DevilDriver: toward the ultimate metal-riff

Some people want to stay young, some want to stay healthy but very few appear to want to be truthful… Wherever you look there are fakes, opportunists, people selling every ounce of their souls for success, every inch of their bodies for celebrity status, every fleshy gram for a milli-second of ‘fame’… But, wait - let’s hear this quietish intro that explodes into a gargantuan opener entitled ‘End Of The Line’.

It comes from the second album by DevilDriver and it is another kick in the ass for metal fans and genre. ‘The Fury of Our Maker’s Hand’ is such a huge slice of metallarama you can’t believe. Following in the sound-steps of the 2003’s debut self-titled disc, this is much more brutal and obdurate statement that assaults our senses like very few around.

It simply is heavier, faster and more committed - “Expect brutality,” singer/leader Dez Fafara promise. And he ain’t one for idle pledges, this really is a step up, a burning up the strata, the riffs are bigger, the guitar playing - epic!

“Mark my words,” says Roadrunner’s VP of A&R, Monter Conner, “it will go down as both a benchmark metal releases and the album that DevilDriver will be measured against for the rest of their career.”

A career that started relatively recently, on the ashes of Fafara’s former outfit, Coal Chamber. Finding a group of hungry musicians with idea of pushing the extreme boundaries while bonding over numerous BBQs in their base of Santa Barbara. This time they were produced by Colin Richardson (Machine Head, Fear Factory) who appears to have finely-tuned the band’s sound onto the ‘kill’- setting.

Vocals are delivered as if the devil has fused with Dez, instruments driven at the pace an Indianapolis 500 car achieves and they maintain it for the duration. Dez rules with a great help from a killer rhythm section - John Miller (bass) and John Beocklin (drums) that is topped by dual-guitar work of Jeff Kendricks and Mike Spreitzer.

With titles such as ‘Grinf**ked’, ‘Sin & Sacrifice’, ‘Pale Horse Apocalypse’ and the title track, fury in the name and the attitude.

8/10