News•December 3, 2023 3:50 AM ET•18,072 views

The Dillinger Escape Plan's Ben Weinman & original vocalist Dimitri Minakakis appear in weird video

Benjamin Weinman, the current guitarist for Suicidal Tendencies, released a strange video featuring Dimitri Minakakis, original vocalist of The Dillinger Escape Plan which Weinman notably also played in for the band's entirety. Minakakis fronted The Dillinger Escape Plan from 1997 - 2001, later replaced by Greg Puciato current vocalist of Better Lovers among other projects. The most current lineup of The Dillinger Escape Plan disbanded in late 2017, playing their final show at Terminal 5 in New York City where Minakakis joined the band and performed several early tracks as well as an encore of "43% Burnt" with Puciato.

In the 27-second video, you can see both Weinman asking Minahkis, "Do you know what I miss?". The video also has a superimposed "2024" graphic. It should be noted that The Dillinger Escape Plan's Calculating Infinity is set for a 25th anniversary next year, so what does this all mean?

Back in November of 2022, Billy Rymer (currently of thoughtcrimes), the most recent drummer for The Dillinger Escape Plan shared a "nostalgic moment" of a screen recording of him creating a set list for Furnace Fest 2023. The list did include tracks "The Mullet Burden" and "Sugar Coated Sour".

Rymer quickly back peddled that post saying:

I'm allowed to be nostalgic as well as hopeful. I want to see it happen more than anyone who saw the post. No one should take that as any official announcement, but that's where I stand on us playing again.

In September of this year, Weiman shot down rumors of a reunion, in response to a comment made by former vocalist Puciato in a Revolver interview referencing offer requests to play festivals over the last few years.

Weiman stated in an interview with Metal Injection:

I want to be as respectful to the band, its members, and the fans as possible so I'll try to clear some things up without getting into too much of the 'he said she said'. To be clear, I have not talked directly to Greg since just after the final Dillinger shows in 2018. One of the reasons for that is because, without getting into too much detail as some of this info is not for me to disclose, I think it is safe to say the band's members – including myself – do not share the same values as Greg. While I cherish the work we did together and will always acknowledge how instrumental his contributions have been to the legacy of this band, there is a lot of misinformation out there based on the perception Greg has crafted through interviews and what he gets quoted on. At the very least, let's just say the rest of the band has nothing to do with the information Greg has put out there, and that none of it is accurate
I think it is very important to mention that Greg has no ownership of the Dillinger Escape Plan as an entity, no ownership in the overarching corporation, and has no ownership over the name and he never has. He has always been paid as an independent contractor and he has no interactions with our booking agent, lawyers, etc. I'm happy to show anyone who doubts this all the paperwork that says otherwise. That's that. This band has existed with different singers and musicians over the years and I am proud that my continued involvement from day one has helped keep some consistency in how we functioned and did things as a unit.
The truth is that any discussions of a reunion with Greg have been shut down before money was discussed. There have been no concrete money offers for a reunion with Greg – meaning that the conversations have never gotten to money as they've always been shut down immediately – that I or anyone on our team is aware of. I think there was some preliminary talks thrown around for us to do Furnace Fest, but our agent's response was that we are not entertaining reunion offers at this time. The end. I have been approached a few times indirectly by people who had talked to Greg while he was out on the road about doing a reunion, and what was conveyed to me was that he really wanted to do it and that it should be discussed with me.

So, is it old pals just hanging out reminiscing? Or does it mean more? I guess we will see in 2024, but for now you can view the video below.