Although never having had an agenda on their lyrics, the band members were outspoken and usually controversial in interviews. In 2016, Puciato said: "We give a lot of fucks about not giving a fuck, if that makes sense. We have a really high level of quality control about not putting parameters and cages around ourselves creatively. That's kind of been the only motivation I've ever had". On "Miss Machine", they included the songs "Unretrofied" and "Phone Home" that were not initially composed for Dillinger nor in their usual style in order to not "be confined into a specific space". 2006's cover album "Plagiarism" was intended "to tell the close-minded metal community that it's OK to listen to other music". After their first albums, they toured with bands from diverse genres outside of the metalcore scene to prevent being "pigeonholed into" it. They were vocal about their dislike for styles such as nu metal and mainstream metalcore of the early to mid-2000s, as well as mocked musicians such as Jared Leto, Nickelback, Puddle of Mudd, Disturbed, Avenged Sevenfold, Atreyu, and Linkin Park.