Devildriver - The Fury Of Our Maker’s Hand Review
Posted by Brandon Ratliff on 07.01.2005
The band returns after two years and sans one guitarist, but does this new release compare to the phenomenal self-titled album?
Devildriver - The Fury Of Our Maker’s Hand
Release Date: June 28, 2005
Label: Roadrunner Records
Mixed By: Colin Richardson
Website: www.devildriver.com
First Single: Hold Back The Day
Recommended Downloads: Hold Back The Day, The Fury Of Our Maker’s Hand, End Of The Line
Devildriver is:
Vocals: Dez Farfara
Guitar: Mike Spreitzer
Guitar: Jeff Kendrik
Bass: Jon Miller
Drums: John Boecklin
Devildriver are a band that you likely heard of for one reason: because it’s the newer band of former Coal Chamber vocalist Dez Farfara. Coal Chamber was a band that was around during the height of the nu-metal craze, and were one of the more popular ones for being heavier and more goth than most of the pack. Three pretty successful albums highlighted their career, and 2002's Dark Days even contained guest vocals by former Devildriver guitarist Evan Pitts. And enter Devildriver. After doing that album, Pitts convinced Farfara to start up Devildriver. So they did, and were joined originally by Kendrik on rhythm guitar and John Boecklin on drums, along with a stand-up bassist, and went by the original name of Deathride. I’m not sure what brought about their change of name and bassist, but sure enough it happened. The change also brought the dropping of the aliases of the bands members for their real names. But anyhow, they first debuted with the track “Swinging The Dead” on the Freddy vs. Jason soundtrack, and then soon followed it up with their self-titled debut later in 2003. The album saw much critical acclaim along with pretty large success for the genre. The album showed a new side of Farfara on vocals, and the guitar attack brought by Pitts and Kendrik was brutal. In addition, that album is one of my top ten of all time, as you’ll see when my essentials list gets posted pretty soon here.
The band got this one out in less than two years after the self-titled album came out, but even so it feels like it’s been forever as they announced it a while back. Still, the album is finally here, but is it any good? Well i’ll obviously get into details in a second, but the first thing I was to say is the loss of guitarist Evan Pitts (Pitts is now fronting metal band Veinglory) hurt the band. The first time I heard it all the way through I thought maybe I was being a bit partial as I have become something of friends with Pitts recently, but I have been listening to it nonstop for the past week or so, and I see that’s not the case. It’s still heavy, actually heavier this time (though I think a lot of that is production) for the most part. But something just doesn’t seem the same.
End Of The Line: This was the perfect track to start out the album. The clean guitar intro is very beautiful, but haunting at the same time. It then leads into a muted part, only to explode into the song. The vocals come in via a long scream from Farfara, and then they start ripping thought the verse. This folks is what makes Devildriver so good. Few other bands can pull off that same intro without it seeming forced or anything. If Roadrunner decides to release another single from this album, i’m willing to bet this will be it.
Driving Down the Darkness: This one has a pretty neat guitar intro, but the verse is fairly forgettable, vocally anyways. The chorus picks it up again, but this definitely isn’t one of the standout tracks. Definitely not bad, but it’s not much more than a song to bridge between End Of The Line and Grinfucked.
Grinfucked: In addition to having a cool ass name, the is one of the better tracks on the album. Farfara explores black metal territory vocally, and the music is flat out brutal, but still melodic. Kendrik and Spreitzer play off of each other well, and the drumming by Boecklin is stellar. The bridge part is all out creepy sounding as well. Make sure to check this out if you are trying before you buy.
Hold Back The Day: The first single, and for good reason. This is the strongest track off of the album. It’s not really catchy or anything, but everything meshes well today and it just sounds really damn cool. A creepy clean intro precedes this one as well, and I love it when the guitars come in. That low end just sounds great. I always find myself trying to sing along with this one, but I have no idea what the lyrics are. But anyhow, as I said this is easily the best track, and that is why it’s the single.
Sin And Sacrifice: Hmm...another clean intro. Seems to be a pattern. How Boecklin keeps up the drumming throughout this entire song, i’ll never know. The music is pretty strong here, as the guitars play back and forth very nicely. Vocally, the chorus shines pretty brightly with an intense fury that isn’t matched but maybe twice more on the album. Stronger track once again.
Ripped Apart: Every single track thus far has featured great drumming, so i’m not even going to mention that anymore. The guitars are good in this one again, especially in the bridge. There is a part that has the sound switching back and forth between the left and right speaking channel that sounds really cool. I know that’s all in the mixing, but it still rules.
Pale Horse Apocalypse: This is a decent song, but is ultimately forgettable. It doesn’t do anything very different than the rest of the album. Considering this is a really good album that isn’t too bad of a thing, but it’s not much more than the equivalent of a filler track. The guitar solo is nice, but otherwise, it’s nothing special.
Just Run: This one has a nice vocal hook in it for the chorus (or, at least as much of one as the genre would allow), and the music is pretty good. The rhythm section stands out here (doesn’t it always?), and the guitar line in the verse has a very driving feel to it, which is nice.
Impending Disaster: This is probably the heaviest song on the album. Yet again the drumming is phenomenal, and the vocals are just all out brutal. Not much else to say otherwise. Lyrically, the title says it all, but they’re pretty good too.
Bear Witness Unto: The chorus once again has a nice hook to it to make it fairly “catchy” (what a terrible term for metal). The guitar riffing is great in this one, and the breakdown is cool in that it plays like a modified form of the verse for about twenty seconds or so. It’s a great moshing moment. Haha.
The Hangman’s Noose: Oh, I just love the lyrics in this. It starts out like “It’s just a good day to fucking die.” Hahaha, awesome. This song musically kind of surprises me as it has kind of a Coal Chamber feel to it. It doesn’t bother me, but I know Dez had said he wanted to get away from that type of stuff completely. Hmm, oh well. It’s a good song nonetheless.
The Fury Of Our Maker’s Hand: This song holds what’s easily the best guitar riff of this entire album. The riff that kicks off the song at a breakneck pace is by far the best part of this album. Thankfully they used it as the chorus riff as well. The weird thing though as there is really only two choruses...the song has an odd structure to it, but that makes it really cool too, and that’s why it’s one of the best songs on here. The vocals drop into a haunting singing at points which add to the song tremendously as well. The slow fade into a clean outro makes a great way to end everything as well.
I honestly think the self-titled album, which slightly less heavy, is a little better. This one covers a slight bit more range, but otherwise, i’d honestly say to go for that one first. Still though, since this was just released it’s cheaper at the moment, so hell, pick both of them up. I think the loss of Evan Pitts on guitar did make a difference, but even so, this is still a solid album, and it’s sure to win them a lot of new fans, especially with their current stint on the Sounds Of The Underground tour. Devildriver are definitely one of the better metal bands out there right now, and unless something happens, I expect them to be around for quite a while. I was sad to see Pitts go due to musical differences (although Farfara bashing him is the media is flat out uncalled for), but what can you do. After all, there’s always Veinglory.
Thanks for reading.
The 411: A solid album, but not as good as the self-titled. The music is a lot different, and Farfara has a tendency to slightly overuse the mild growl he does, but otherwise it’s a worthy follow-up. No sophomore curse here. Make sure to check them out on the Sounds Of The Underground tour near you.
