Album review: DevilDriver - Dealing With Demons Vol. II

By DAN SOUTHALL

DEVILDRIVER hold a particular place in my little black heart.

Something about the hardcore attitude mixed with a groove that no one has tried to replicate, and the grit and tenacity vocalist Dez Fafara has shown personally throughout his career. The musicians that make up the band have become a small revolving door and the loss at one time of the primary writer in drummer John Boecklin and bassist Jon Miller did see a change in the musical direction and a slight dip in the album quality.

This album sees the return of Miller, and with it the hope that some of that old spark might just come back, which is why this review hurts me to write.

Despite taking the unusual step of listening to this album on constant rotation to and from my day job (a minimum 40 minute drive each way) for the last week, nothing has stuck. I have given this album all of my attention in an attempt to have it change my view, because I am a big fan of Dez and his cohorts’ output.

Sure, there are moments here and there – such as the cleaner mid section of “Nothing Lasts Forever” or the majority of “Through the Depths”, that sees the band grind out a track not unlike what they have built a career on. But the memorable moments are few and far between. By track six, “Bloodbath”, I couldn’t remember how the album opened, because the memorable lyrical and musical bite just isn’t there.

I had huge hopes for this album after the release of Vol I, with its attempts at spreading DevilDriver’s musical wings also falling flat more than lifting them to more memorable spheres. As a fan, I will continue to give this a go and try to understand its intricacies. Perhaps it might eventually stick. Other fans might need to do the same.