DevilDriver – Beast
Release: 2011Feb22 (US)
Label: Roadrunner Records
Rating: 3/5
Huh, well this is new. No, not the music, really—I just need to call “bullshit” for the first time in the history of my reviews. Why, you ask? Regarding the creation of Beast, frontman Dez Fafara said it “felt like I was waking up and experiencing a moment of clarity that brought out all these pissed off, negative emotions”. Are you fucking serious? When has Dez ever written material that’s anything but acerbic? Pray for Villains was much more lyrically restrained (not to mention half the aimless cursing) but this… this is just passable.
DevilDriver has been a rough ride for me over the years. I was truly a Coal Chamber fan back when the self-titled debut dropped, and even though they pretty much lost me after the whole “Shock the Monkey” fiasco, I was still reluctantly willing to sample Dez’s allegedly-heavier band. I’ve scarcely heard the Evan Pitts-driven first album (and doubt I’m missing much), but DD v2.0 have now recorded four full-lengths and an EP together—I tell you, this music just does not speak to me.
Maybe that’s jumping the gun a bit, because if anything has interested me about the band, it’s their improved musicianship. Mike Spreitzer and Jeff Kendrick have a rich, consistent tone, fleshed out by Jon Miller’s bass (buried though he may be). But as often happens with NWOAHM bands like Lamb of God, the drummer is the lynchpin of the group, and John Boecklin is the man that keeps me listening here (check out his varied attack throughout “Crowns of Creation”).
They’ve also got the “frontman curse”—where your vocalist is the group’s defining feature, but they write terrible lyrics for themselves to spout. From the lead single: “You webbed me up / Hung me out to dry / Had no idea / I’ve got you dead to rights”. In the adapted words of Inigo Montoya: that term—I do not think it means what he thinks it means. And that fun phenomenon keeps happening, over and over again. Try to picture this scene: “choking on the ladders you’re hoping to climb” (from “Coldblooded”). Certain men are maestros with cliché, twisting them into new forms to create deeper meaning, but Fafara does nothing more than string together idioms of the lowest common denominator for mass consumption. Like, I get what he means, but I haven’t encountered work this ham-fisted since Kermit and Miss Piggy leaked their hardcore sex tape.
DevilDriver is an absolute template for 21st century American metal, and I cannot say I’m proud of that. You can call this “extreme metal” all day and night, but it’s just not the case. When you can telegraph half the songs’ flows; when the words are this trite; when the tunes blur together and you retrace your steps to a very song called ”Blur”—be wary of these signs, they’ll lead you down a dark, boring, ultimately safe path. And by the way, ditch Ryan Clark/Invisible Creature for your album art. Last time, they eliminated the iconic Cross of Confusion and replaced it with a weird owl (not to be confused with the band Weird Owl, whose forthcoming album happens to be called Build Your Beast a Fire… anyway); this time they brought the symbol back but gave you The Joker‘s color scheme. Take stock, dudes, and I’ll keep my fingers crossed for lucky number six.
FCC: 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12
Try: 3, 10
01. Dead To Rights
02. Bring The Fight (To The Floor)
03. Hardened
04. Shitlist
05. Talons Out (Teeth Sharpened)
06. You Make Me Sick
07. Coldblooded
08. Blur
09. The Blame Game
10. Black Soul Choir (16 Horsepower cover)
11. Crowns Of Creation
12. Lend Myself To The Night
~MetalMattLongo
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