The bands fourth full-length, Dead Throne, is the best thing the band has ever done. Mike Hranica's vocals sound better then they ever had. The clean vocals, while generic as hell, are void of any auto-tune or vocoders. The songs are heavier then anything TDWP has ever done. The hooks on Mammoth and Vengeance sound exactly like genre peers As I Lay Dying and while Hranica yelling "Pick it up" after the first chorus of Mammoth is super cheesy, it works for TDWP. Through and through it's metalcore as we've come to know (and loathe).
But what makes this the best thing The Devil Wears Prada have released is also its undoing. Dead Throne is enjoyable for the first half of the album. Kansas serves as an instrumental bridge between an album I was enjoying and an album that bores me. By the time I got to the albums first single, Born To Lose, I was over Dead Throne. Not because the songs get bad, I was just hoping for something else. Born To Lose builds in a similar manner that Dead Throne (the album's first track) does and its as if the album is restarting. I felt like I was hearing the album over again. Guitar riffs blend together, the songs don't differentiate themselves from track to track. Constance is a fan favorite (mostly because it features Tim Lambesis as a guest vocalist but by the time the song rolls around UI found myself largely already checked out.
It's the best album The Devil Wears Prada has released thus far in their career and it still couldn't capture my attention for an entire record. Dead Throne probably won't be winning a lot of new fans for TDWP.
2 comments:
These guys epitomize all that sucks about the christian "metal" scene in my opinion. TDWP is the equivalent of a good McDonalds Restaurant; hot food and fast, but still fat and bloated with every cliche imaginable.
Not trying to be mean, but at some point you have to stop building new McDonalds.
Once again your review hits the nail right on!
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