Devildriver "The Fury of Our Maker's Hand" CD
[Roadrunner]
Most of what I'm reading about this record is inaccurate hype that would have one believe that this is a total metal record, completely free of any nu-metal-esque groove. Not so, in reality. Like their debut, this is more credible than anything you'd expect from the former frontman of Coal Chamber, and it is true that this record's a little thrashier than their first outing, but then again... there are still some groovy trappings present, and the songwriting's not wonderful, so... while it's a solid offering, it's not something that I think is ready to start winning over too many more fans for the band that would be coming from more of an underground background. Dez Fafara definitely has a unique and identifiable voice, and at times it's quite efficient, but his penchant for rhythmic vocal patterns, no matter how tactful, might always remain tied to the Coal Chamber days... unless perhaps Devildriver continues to beef up their songwriting and move farther away from tossing in churning midpaced rhythms that have that chugging groove happening. But at the same time, a lot of the clean guitars on this record sound like "alternative metal" to me as well, you know? The opening riff of the disc in "End of the Line", the quick intro to "Sin & Sacrifice", all of that overly reverberated stuff... it could be emo, metalcore, heavy hard rock... anything could follow that stuff, it's not genuinely dark enough to feel like it fits with the rest of this music. The latter track eventually blends the clean textures with an almost Paradise Lost sounding (circa "Draconian Times") set of melodic distorted power chords that I actually enjoy, though. "Hold Back the Day" brings in some barely black metal-esque tremolo picking and harnesses a lot of energy right from the start, so even the overproduced edge of the groovy verse riffs hold their own, though the unnecessary break at three minutes in does damage the track along with the staccato melodies of the pre-chorus. "Impending Disaster" is another zippy track with a lot of speedy picking, and I think they could do some damage if they could iron out the kinks in stuff like that. "Before the Hangman's Noose" is the nu-metally clunker of this disc, complete with obnoxious staccato rhythms and vocal patterns that follow suit, so I don't know why they're still heading down that road at all. One thing that I can't help but point out is also that the thrashier elements of this record are absolutely coming more from the melodic Swedish vein (just check out the alternate picking and pull-off runs in "Pale Horse Apocalypse" or the thick melodic chords and In Flames-ish influences in the title track), so even though they're pretty good at that stuff it is derivative. Some of the chunkier breaks have a metalcore-ish thing going on as well, which is almost unavoidable these days, but... I don't know, there are indeed some disjointed songwriting qualities throughout this album where the band doesn't particularly hone in on their strengths. The recording is definitely fine, I have no quarrels there. Elements of the percussion could stand to be slightly more natural or warmed up, and the bass doesn't play much of a role at all, but the guitars sound pretty god damn good, and I like the sense of crisp balance they've achieved overall. The vocals could probably stand to be reigned in against the instrumentation a little more, they feel somewhat separated, but again, for the most part it sounds as full and professional as you'd expect from a band of this particular nature on this particular label. Visually it looks pretty good, but I'm not that into the color scheme and the lyrics are hard as fuck to read, so... there's not so much to look at from a design standpoint other than a couple of band photos and some dirty abstract textures with warped text all over the place. I've never been fond of the fairly simplistic lyrics found in this band's work, so I'm not terribly bothered that it gives me a headache to try to read through the content - I'm guessing there's nothing to miss there. It's a shame, because there are some damn fine riffs on this disc, but there really aren't many damn fine songs. They come close, but they can't seem to keep it together. Without fail, if they hit on some ferocious energy, they'll toss in an out of place groove or drop back to a less than powerful rhythm that throws a wrench in the works (most notably in "Just Run"). At their best I think Devildriver could easily solidify themselves as an honest to goodness metal band that would stop taking so much shit, but they're simply not there yet. I'd say they're a half step closer than they were on their debut, but... a lot of the same issues are still in place. And in fact, the best songs on their debut were more memorable than the best songs here, it's just that this record has slightly less filler. But look at that running time! 51 minutes and 12 tracks? Yeah, they really ought to trim that down, too. For whatever reason I'm actually pulling for these guys to win me over at some point in the future, I don't know why, but... I'd like to see it happen, as they do have some promise. So... maybe next time? (6/10)
Running time - 51:17, Tracks: 12
[Notable tracks: Hold Back the Day, Sin & Sacrifice, Ripped Apart, The Fury of Our Maker's Hand]
Roadrunner Records - http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com

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