DevilDriver – Strike And Kill
DevilDriver – Strike And Kill
Napalm Records
Release date: 10/07/26
Review by: Jon Deaux
6.5/10
It is as if you are preparing to fight against a cement mixer with impeccable timing; although you understand that you are doing something very wrong, there is just no way you can stop smiling.
Dez Fafara is sixty years old. Usually at such age people are arguing with a handyman about grout, are taking statins for breakfast, are googling queries like “is it normal for my knee to do that”. No. He is shouting about graves as he got them for free together with his Napalm Records contract. And there is something almost praiseworthy about a person who refuses to enter into the death silently despite all biological signs which were sent to him politely during the last ten years – praiseworthy in the same way as the house fire is praiseworthy, for some seconds, until you realize that it is your house. He is not aging. He is personally insulting the very process of aging.
If Metal fans dislike evolution so much that it is irrelevant until their favorite band releases the same album four times, it is “staying true to the roots”. How interesting it is that nostalgia always sounds so good on a half-stack.
Strike And Kill is the kind of album which will make die-hard DevilDriver fans say that it is the best work of the band, while everybody else is guessing whether they played The Fury of Our Maker’s Hand. Between these two opinions lies some truth. This album is not a revolution. This is a coordinated riot.
After decades of beating the riffs, Dez Fafara understood one thing that is known by very few Metal frontmen: if you have one amazing technique, there is no reason to feel embarrassed because of it. His voice sounds like an ashtray is gargling broken glass, and unlike half of the Metal scene that exists right now, you can recognize him after hearing two syllables. Authenticity becomes a rare thing even more than originality.
The first opening tracks, ‘Dig Your Own Grave’ and ‘Dead In the Water ‘, are not wasting any time reminding everybody why DevilDriver is alive, while dozens of young bands have already been deleted by algorithmic landfill. Davier Pérez is beating his kit like the demolition crew, while Alex Lee and Gabe Mangold are adding some melody to each riff to prevent DevilDriver from collapsing into testosterone-based wallpaper.
And this is the unpleasant truth about metal.
Everybody wants brutalization.
Almost everybody wants branding.
There are bands with impeccable hairstyles, synchronized windmills, TikTok dances, and a lot of backing tracks in order to become the karaoke. DevilDriver appear dressed in a way showing that they care nothing about whether they are fashionable or not, and they beat most of their opponents using only huge riffs performed by real musicians.
Can you imagine?
Real musicians.
The horror.
Track ‘Sanctified In Scars’ adds some industrial roughness to the gears of Metal, without desperately trying to please the listeners with nine-inch platform boots. ‘Ride Or Die’ lives up to the name of the song, providing the groove which deserves to be considered as the planning permission. ‘Headed for the Fall’ and ‘Never Coming Home’ prove that this band can create hooks without making them in a pop way, or pretending that clean vocals mean maturity.
This album has some irritating honesty. It does not come in the packaging of some boring concept of trauma, healing, identity or journey through emotions, looking at the rain-covered window. No whispering, no crying, no discovery of oneself through layers of synths.
They just break things.
And they are doing it again.
Sometimes it is enough.
The biggest drawback? It is too devoted to itself. Fifty-one minutes of maximum intensity start to diminish the impact. When every riff tries to crack your skull, sooner or later your skull starts to resist. Even ‘Summoning Shadows’, with its atmospheric intro, does not look like a scenery change, but rather a glass of water before the next hit.
But it is better than the epidemic currently spreading in the sphere of Heavy Music: every second band is afraid of being called “just a Metal band”. Progressive deviations, electronic experiments, strange pop hooks, guest rappers – everything except the faith in the riff.
DevilDriver do not give a damn about crossover appeal.
Good.
Metal was craving the attention of the mainstream for years, wondering why it sounds increasingly sanitized. Every time when Heavy band was chasing playlists instead of broken necks, another part of the genre was dying.
This album will not solve the problem.
But it reminds us how this genre sounds before the marketing departments start their work.
Jon Miller appears in the role of the bassist and provides superb support to the band. Production is colossal, but does not turn into something plastic, and the whole album moves forward with the confidence of the band, which knows itself. And it is surprisingly controversial now when metal becomes more and more obsessed with its own reinvention.
No, it will not change the opinion of those who believe that DevilDriver is only a groove machine.
However, it will make this opinion harder to argue.
Because behind all the violence, blast beats and scorched-earth production hides something that many young bands would kill for:
Songs you actually remember after the distortion stops.
TRACKLISTING:
01. Dig Your Own Grave
02. Dead in the Water
03. Sanctified in Scars
04. Strike and Kill
05. In the Moonlight
06. Ride or Die
07. Headed for the Fall
08. Shut the Silence On
09. Never Coming Home
10. Summoning Shadows
11. You’re Just a Ghost
12. Oath of Iron
13. All Bets Are Off
LINKS:
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