DEVILDRIVER - Beast

Produced by Mark Lewis
Released: February 18, 2010

It's awesome when an album can just pick you up by the throat and hold you there. Before this came on I was planning on doing a bunch of other stuff, but two songs in Beast was having its way with me and wouldn't let go.


Whoever's been supplying Dez Fafara with angry pills has upped the dosage to a dangerous level lately, because he sounds like a man possessed by nothing but hatred and rage. And with the rest of the guys in the band all contributing guitars and bass, Beast has the fattest riffs and the most pummelling groove of DevilDriver's career. Let's not forget John Boecklin's huge drumming either. The dude certainly had his work cut out for him here, and he delivers in spades. Fafara clearly wasn't joking when he said that this was the most extreme DevilDriver yet. Simply everything has been beefed up to a degree beyond everything they've done so far.

Beast is an immense record, opening with the epic-sounding violence of "Dead to Rights" that will make their insane circle pits positively lethal once it's unleashed live. Yet that is merely the beginning of close to an hour's worth of unrelenting, unforgiving metal aggression. "Bring the Fight (to the Floor)" and "Hardened" only heighten the intensity level until the band has become a seemingly unstoppable hate machine. By the time of "Blur", Fafara is shrieking "I don't know you but I fucking hate you" like a complete madman. "Shitlist" is somewhat looser with a twenty-second intro of ambient guitars, but this is only a very brief respite. The punkier elements of Pray for Villains are mostly pushed aside this time, only really making their presence felt in "You Make Me Sick", but Beast is no worse for this, instead veering harder toward the more extreme end of the metal spectrum than ever. Parts of "Black Soul Choir" are almost in the realms of melodic black metal. Only "Lend Myself to the Night" offers some relief, but only insofar as it's slower and the most melodic track, as if the band decided to ease off the pedal as the album rumbled to an end.

Beast is the true pinnacle of DevilDriver's -- and Fafara's -- career to this point. It is an absolute monster of an album that has already set the bar way high for the year and a new standard for all groove metal albums to come.


1. Dead to Rights
2. Bring the Fight (to the Floor)
3. Hardened
4. Shitlist
5. Coldblooded
6. You Make Me Sick
7. Talons Out (Teeth Sharpened)
8. Blur
9. The Blame Game
10. Black Soul Choir
11. Crowns of Creation
12. Lend Myself to the Night

Rating: 95%

DEVILDRIVER: Pray for Villains

Produced by Logan Mader

Released: 2009

It's taken me a long time to warm to DevilDriver. As one of those who came through the 90s being subjected to the vapidity of Coal Chamber, you could perhaps excuse me for warily steering clear of anything with Dez Fafara's name on it at first. Now four albums in with DevilDriver, Pray for Villains is the heaviest and best thing he's done yet, thoroughly crushing the memories of him as the leader of one of the most reviled of all nu-metal acts.

Of course, with such an enormous personality out front, the rest of the band is often overlooked. While Fafara's vocals snap, snarl and growl his lyrics of retribution and rage, it's the other four guys in DevilDriver who are credited with the musical side. And with the shadow of Fafara's inglorious past always looming over them, DevilDriver has sometimes tried just too hard to bury it. The Last Kind Words was violent and relentless to a point where violence and relentlessness became the be-all and end-all; on Pray for Villains they ease off without toning things down. With Logan Mader at the desk, the band is directly tapping the vein of classic early 90s heavy groove metal. Think the catchy groove stylings of bands like Machine Head, Sepultura and Pantera, who would be proud of tracks like "Back With a Vengeance" and the title track. But this is a remarkably diverse album that also touches base with the Gothenburg-esque elements and the thrashy metalcore they've done before, only better, and occasional injections of punk like in the stomping "Another Night in London". The dual melodies are extremely enjoyable and while the soloing itself isn't particularly spectacular, there are moments like during "In the Cards" where they work really well.

If anything, it is Fafara who is the weak point. His lyrics verge on the simplistic at times and his vocals can be monotonous. That said, this is only a moderate criticism. Pray for Villains is a solid album of heavy, aggressive, catchy modern metal that could well be the precursor of the true genre classic that DevilDriver is yet to make.

1. Pray for Villains
2. Pure Sincerity
3. Fate Stepped In
4. Back With a Vengeance
5. I've Been Sober
6. Resurrection Blvd.
7. Forgiveness is a Six Gun
8. Waiting for November
9. It's in the Cards
10. Another Night in London
11. Bitter Pill
12. Teach Me to Whisper
13. I See Belief

Rating: 82%