DevilDriver Albums (4)
What The Critics Say
It seems like with each successive release, DevilDriver keep turning up the dial of heaviness. And on their fourth studio album overall, 2009's Pray for Villains, the group continues plowing forward with this approach. Screams, growls, raging riffs, and impressively airtight drumming are all crucial ingredients to the DevilDriver metallic recipe. Produced by former Machine Head guitarist Logan Mader, Pray for Villains hits you like a ton of bricks from the get-go with the album-opening title track (and leadoff single) and never lets up, as evidenced by such brutal tracks as "Fate Stepped In" and "Forgiveness Is a Six Gun," among other dangerous ditties. Pray for Villains confirms once and for all that Dez Fafara has totally shed the nu-metal schtick of Coal Chamber for the 100 percent pure headbanging fury of DevilDriver. ~ Greg Prato, All Music Guide
'The Last Kind Words'
Release Date 1/1/2007
Tracks 11
Label Roadrunner
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
When DevilDriver first started out, some assumed the band was merely a side project for everyone's favorite facially tattooed frontman, Coal Chamber's Dez Fafara. But by the group's third release, 2007's The Last Kind Words, it appeared as though Fafara has completely put the nu-metal shtick of his former band behind him -- the group is a 100 percent metallic beast that has more in common with thrash/extreme metal than all those unbearable "eyeliner metal bands." The group is just as heavy and brutal as the average band you'd spot while scanning Headbanger's Ball, as evidenced by such toe-tapping ditties as "Not All Who Wander Are Lost" and "Bound by the Moon." But therein lies the problem (the same exact dilemma that befalls many a modern metal band of the early 21st century) -- there's not anything all that much different going on here when compared to all the other acts from the current metal crop. Nothing fancy -- just an extreme metal roar that hits you right between the eyes, which may have been DevilDriver's goal all along. ~ Greg Prato, All Music Guide
'The Fury of Our Maker's Hand'
Release Date 6/28/2005
Tracks 12
Label Roadrunner
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
Its nods to post-grunge melodic accessibility and generally workmanlike sound hurt DevilDriver's 2003 debut, and the murkiness of frontman Dez Fafara's relationship with his previous group Coal Chamber didn't necessarily help. There was promise amidst DevilDriver's riffs and runs, but harnessing it was the problem. 2005's Fury of Our Maker's Hand is the solution. DevilDriver has amplified every facet of their sound. They've turned their backs on the kind of plodding melodic obviousness that kills credibility on the raging metal side, instead hardwiring a vicious catchiness right into the guitar lines and Fafara's esophageal grind. Drummer John Boecklin slays on "Bear Witness Unto" and in the furious time-shifts of opener "End of the Line"; actually, Boecklin pretty much slays throughout Fury. "Grinf**cked," besides having the best name on the record, also exemplifies DevilDriver's union of black melody to razor-sharp playing. "Pale Horse Apocalypse" is a traditionalist thrash workout, and "Before the Hangman's Noose" approaches the hard-tack American metal of Lamb of God. The slower pace, spiritualism, and double bass tussles of "Sin & Sacrifice" seem like a tribute to European metal. Fury of Our Maker's Hand is such a severe turn away from the falter of their first album -- and a turn toward something hungry, focused, and ready to be devoured by metal faithful everywhere -- that DevilDriver may have made their true debut the second time around. ~ Johnny Loftus, All Music Guide
