Customer Reviews

Pray for Villains

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This album is so good that I uncontrollably started throwing down the most \m/ windmills I have ever thrown to this day. Don't buy this album if you don't want to break everything in your proximity, because there is no way to not go completely APE! The drums will pound you relentlessly causing involuntary release of your bowels! Believe it, it happened to me!

Tweaked neck, broken keyboard (smashed my face on it), and soiled pants....BUY THIS F-ING ALBUM RIGHT NOW!

I will state at the beginning of this album review that I am a BIG Devildriver fan (ergo long review). The reason this band has earned my respect is they have improved with each release. They started out with a likable self-titled debut, then blew that out of the water with The Fury of Our Maker's Hand, then proceeded to blow that out of the water with The Last Kind Words. So ever since I heard about Pray for Villains in early '09 I was painfully waiting for it to come out.

Before its release the reviews I read labeled Villains as a "typical Devildriver release," which had me worried that they were just going to try just make The Last Kind Words II. Thankfully those people weren't paying attention. Instead of trying to retread on their old sound they experiment and the results are great. The big difference between this and their previous albums is a heavy melodeath influence, while still retaining their groove metal roots (is melogroove a genre?). There are a lot more melodic guitar work, and even the choruses have a melody to the screaming, which beckons you to scream along with them.

This album has been getting the response that they have become commercialistic. I say that this album is accessible, the difference being that I say accessible as in this album is catchy and is easy to use to introduce someone to DD. Commercialistic, would them making throwing Nickleback ballads all over their album. The only track that one could say sounds musically radio-ready is "Back with a Vengeance." Well, it would be radio-friendly if Dez wasn't growling on it like he's going to jump out of the speakers and strangle you.

Speaking of Dez's vocals, he even experiments with that on this album. He adopts a guttural throaty "singing" voice on some tracks that sounds like Lemmy Kilmister and Rob Zombie had a love child. It sounds so different than what he's done before, the first time I heard it I thought one of the other band members was doing additional vocals. It's just one of the many curveballs thrown on this album.

Here is how the tracks breakdown (since I can't help myself):
"Pray for Villains" - A "typical" DD track, but it's still fast, brutal and will rip your face off. Perfect for moshing and headbanging!
"Pure Sincerity" - Surprising 2nd track because it starts and stays heavy (rather than throwing in another fast track) till the 3:10 mark when it goes off.
"Echoes of the Grave" - Sounds like something off of The Fury of Our Maker's Hand, but is none the less brutal.
"I've Been Sober" - Awesome epic guitar opening, leading to hard versus and then a chorus that can only be described as groovy. Excellent drumming, excellent guitars, starts brutal, ends melodic, one of the best tracks they've put out.
"Resurrection Blvd." - Excellent guitar sweep through the track, one of the highlights of this album.
"Forgiveness is a Six Gun" - The mid-paced heavy redheaded stepchild of this album. Some love it, some think it's stupid. It's not my favorite track of theirs...but I still have no problem screaming along with it when I listen to it.
"Waiting for November" - A fast catchy track, but I feel it gets a little overlooked (by me at least) because of being wedged between "Six Gun" and "Cards."
"It's in the Cards" - A personal favorite of mine. I love it when DD does slower tracks (like "Monsters of the Deep" on LKW) because it's so hard to do them well, and this track is the slowest, but it still feels like the band is stomping on your chest. Love it!
"Another Night in London" - This really reminds me of something off of their debut, but if it doesn't crawl in your brain and make you want to mosh, you have more will power than me.
"Bitter Pill," "Teach Me to Whisper," & "I See Belief" - brutal, brutaler, brutalest? It would be impossible for me to review these three tracks separately without being redundant because I couldn't pick a favorite of those 3 if you held a gun to my head.
BONUS TRACKS:
"Self-Affliction" -Why it's a b-side I have no idea, maybe because it's not as unique as the other tracks, or because it sounds like a track to close the album with and "I See Belief" was a better choice.
"Dust Be the Destiny" - An addictive track with a heavy metal vibe to it. Another one I question why it's a b-side.
"Damning the Heavens" - I already had this track on LKW, but it's a kick-ass short track.
"Wasted Years" - A cool Iron Maiden cover, although old-school heavy metal with growls will always be kinda funny to me.

The DVD that comes with this package is 35 minute "making-of" footage, which showcases that they only had weeks to come up with this album, which makes the album that much more impressive. It's probably something you'll only watch once, and I think it would have been better if some of their music videos and live footage was included.

Instead of trying to surpass The Last Kind Words (which probably been a disaster) Devildriver use Pray for Villains to expand and experiment with their sound, and come up with an album of 17 tracks in which all of them sound unique and none of them sound out of place, or lacking effort. It's one of the many reasons this band is one of the best metal acts out there.

Bottom line, this baby rips! Every album they have upped their game. Musically,technically , overall songwriting... Where a lot of bands in their genre just stay the same, trying not to improve on these things and pretty much put out the same record... Villains is Heavy as hell, If for whatever reason you dont like this band give this a spin just for the drumming alone. J. Boeklin is a MONSTER!

