Devildriver - The Fury Of Our Maker's Hand
2005 Roadrunner Records

Track Listing:
1.  End Of The Line
2.  Driving Down The Darkness
3.  Grinfucked
4.  Hold Back The Day
5.  Sin And Sacrifice
6.  Ripped Apart
7.  Pale Horse Apocalypse
8.  Just Run
9.  Impending Disaster
10. Bear Witness Onto
11. Before The Hangman's Noose
12. The Fury Of Our Maker's Hand

Line-Up:
Vocals:  Dez Fafara
Guitars:  Mike Spreitzer, Jeff Kendrick
Bass:  Jon Miller
Drums:  John Boecklin

Website:  www.devildriver.com

Skin Splitter's Rating:  C
Overall Album Rating:  C

Skin Splitter's Review:
After the Californian hellstorm from their first album, Devildriver is back to drive another amount of hell into your gullet.  A little line-up change and a lot of new attitude has left Devildriver with one thing, a need to improve.

The loss of founding member Evan is heard immediately in this album.  Why?  Well, because the first thing you hear is NOTES and MUSICIANSHIP!  Come on guys!  What went wrong?  Devildriver started out not being about those two things!  No artsy crap!  Just straight in your face heavy beats and aggression.  But alas, they had to mess it up and add the thing I hate most, "Art Faggism".  Let me tell you, if you start out as artsy, great.  If you start out as hell on wheels, fine.  But NEVER EVER try to switch.  It killed Metallica and no band has STILL EVER LEARNED.

But, I digress.  The point is that you can hear the change from the first song.  Granted, the speed is still there, but the band has taken a more death metal/doom approach to their music style.  Less aggressive and more artsy.  And all you have to do is look at the times of each song.  Their first album had an average time of 3:30.  The new album averages 4:30.  More art, less aggression.  But, not to be purely negative, on some of the songs, the artsy stuff works.  On others, It's a pure miss.  But, with all the other bands out there in the world doing the same thing, I would have expected them to try and stand alone and stay aggressive instead of trying to change now.

I suggest that instead of loving or hating this album right off, sit down, TRY to listen to each song 4 or 5 times in a row, and then make an opinion.  Some songs to listen to are "End Of The Line", "Ripped Apart", and "Impending Disaster".  If you want to hear where they are going...try "Sin And Sacrifice", "Just Run", and "Bear Witness Onto".
Skin Splitter's Rating:  C