It has been killing us not to reveal anything sooner, but we can now announce it: the whole Season of Mist staff is really proud and happy to welcome THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN to the roster! It is an honour for the label to have such an originally talented band on board. DEP's fourth studio album – whose title will be revealed in a few weeks – is due early 2010.

"It is becoming clear that as the music industry standard continues to morph and change on a daily basis, artistic and operational freedom has become a band's most valuable asset", guitarist Ben Weinman comments. "100% free of all previous contractual ties, Dillinger is in an amazing position to collaborate with some interesting partners which will continue to nurture the ethic that we have been doing our best to stay true to for over 10 years now. While touring Europe in support of our record, "Ire Works", I had the pleasure of meeting Michael Berberian, distributor and owner of the independent record label Season of Mist. It quickly became clear that we had very similar ideas about Dillinger's music and its place in the underground. Season of Mist has always been a leader in releasing some of the most extreme and interesting metal and experimental music. We look forward to releasing our next full length effort in association with Season of Mist as the very first chapter of this new journey. Also, Michael's last name almost spells out Barbarian which Greg was really excited about."

Ben recently spoke to U.K.'s Rock Sound magazine about the progress of the songwriting sessions: "The new songs sound dark and evil," he stated. "Very early '90s thrash-influenced.

"Lately I have been realizing the purpose of why I started DILLINGER all those years ago. It was to make people truly uncomfortable and to make them not feel accepting of what is happening in their surroundings. When I was growing up, I discovered metal and it interested me, I liked that it was dark and talked about the fact that the world is not all puppy dogs and ice cream cones. But then it just got ridiculous, humourous. I look at black metal bands and they are supposed to be so evil. But it's not real. It's about fiction. About goblins and the gates of hell; pretty much a bad horror movie.

"The music we are writing is influenced by the feelings I get when I hear and see the real evils of this world. Horrible things that make me really question if there is a God or not. This shit is not comfortable, the world is not comfortable, babies are getting raped in your town for God's sake. Young girls are being sold as sex slaves, but most people sitting at their computers downloading music don't want to know. They want to sit on a message board or play fantasy football while their mommy makes them a sandwich."

To help you wait until the album is released, a free remix E.P. (limited to 500 hand-numbered CD's) will be included with the next limited edition DILLINGER shirt. It will include remixes and interpretations of DILLINGER songs from artists such as THE FLASHBULB, IGOR CAVALERA, ATTICUS ROSS, NANOS OPERETTA, and THE CASSETTES. Check out www.myspace.com/dillingerescapeplan for info on the t-shirt / remix EP package.

THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN already scheduled the following gigs and festival appearances:

09/06/2009 Farmingdale, NY US Crazy Donkey
10/06/2009 Philadelphia, PA US First Unitarian Church
11/06/2009 Washington DC, WA US Rock & Roll Hotel
12/06/2009 Raleigh, NC US The Brewery
14/06/2009 Manchester, TN US Bonnaroo
16/06/2009 Pontiac, MI US The Pike Room
17/06/2009 Chicago, IL US Reggie's Rock Club
18/06/2009 Columbus, OH US The Basement
19/06/2009 St Catharines, ON CA L3 Nightclub
21/06/2009 Toronto, ON CA Mod Club
01/07/2009 Kristiansand NO Quart Festival
02/07/2009 Malmö SE Debaser
03/07/2009 Münster DE Vainstream Festival
04/07/2009 Wiesbaden DE Vainstream Festival
05/07/2009 Cergy FR Furia Sound Festival
07/07/2009 Vienna AT Arena
08/07/2009 Riminia IT Velvet
09/07/2009 Basel CH Sommar Casino
10/07/2009 Nijmegen NL Doornroosje
11/07/2009 Nijmegen NL Fortarock
12/07/2009 Krakow PL Knock Out Festival
14/07/2009 Esch sur Alzette LU Rockhal
15/07/2009 Stuttgart DE LKA Longhorn
16/07/2009 Nürnberg DE Hirsch
17/07/2009 Dour BE Festival
18/07/2009 Joensuu FI Ilosaarirock