DevilDriver has never let down my expectations. In fact, they get better and better. Despite a few exceptions, this album surpasses all of their older work. The title song (Pray for Villains) and Resurrection Blvd. are really awesome. There were a few songs that didn't do anything for me (It's In The Cards, for example), but overall, the album was excellent. This is a must buy for any DevilDriver fan. If you like death metal and have never heard DevilDriver, then you need one of their albums immediately.

First and foremost I have been impressed with Devil driver since the beginning.

Their sound keeps getting better, more refined.
This cd was one of the first this year to make me actually excited to hear the next song!

Go buy this now, you will be glad you did.
(Unless you don't like metal or Devil Driver, in which case gtfo)

I love it, You will love it.
METAL TO THE MASSES!

At risk of sounding like a fan boy, let's face it - Devildriver has consistently gotten better with each release; closer all the time to honing their own sound and the band's fourth album, Pray for Villains, is definitely no exception to this trend.

Pray for Villains takes the sheer chugging; pounding American ferocity the band demonstrated on 2005's The Fury of Our Maker's Hand and the epic, melodic "Gothenburg" style leads of The Last Kind Words and hurls it into a vicious, eviscerating whirlwind of metal.

This, of course, does not mean that Devildriver was content. The band has explored and incorporated many new elements previously unheard (or downplayed) on the three preceding albums - but that will be discussed later in this review.

Leading the charge is front man Dez Fafara, who delivers his visceral vocal assault with the sinister conviction, which has become synonymous with the core Devildriver sound. While the snarled and screamed vocals stay pretty safe and "standard" of the music, Fafara does attempt to splash some color by varying his delivery more than usual as well as debut some true clean vocals demonstrated on such tracks as, "I've Been Sober."

Guitar work, as usual, is excellent and very tight blending both masterfully brutal riffing and soaring, melodic leads as one would expect from this band. There are some great intros and interludes that can be heard throughout the entire album, but more specifically: "I've Been Sober", "Waiting for November (which sounds like a heavy nod to "End of the Line" on The Fury of our Maker's Hand)" and "Back with a Vengeance."

A new element of Pray for Villains guitar section is the heavy use of pentatonic sweeps. I am unable to recall any specific moments from previous albums that this was prevalent, but in any case, fans of bands like Darkest Hour and The Human Abstract will feel at home with these on tracks like, "Resurrection Blvd" and again "I've Been Sober;" Oh, and the solo on "Waiting for November" just plain rocks. As a side note, I am unsure as to whether certain sections of "Fate Stepped In" and "Bitter Pill" are guitars or keys - either way, very cool tone and sounds a lot like "Terminus (Where Death is Most Alive)" by Dark Tranquillity.

To my ears, drummer John Boecklin really has improved his game, deploying pounding fills and a furious barrage of double bass and blast beats with more ravenously than ever. What immediately jumped out to me was how crisp and thick the drum tracking was, much credit to production for this as I feel it really enhanced the experience.

The biggest highlight of Pray for Villains however, is just how varied the song arrangements are. Every track sounds different from the last and it is clear many new influences were expressed on this album, which is a great thing for the staying power in my player.

Sure, some critics will argue that it is not as "heavy" or as "catchy" as The Fury of Our Maker's Hand or The Last Kind Words respectively, but one cannot deny that this is quintessential Devildriver - If you did not like them before, you probably still won't. The rest of us however, will be content with one of the best Metal albums of 2009 along with Nightrage's "Wearing a Martyr's Crown" and Disarmonia Mundi's "Nebularium + The Restless Memoirs EP".

It seems like with each successive release, DevilDriver keep turning up the dial of heaviness. Great drums and guitar work, the Dez's vocals is amazing, and you can find in this record, another step toward better musical moment of DevilDriver.

The Music on this cd is as good if not better than the previous three but the lyrics are lacking abit the songs would be much shorter if most of the lyrics werent repeated time and time again but the riffs,the drumming,and the few solos are standouts on this cd if you liked the other Devildriver offerings you will still enjoy this one and i highly recommend it

Like Metal? Don't own this? For shame. Buy this thing - it's absolutely worth every cent. These guys ARE metal. It's not some made up cartoon show band, this is real music by some dudes that have seriously figured things out. These guys have written an album that melt you down into a pool of nothing, and by God you will enjoy it if you are a metal fan.

Many years ago an album by Entombed "To Ride, Shoot Straight And Speak the Truth" came out and rocked my world. This new compilation reminds me so much of that one, both are based on Westerns and both are KILLER. It is truly the best thing DD has ever done. The duel guitars are tighter then ever and will have you snapping your neck. The songs themselves are very well written. Of course the vocals are all killer as well. No filler songs here at all. "Pray for Villains",and "Forgiveness is a six gun" are my favorites..Hell strike that, every time I listen to this I find more favorites. I put this on the top of the heap of Metal released this year and that is saying something because this has been a great year for Metal fans!