The Devil Wears Prada- With Roots Above And Branches Below

Last year on the Warped Tour, the Dayton, OH, Underoath/Still Remains influenced metal band, The Devil Wears Prada, caught many eyes and ears. This year they'll do it again, only this time with songs from their newest album, With Roots Above And Branches Below. They are sure to catch even more eyes and ears (as they did mine with their song "Hey John, What's Your Name Again?" from their last album) with this heavy new material.

The album explodes into existence through the song, "Sassafras", staying true to TDWP form. The keyboard in this song give it a more melodic feel than an average metal song, and Jeremy DePoyster's crystal-clear vocals near the end add to that feel. "I Hate Buffering", the album's next track, has a great lead guitar that keeps it heavy throughout the song's three minutes, and as with any song with Jeremy's vocals, it has that extra touch that gives it near perfection. Songs like "Dez Moines", "Danger: Wildman", and "Ben Has A Kid" display Jeremy's vocals more, while keeping the song hard. "Danger: Wildman" has a really sick guitar part in the song, but before the end the song it slows down shortly and there is a completely amazing violin piece, shortly followed by DePoyster declaring "All of love can be traced to a Maker". It's very refreshing to know a band can be unbelievably heavy and be rising in popularity and still acknowledge God in their music. The next song, "Ben Has A Kid", has the same kind of lyrics when they say "Beyond this world is worth dying for." "Louder Than Thunder" proved me wrong when I thought TDWP could never be soft. I was very wrong. "Louder Than Thunder" is not only the album's softest song, but there is zero screaming, and there is nothing hard about the song. The piano is very eerily beautiful and matches the lyrics very well. It's definitely a big difference for TDWP, let alone this album.

So, The Devil Wears Prada has done it again. It would be nice if they could maybe balance out the screaming and the singing a little bit more. Mike Hranica's powerful screaming and the addition of "Louder Than Thunder" proves that TDWP has matured a lot since their sophomore album. This will be a very successful year for them as they set out on the Warped Tour once again.