AR

[via The PRP]