DevilDriver - Beast

The embers of Coal Chamber have finally gone out, and any questions of whether DevilDriver could succeed have been answered. Their first outings were a little try hard for my liking, and understandably so given the relative success of Fafara’s pervious band, but finally, DevilDriver seem to have turned the corner with their fifth album, “Beast”. As far as album titles go, the name “Beast” is particularly well suited.

Lyrically it has to be said, “Beast” doesn’t cut it as the most thought provoking or carefully crafted Shakespearean monologue you’ll ever come across(“better the devil you know then the one you don’t”), but then, that’s not quite what you’d expect if we’re being honest is it! What you want is fast paced guitars, brutal vocal delivery, and the thunder of drums, all tightly meshed together, and that’s precisely what you get.

Stand out personal favourites on the album include opening track “Dead To Rights” which is fairly fast paced, with some heavy rapid triplets hammered out on the fretboard with machine gun precision drums firing along in perfect timing. I loved “Black Soul Choir” too, with a nice guitar riff over the top, with typical Fafara vocals growling confidently (and thankfully not as forced as he used to). Being a guitar nut I also liked “Bring The Fight”, with some nice twin guitar interplay towards the end of the track.

It’s not a ground breaking album for the “metal” genre, it’s not going to change your life, but I do think that this is probably the best album that DevilDriver have thus far produced, and that they’ve perhaps turned a corner and upped their game. There’s a more balanced fuller sound then Coal Chamber ever had, and certainly better in my opinion then the earlier works of DevilDriver. At times some of the guitar work reminded me of bands such as Annihilator and Testament, it’s confident, sure footed, and finally, DevilDriver have cracked it and delivered a “Beast” of an album.