Year : 2020
Style : Melodic Death Metal , Groove Metal
Country : United States
Audio : 320 kbps + all scans
Size : 95 mb
Bio:
DevilDriver tear their way through heavy metal again with Beast, the band's fifth album for Roadrunner Records, which is an exorcism of animalistic, primal hooks, death metal percussion and propulsive thrashing. While many bands in the modern era are already withering away by their second album and have shriveled up and died by their third, DevilDriver have proven to mutate, growing stronger, deadlier and more immortal with each successive release. Beast is living, firebreathing proof of that unassailable fact.DevilDriver—Dez Fafara (Vocals), John Boecklin (Drums), Jeff Kendrick (Guitar), Mike Spreitzer (Guitar), Jon Miller (Bass)—have awakened something dark, deadly and dangerous. They've brought Beast to life for record number five. With Beast, DevilDriver ventured into new territory: the grooves are catchier than ever, but there's an intricacy and taut technicality to them, representative of an angrier musical monster Beast comes a mere two years after the band's incredibly successful Pray for Villains, which debuted at number 35 on the Billboard Top 200. Villains even surpassing first-week sales of their critically acclaimed 2007 outing, The Last Kind Words and 2005's The Fury of Our Maker's Hand. It's been a constant uptick for the Southern California quintet since they first blasted a hole through the zeitgeist in 2003 with their pivotal self-titled debut.DevilDriver continue breaking the mold and busting heads in the studio and on stage. Who can forget their now legendary appearance at Download 2007, which arguably generated the biggest circle pit in history? Or any other live show they've played for that matter? Or any of the explosive anthems they've released to radio or video? Nevertheless, everything that has come before merely served as a prelude to the birth of Beast."It's another level," Fafara says of his band's latest offering, insisting that the band isn’t tethered to any style, genre or self-imposed limitations. "We didn't simply re-issue a sound we found that worked, which most bands will do especially on their fifth, sixth or seventh record. They'll lay on their laurels and stick to what they've done. We're not looking at what anyone around us is doing. Since we're not paying attention to any of that, we were able to find unique music within ourselves. We tried to break some boundaries and stretch the genre open. We keep redefining ourselves."Most bands don't sound this fierce and fiery on record number one and most don’t have the stamina to retain this burst of sound and fury by a fifth full-length. However, DevilDriver aren’t “most bands”; they burst at the seams with a violent energy that teeters between the hyper-charged assault of "Hardened" and the punked-out fire of "Bring the Fight (To the Floor).Fafara goes on to say that "Everyone came full circle on this album. They're all playing their asses off. This is something where I put myself to the test. We've taken a complete left turn by really trying to install groove and cadence. You hear weird, odd tempos, and we're taking little slices of the map out and putting in groove. For me, there's a lot of punk rock influence too. It's a crazy dichotomy of music."The musical prowess of the band members is becoming more evident beyond the metal world, as Spreitzer, Kendrick and Miller will all release signature ESP guitars sometime next year. Miller is also only the third bassist in the history of the company to have his own signature bass, which is a testament to his fortification of DevilDriver’s rhythmic backbone. Boecklin has also been prominently featured in all drum magazines, namely Modern Drummer and DRUM!, as his kit work continues to turn heads.DevilDriver conjure genuine chaos and make it beautifully brutal with the dichotomy that Fafara spoke of. For Fafara, the title sums up the band's mindset. "The record title Beast doesn't just explain the music. It really has to do with us and what we've become. The touring machine that we are is Beast. As friends, we're Beast. That describes us perfectly. The last 24 months has really shown us who we are as individuals and as a band. After everything we've gone through as people and as a band, it's totally appropriate."That touring machine will commence in the immediate wake of the album's February 22, 2011 release. Be prepared to hear "Talons Out (Teeth Sharpened)" being screamed back...to DevilDriver at festivals worldwide by fans. On songs like "Shitlist" and "You Make Me Sick (Sacred Secrets,)" Fafara and Co. go right for the jugular musically and lyrically."It's a sincere, pissed-off street record," reveals the singer. "It's got straight-to-your-heart lyrics. I jumped outside of myself on Pray for Villains and wrote stories. On this one, I came back to who I was. It was an intense time, and this captures that intensity. It's the guy who walks through shit the best that eventually starts hovering over the top and he wins. Some people will lock themselves in a dark room and wallow because the world is crumbling. I do the opposite. I start sharpening my teeth and my nails. I start looking with an electric fucking glance and moving through life. That's what this album is about—the daily fight that is life."Producer Mark Lewis [All That Remains, Trivium] encouraged the band to continue to fighting harder. After an intense series of writing sessions in early 2010, DevilDriver recorded with Lewis at Sonic Ranch in El Paso, TX. Fafara and Lewis.finished vocals together in San Diego at the home studio of Tim Lambesis [As I Lay Dying]. Dez continues, "Working with Mark Lewis was a great help this time because he envisioned where we were all going with us. He wanted us to step out of the box, and together we did."Stepping out of the box lead to "Dead to Rights," which spills blood with every note, building an infectious refrain within the framework of pummeling polyrhythmic madness. "Talons Out (Teeth Sharpened)" is an anthemic war cry that drops from shrieking verses into double bass terror, while "Blur" spits punk grit into extreme metal posturing. This is one Beast that cannot and will not be contained.In the end, Beast is as alive as anything DevilDriver has done up to this point because of the devotion of the members.Fafara concludes, "These five souls make this band what it is. It lies in the salt and pepper from everyone. What's most important is our fans get delivered the kind of music, stage show and energy that they're expecting from us. Because of all the time and personal sacrifice, we are a Beast. The pleasure is that we're all together as friends still. Nothing can stop DevilDriver.".
