The new DevilDriver record is indeed great. Don’t take our word for it though, check out this Album Of The Month review from Metal Hammer’s new issue, which hit the streets today. DEVILDRIVER DEVILDRIVER [ROADRUNNER] IT’S a funny old game this music biz: one minute you’re THE band of the moment, looking and sounding like the coolest motherfuckers on the planet… The next, you’re just a bunch of hammed up, heavily tattooed jokers, upstaged by a nine men from Iowa, who dress even more ludicrously than you! And that’s the position Coal Chamber found themselves in a few years back when they went from being a real breath of fresh air in a scene dominated by denim-clad dinosaurs, to self imploding, style over substance alsorans. So, with his new band DevilDriver freshly assembled, it’s time for ex-Coal Chamber frontman Dez Fafara to cut the crap, and deliver the goods, or forever take his place in the ranks of rock’s long list of bands still Missing In Action. But already it’s time to say fair play to the man – who many called Coco The Clown behind his back – because he’s stepped up to the platter in a way you would not believe! Dez has not so much remortgaged his soul with the Bank Of Satan for a second stab at stardom, but he’s also traded his lungs in with Ol’ Nick for some shiny black demonic ones too! Album opener ‘Nothing’s Wrong?’ is a million miles away from anything Coal Chamber have ever done, and from the opening chords of Evan and Jeff’s screeching Judas Preist-esque riffing, combined with Fafara’s disembodied, gutteral growl, you’d be forgiven for thinking this was the new Arch Enemy record rather than the latest offering from a former self-confessed purveyor of spooky core! “Don’t you know my lives are on trial now / And if we lose we’re going straight to hell” snarls Dez on cynic baiting ‘I Could Care Less’ as it’s eerie refrain serves as a stark contrast to the chugging bass riffs and blastbeat drumming of fourstringer John and sticksman Johnny B respectively. while the second verse begins with “You must excuse me because I’m someone else”, yes you certainly are Dezmond! And you can tell Dez has actually tracked down the albums of the death metal bands he so frequently throws into conversation these days: ‘Die (And Die Now)’ is pure Cradle Of Filth, and while the lyrics are subsequently more retard than Mr. Filth’s highbrow littery gobbledegook, it’s untimely more listenable than anything CoF have ever done. But even when the quintet unexpectedly slip headlong into Coal Chamber territory on tracks like ‘Cry For Me Sky’ and later on ‘What Does It Take (To Be A Man)’ and ‘Revelation Machine’ (cool tribal drumming a la ‘Chaos AD’-era Sepultura by the way), it’s forgivable. And by the time you hit ‘The Mountain’, you’ll actually applaud it! The excellent ‘Swinging The Dead’, which made it’s debut on the Freddy Vs. Jason, is destined to be a cult classic, while ‘ Meet The Wretched’ is reminiscent of Brit bruisers Napalm Death circa ‘Fear, Emptiness, Despair’ and is just so heavy it hurts! And closing the whole sordid affair is the two-and-a-half minute rifffest that is ‘Devil’s Son’ which opens with Dez screaming “FIRE!!! I am the one, I am the one that you need, I am the one, I am the one that you need’ over chugging guitars and a pounding rhythm section, and as the final chords come to an abrupt end you’re left thinking “yeah Dez, you are”! DANIEL LANE [8]