21.08.2005 
1. End of the Line
2. Driving Down the Darkness
3. Grinf**ked
4. Hold Back the Day
5. Sin & Sacrifice
6. Ripped Apart
7. Pale Horse Apocalypse
8. Just Run
9. Impending Disaster
10. Bear Witness Unto
11. Before the Hangman's Noose
12. Fury of Our Maker's Hand
|
review by Matthew "Newbreed99" Haumschild___
| "This is too good to be true, I bet the rest of the CD sucks". I was wrong. |
It's a shame. It's a damn shame that a band this good has to belong to such a large label as Roadrunner. I'd just feel more comfortable if this band was on Century Media or better yet…Scarlet Records or some medium sized metal label and not a huge conglomerate as Roadrunner/Def jam/Universal. For people like me who prefer metal to be underground have every right to suspect music that comes from major record labels. Or at least, large records labels from this side of the world. But fear not! For DevilDriver is a badass band! The singer of this band, Dez Fafara, has had a long-standing relationship with Roadrunner, before they were bought by a large media corporation, so it's not as bad as it seems! If anyone had doubts of DevilDriver simply because Dez was the singer of Coal Chamber from 1995-2002, erase them. This album will make you forget he was in that band. This CD is 100% better than the previous one and is very far from the nu-metal that Dez once help found. "The Fury Of Our Maker’s Hand" is menacing, dark, and yet beautiful.
End of the Line showcases the best intro to an album I have heard in a long time. It has this beautiful guitar intro with lots of delay and guitar effects along with bass that just makes one think about something very peaceful yet not cheesy.
It's simply incredible. I wish that beginning part lasted for an entire track. After about 51 seconds of it this intro, the china and snare crack hits on the drums and the heavy guitar comes in at the same time as well and just stabs you at every side!
It's so punishing it demands your attention. Of course not too long after, Dez comes in, in a very Phil Anselmo way (in terms of lyric writing) and gets your blood pumping.
It's very fast paced and extremely heavy. Throughout this song, I kept asking myself,
"is this America’s answer to Europe's onslaught of heavy
music?" With all my heart, I'll have to say, "Hell
yes!" Sure Nevermore is badass too but they sound European. And God Forbid, Shadows Fall, and Lamb Of God are good too, but Dez sings from experience! And the band showcases the metal people have been waiting for since 1999! Hard-nosed metal without too many solos that
make's one go into a mosh-pit! Straight up! As I kept listening I kept thinking,
"This is too good to be true, I bet the rest of the CD sucks" I was wrong.
Driving Down the Darkness kept my head bobbing up and down in agreement. The guitars a steady and unwavering, not as fast as the first track but are more melodic along with catchy lyrics. Of all the songs on this CD, this track would be the closest one that would remind me of anything of Coal Chamber if that band were heavier.
This is a great track to listen to in the car at high volume driving in traffic.
Grinfucked is a hard song to describe. It’s more to the point; it's hard but not fast. The drums are the main focus of this track as they are hard hitting. The guitars are even more melodic in sound. I'd say this is one of the darker songs on the CD that's well worth listening to. The title is cool too because most people know what it's like getting grin fucked and this song could relate to most people. Hold Back the Day has a video that is often showcased on all the music video outlets in North America. Matter of fact, if I may make a comment, if you've never seen the video, the best way to describe it would be as if the band paid homage to Black Sabbath. Anyone who has seen the "Paranoid" video would get it. The band is there, on TV jamming out this song with some psychedelic images in the background that's very similar to Black Sabbath's "Paranoid" video, only darker of course. The song itself is just badass! It's a little more monotone, but other than that the guitar work is just amazing as it is on the rest of the CD. The lyrics to this song are also catchy as well.
I was a little skeptical on what the quality was going to be like in this CD.
I was because they weren’t recording at Rumbo Recorders in L.A. like that had on the previous CD. Their previous CD had the best production and the best audio quality I had ever heard. I so I thought to myself,
"How could they top that?" Well, veteran metal producer Colin Richardson took over the helm on this CD and recorded at Sonic Ranch Studios in Tornillo Texas, which is the same studio King Diamond and Nevermore have recorded at.
It's a fine studio, great stuff has come out of that studio, but it’s not Rumbo Recorders. The sound quality was 8.5/10 in my book. Anyone who is an audio engineer can tell this CD was recorded digitally onto Protools. To the normal ear, it sounds like a standard metal CD. Nothing spectacular,
it's normal and it sounds like a middle-high budget record. To me, and to most audiophiles, it would have been better if it were recorded onto
2" analog tape. But I have no complaints, it indeed sounds fine, but cold.
However, the majority of listeners who just listen to CD's in their cars or just through their computers or basic home audio set-up,
this'll sound great. This is a damn fine CD! The glass is half-full on this CD, go get it!
rating: 9.5/10
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