Sep
19
Album Review: Devildriver-Pray For Villains
Like a perfect cup of coffee, “Pray for Villains” is that boost you need to enliven a dreary morning. Right from the start the epic title track creams inside your ears with its rumbling double pedal mayhem and slaying guitars. Yet besides the magic between the Devildriver axemen Mike Speitzer and Jef Kendrick, even beyond the patented howls by the increasingly tattooed Dez Fafara—recent pictures indicate the ink has already spread to his face—what makes this album kick so much arse is the songwriting.
Rising to the challenge of a worthy follow up to the 2007 smash “The Last Kind Words” Devildriver took the time out this year and refined their best ingredients, adding a little something else to their in-you-face sonic brew. The result is flawless, intelligent songwriting that’s all over the place, be it the arena rock proportions of “Another Night In London,” the singalong drama on “Ressurection Boulevard,” the excellent “Forgiveness Is A Six Gun,” or the intoxicated swagger that animates “Pure Sincerity.” Hold on now, the band’s finesse with them words doesn’t mean they’ve let go of all the rest, because, holy mother, when this sh** gets heavy, bones will be breaking in a moshpit near you.
On the flipside of its larger than life attributes, however, is the recurring curse of every Devildriver album: filler. True, true, some tracks here fall short of ‘awesome’ and seem happy to remain ‘okay.’ A few forgettable examples: “Teach Me To Whisper,” “I’ve Been Sober,” “Fate Stepped In.” Even worse, the album finishes with the thrash metal rodeo “I See Belief” that just doesn’t go the distance of the other winning tunes here.
But despite its faults, ye gods of all that is heavy and rockin’ have blessed this album down to its very toenails, because without a doubt, the whole spectrum of fans, be it the long-faithful or new converts, are going to embrace the hammering, relentless glory that’s “Pray for Villains.” All right, with this review out of the way, anyone heard the new Megadeth yet?
-Miguel
