Plagues Reviews

The metal scene has been overflowing with repeat sounding bands for the last year or so now. It feels like once Job For A Cowboy hit it big, everyone who heard them and was thinking about starting a band went ahead and did it, mimicking what they had heard on forerunner’s albums. Soon, every demo and release had the classic “four B’s”, Bass drops, Breakdowns, Bree’s, and double Bass kick. It gets so ridiculous that you can call a bass drop before it hits the first time listening to an album, or compare three or four tracks from different albums, all with identical “bree’s” with a combination of varying but similar breakdowns. As more and more kids are exposed to this style, we now have a vicious cycle of “The Four B Bands”. Some of it can be fun and enjoyable, but it is in no way refreshing.
This brings me to my review of Plagues, the sophomore release from Dayton, Ohio’s The Devil Wears Prada. In a world of cookie cutter metal bands, Prada manages to come alive like the gingerbread man, and wreak some sweet and long awaited havoc, the right way. Yes, this band does most definitely utilize almost all of the B’s, but does so in a way that re-invents what you have learned from the last year cruising band’s Myspace’s to see what is out there. Prada adds in a fifth and necessary B to the equation, Brevity. Not in the sense that the songs are short, but in a way that when they write some ridiculously good breakdown (the keyboard driven ones on this album are pant wetting) they don’t ride it for half of the song, but just long enough for you to want to revisit the track to hear that brief snippet of scene drenched guitar/keyboard goodness that starts to get you pumped for life before it drops off and takes you deeper into the diverse world of Plagues. Case in point, the song “Don’t Dink and Drance” features this amazing breakdown about two minutes into the song, and they only repeat it twice (are you guys taking notes?) before ripping into some nuts keyboard on guitar action, and then changing it up with another completely different breakdown to finish off the song.

While I could praise breakdowns for the rest of this review, it is time to bring up another stunning feat this band pulls off, which is that amidst lead singer Mike Hrancia slaughterhouse of highs and lows, the audible singing by Jeremy DePoyster manages to not sound like a Creed or Lifehouse guest vocal in the middle of some devastatingly good metal tune. You all know what I am talking about, you are bumpin some nuts track with the vocals shredding around your speakers, then it suddenly sounds like someone invited Josey Scott to ruin the song with some bro’ed out vocals. DePoyster’s smooth voice blends in perfectly here and there along the album, matching Hrancia’s brutal lows with smooth vocals, guiding you perfectly through Plagues and not letting you take a breath in between the physical punch this album packs.

As mentioned earlier, the keyboard work in this album is something completely new. It lies somewhere amidst styles similar to Arsonists Get All The Girls or Kentucky Waterfall, popping up in the most unexpected places and turning out to be an amazing addition to this album.

Simply put, this album is an extremely good time. I haven’t felt this pumped listening to an entire album straight through since Underoath’s Cries of the Past (if you just disregarded this entire review since I dropped the U bomb, check out the bands pre Solid State Records material.) I can guarantee that you will be extremely satisfied with this album, and will hopefully feel the dying flame in your heart for diversity in metal rekindled, Plagues style.

By Ryan Polei

The Devil Wears Prada’s sophomore effort, “Plagues”, is a seemingly epic album equipped with low, guttural-sounding breakdowns and eerie pianos. The elemental makeup of the album is extremely multi-faceted, setting it way apart from the band’s previous cd, ” “. Although I enjoyed that album, I feel as if their second effort had matured both musically and vocally.

Metalheads fear not- the singing parts don’t last long, and there are, surprisingly, many death-metal moments (not all too typical of other efforts from The Devil Wears Prada, “Plagues” has a lot of surprisingly brutal moments). The first couple songs start the album off, slow in nature

The song titles are sarcastically humorous- a trait not incredibly important on any album but, on this particular one, hard to ignore. Don’t be turned off by “HTML RulEz, D00D”, “Hey John, What’s Your Name”?, and “You Can’t Spell ‘Crap’ Without A ‘C’”- the song titles are not indicative of the sound of the tracks.

I was completely impressed with the last 3 tracks (8, 9 and 10): “Reptar, King of the Ozone”, “The Scorpion Deathlock”, and “Nickels Is Money Too”. All three songs contain amazing breakdowns that are both terrifying as they are vicious. The end of song 9 is shredding- definitely a pinnacle of the album. If you don’t dig some of the other songs for one reason or another (Hey, I personally thought they were musically well written) the album is definitely worth buying for the last 3 songs- I literally found myself saying “Wow, shit…” at parts (I was playing Old School Mario Bros 2, one of my favorite games, and the last 3 songs took my attention away from the game- an almost impossible feat).

If at ever you had doubts about The Devil Wears Prada, doubt no more- Their latest effort will prove that they will be a band to watch in the coming months.

By Karen Jerzyk

In 2003 it was a book, then in 2005 it was also a band, and then in 2006 it was a movie; The Devil Wears Prada has become a familiar phrase in pop culture the last few years thanks to all of its many uses. The Devil Wears Prada the band, chose the name before the movie was made based on the name of the best selling novel. According to TDWP’s blog, the name has a special significance because of the bands belief in Christianity, and the idea that material goods are a distraction from the righteous path. In 2006 TDWP Singed to Rise Records, the Portland, Oregon based label that helped fuel the current underground post-hardcore/emo movement. Despite the fact that TDWP formed only a couple years ago ‘Plagues’, TDWP’s latest album, is already its third and second released on Rise.
‘Plauges’ drives TDWP’s Christian themed message home with a furious punch, rather than a sweet hymn. Screamed vocals, fast mathematical drums and guitars riffs coupled with epic, anthemic choruses, all signs point to metalcore and that is precisely what TDWP delivers, in the same vein as other Christian hardcore bands like Norma Jean. Its not entirely original but the music is well played and the songs are catchy while still maintaining a definitely heavy edge. Especially in the song ‘Hey John, What’s Your Name Again?’ which takes a turn into a straight up death metal bridge before heading back into the incredibly well written, nasally sung chorus. Another song that stood out was ‘HTML Rulez D00d’ because the excellent arrangement and melodies blend well with the extremely heavy rhythm section throughout the track. And TDWP definitely scores points for the song title ‘Nickels Is Money Too’ which is a direct reference to metal fans favorite cartoon ‘Metalocalypse’ the Adult Swim carton that lovingly lampoons metal music. In fact all of the bands song titles don’t seem too serious with phrases like ‘Goats on a boat’ and ‘You Can’t Spell Crap Without C’.
TDWP definitely gets credit for accomplishing so much in such a short amount of time. They are great players and writers and you should expect to see much from them in the near future.

By Colette Claire

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