It’s high time I reviewed ‘With Roots Above and Branches Below’ by The Devil Wears Prada, seeing as it’s been my metalcore band of choice for the past month or so. If you haven’t heard of these guys, let me pre-empt your thoughts here: ‘That was a mouthful, wasn’t it?’ Indeed, there’s a joke which goes something like this.
‘Think of a phrase, any phrase. Just make sure it isn’t too short. Now do a google search, and I’m sure you’ll hit upon a metalcore band with that name.’
If you read that Wikipedia article through, you’ll notice something surprising. Apparently, the band is not named after the movie: it’s just them making a statement against petty consumerism. They’ve often been called a Christian band, and I have to admit that nothing in their lyrics disproves that observation. I have half a disclaimer to produce here: if you strongly, strongly get irritated/offended by Christian lyrics, then don’t listen to them. It’s only half a disclaimer because any religious references in their songs are highly tangential/metaphorical at best, so your distaste better be severe if you are not even going to give them a shot. Before I launch into the review, I have another (full) disclaimer to make. As always, if you dislike metalcore (you don’t like unclean vocals/you think all metalcore bands are untalented/ it’s cool to not like the genre), then don’t bother with this band.
It took me quite a while to start liking this band, and retrospective analysis threw up a couple of reasons.
1) All their songs sound the same.
2) They use weird, inappropriate instruments in weird, inappropriate places.
As for the first point, I can’t really give an explanation how I got over that. Perhaps it was just altruism: I just wanted to give these guys a shot. Perhaps I got bored of all the other metalcore bands that I had in my collection. Whatever it was, I urge you guys to ignore your first impression (if it’s a negative one), and give the album three, four, five listens before making the judgment. The point about the strange instruments: I’ll get to that in a bit.
Usually, bands pick up the most popular song off a record to make the first video. And usually, this choice matches my choice of favourite. Not in this case, however. ‘Dez Moines’ (and not ‘Danger: Wildman’ which has a video) instantly worked for me. In hindsight, it’s not easy to see why this is the case, as the song is not significantly different in composition from the rest. However, ‘Dez Moines’ perfectly illustrates several features that identify a TDWP composition. The clean vocals by Jeremy DePoyster, for a start. They have an almost robotic feel to them – mechanical in a way reminiscent of As I Lay Dying’s clean vocals, but with a pop-punk voice instead. 'Dez Moines' starts off with them, and that is slightly uncharacteristic, but their presence is not. Almost every song has a significant proportion of clean vocals. But that’s not makes 'Dez Moines' tick. It’s the brutally simple chorus riff, more than adequately backed up by Mike Hranica’s searing screams that hits you hard. A word about the screaming, and it’s really only one word. Brutal. I could literally feel the agony coursing through Mike Hranica’s lungs with each enunciated syllable.
‘Danger: Wildman’ is a pretty decent song too. This is one song off the record where it’s the clean vocals that work. Perhaps the first thing that’ll hit you about this song is the breakdown. ‘Wait, these guys haven’t done away with the stripped down chugging yet? With all that bad press going about, I thought everyone’d done away with that.’ Well, not quite. TDWP still love their breakdowns, and there are a lot of them in this album. Do they work? Erm, kind of. The breakdowns by themselves are not works of art: they are usually nothing more than vaguely melodic chugs on the open E. But they are good foil for what follow. Breakdowns on the lead, as I like to call them. Dainty little tunes that up the tempo, and stick. ‘Lord Xenu’ is a great song, and a great example of this. So is ‘Wakakalypse’ and to some extent, ‘Ben Has A Kid’.
Video: Danger: Wildman
Video: Danger: Wildman
I’ll come back to ‘Danger: Wildman’ because this song has many more features that mark TDWP as a band. There are violins! Aye, weird instruments, like I said. Extremely disconcerting in the beginning, but I’ve grown to like them. And there’s synth. No, don’t turn away your head in disgust. I actually think synth can be used very productively in a metalcore setting (look at Bring Me The Horizon, Enter Shikari). ‘Big Wiggly Style’ starts off with a hilarious violin mediated breakdown, but it’s a pretty good song as it turns out. There’s another thing about TDWP’s music that sets them apart from the stereotypical metalcore band: they actually go easy on the chugging. There’s a lot of clean chording on this record, and it works for me. It goes quite well with the clean vocals.
I’ve always been a sucker for the slow, soft, lilting melody. No, I wouldn’t listen to a record full of those, but just one, on a metalcore album, is always welcome. A Day To Remember never fail to do this, and apparently neither do TDWP. ‘Louder Than Thunder’ is a decent listen, and highlights the keyboard work and Jeremy DePoyster’s clean vocals.
Other good songs on this album include ‘Assistant to The Reginal Manager’ (more oral gymnastics) and ‘Gimme Half’. And the bad? There aren’t too many songs on this album I would call coincidental stowaways, but ‘Sassafras’ and ‘I Hate Buffering’ definitely are. Incidentally, they are the first two songs on the album (I don’t know who did the ordering, but I sincerely hope it was just a lottery.)
To sum up all my observations, I think WRAABB is a good album by a good band. It’s unlikely that TDWP will become the most popular metal band ever, or the most critically acclaimed, but within their limitations they do a fair job, sewing together a coherent and distinct record.
Rating: 8/10
Suggested songs: 'Dez Moines', 'Lord Xenu', 'Danger: Wildman', 'Louder Than Thunder', 'Wakakalypse'