Album:
It’s an interesting time for musicians. While many have had most of, if not all of, there 2020 shows and tours cancelled and taken the time to have a well-deserved break, others have relished the chance to use this time to work on new material. As a band often touted as one of the hardest working around, Devildriver have obviously taken the latter route and have been working tirelessly with the intention of releasing not one, but two albums within the next 12 months. The first of these releases, the appropriately titled Dealing with Demons Volume 1 has been described as “the onset of a final purging of the demons that have long haunted frontman Dez Fafara and Devildriver’s music”. But as the first new material since 2016’s well-received Trust No One, how does this musical exorcism sound?Starting off the album with track Keep Away From Me, the band really doubles down on the notion that they are laying it all out on the table. Taking obvious inspiration from the current pandemic, and a bit of self-introspection on the bands part, the tracks lyrical themes really sit front and centre for this song. With a solid groove and a superb guitar tapping passage towards the tail end of the track, Keep Away from Me really serves well as the perfect opener. Second track Vengeance is Clear is filled with the groove people have come to expect from the band. It has a bouncy drum and bass line replete with a chugging guitar that carries the song. It’s so catchy that it’s easy to get lost in the music on this track alone, but adding Fafara’s vocals into the mix it’s going to be tricky not to see this song make its way onto the bands live sets when shows resume again.It’s tricky not to feel the vitriol from spewing forth from Fafara on tracks Nest of Vipers and Iona. While both are extremely loaded tracks, the former of which has one of the better sounding verse riffs that draws in listeners before its chorus delivers a sharp melodic punch over some choice lyrics, while the latter is a slightly toned-down affair embracing a more groove metal style sound. When this album was described as the purging of demons that have long haunted Fafara and the band, this is obviously the content that springs immediately to mind, and it’s difficult not to be impressed when it’s done in such a tasteful way.It’s the midpoint of the album where track Wishing comes along and really changes the pace while also blowing the listener away. While its opening guitar and drum passages help accentuate the sombre mood of the song, it’s the spoken word verses spinning the lyrical content in a moving way that really draw the listeners in. This all climaxes with the impassioned vocals of Fafara in the chorus screaming “Wishing you were here” over a fast-paced musical background which makes this song etch itself into the memory of the listener. Once it burrows in, it’s difficult to lose from your mind and this will easily become a favourite of many listeners.As opposed to the earlier portion of the album which is filled with the more melodic tracks, the tail end really embraces the band’s heritage with a lot of groove-laden tracks. You Give Me A Reason To Drink is probably one of the slowest tracks on the album but carries with it it’s heavy lyrical themes and culminates in a pretty cool solo. Witches, on the other hand, takes that groove inspiration and a little bit of a nu-metal influence, infuses them both with melody, and adds in another stellar solo to create a track that fits in well with the mould already created, but creates something that stands as another completely unique title on the album.The band then re-treads their melodic sound on the title track Dealing with Demons, another hard-hitting but melodic masterpiece with a very introspective sounding guitar solo towards the tail end of the track, before closing tracks The Damned Don’t Cry and Scars Me Forever further the band’s demon cleansing with two more groove-laden tracks to close out the album.Vocally, Fafara lays down some of his best work on this album. Over the years his enunciation in his growls have become much clearer over his earlier works, and the incorporation of spoken passages in Wishing stand out as key highlights from the vocal delivery on this album. Musically, it’s difficult not to be drawn in by the interplay between guitarists Mike Spreitzer and Neil Tiemann on Dealing with Demons because throughout the entirety of this album these two play off each other seamlessly and bring great life to these tracks. It’s great to feel their differing styles complementing each other throughout, and their tone on each track brings forth an emotive element which cannot be understated. It would be difficult for the guitars and vocals to shine through without the competent work of Diego Ibarra on bass and Austin D’Amond on drums, whose work is often understated, but completely integral to the band’s overall sound on this album.Overall, Dealing with Demons Volume 1 was a surprise on many levels. There’s enough variety here to satiate the long term fans who have shared the journey thus far with the band, while also hinting towards a new horizon that they have set for themselves. Dealing with Demons Volume 1 might be the beginning of Devildriver opening up a clean slate mentally, emotionally and musically, but they certainly make it very tricky not to be drawn into the spiritual cleansing alongside them. With the second part of this double offering Dealing with Demons Volume II slated for a 2021 release, it will be interesting to see how the band expands upon what they’ve done so far, but if its anything like what they have dished up on this album, then we can probably already call that the band might have two consecutive years in many peoples ‘best of…’ lists.
Line-Up:
Dez Fafara - Vocals (2003-present) - See also: Born of the Storm, Coal Chamber, ex-Roadrunner United, ex-Korn (live)
Mike Spreitzer - Guitars (2004-present)
Neal Tiemann - Guitars (2015-present) - See also: David Cook, Midwest Kings, ex-Burn Halo (live)
Diego “Ashes” Ibarra - Bass (2016-present) - See also: ex-Static-X, ex-Wayne Static
Austin D'Amond - Drums (2015-present) - See also: Bleed the Sky, The Elite, ex-Enfuneration, ex-Chimaira
Tracklist:
01. Keep Away From Me 04:18
02. Vengeance Is Clear
03. Nest Of Vipers 03:57
04. Iona 04:15
05. Wishing 04:19
06. You Give Me A Reason To Drink (feat. Simon Blade Fafara)
07. Witches
08. Dealing With Demons
09. The Damned Don't Cry
10. Scars Me Forever
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