That brings
us to now; it isn’t quite clear where Donegan or drummer Mike Wengren are and what they are doing (if you know, please leave
a comment below), bassist John Moyer
is currently one-half of the dynamic rhythm section in Adrenaline Mob, and that leaves David Draiman. Draiman put together a new project, this time
claiming to be an “Industrial metal” band with former Filter guitarist Geno
Lenardo, as well as numerous guest musician appearances. The name of this project
is Device.
On April 9th
2013, Device released their very first self-titled
album. The result, to no surprise, is something very close to Disturbed. However,
Draiman does seem to be a bit more rejuvenated, and concentrates on his singing
as much as he concentrates on his lyrics, something that he failed to do on
certain occasions during Asylum.
The album
starts off with the song You Think You
Know. Right off the bat you’d think Mike
Wengren were on drums for how similar it sounds like a Disturbed song. The
main difference between this song and that of a Disturbed song is the sound of
the guitars; while the sound is pretty much as distorted as Dan Donegan ever
was, they just sound too obviously processed, like they were recorded, then
every note was fed through a computer to warp the sound even more. This is the
case for 95% of the guitars on the album. Melodically, the song brings David
back to a more Ten Thousand Fists or
Indestructible era of Disturbed.
Penance brings in more of an “industrial”
sound in the background, with a slightly more electronic sound in the intro and
instrumental breaks. Just like Hunted and
War of Lies, both heard later on the
album, all three songs have what an industrial metal song needs to be
considered “industrial”. All three are terrific heavy tracks for any metal fan,
and yes, all three sound like they could have been recorded by Disturbed.
Vilify (the first song released from the
album) takes the “industrial” sound in to overdrive. This song is like
something off of Disturbed’s The
Sickness album on steroids. While a good pumped up metal song, it isn’t
clear what instruments are actually being played and what instruments are
actually computers.
Being the
classic rock/metal fan that I am, as well as the huge Halestorm fan that I am, when I saw that on the album there was a
cover of the Ozzy Osbourne/Lita Ford 1988 duet Close My Eyes Forever featuring Lzzy Hale singing Lita’s parts, I was
all too intrigued. Before my first listen, I couldn’t help but make the comparison
between the four singers and their marks in music; Lzzy and Lita both
incredibly capable women of hard rock, though Lzzy is on the fast track to
having an even bigger impact on the music scene than Lita ever did. Ozzy and
David, well there’s no comparison as to which of the two is and will always be
the bigger figure in metal, but David is in many ways to this generation of
metal what Ozzy has been to metal his whole career.
Anyway,
getting back to the song, the vocal performances are exactly as perfect as I
could have imagined. Both Lzzy and David put even more emotion in to singing
this song than Lita and Ozzy did. The only problem, and I can’t stress this
enough for fans of the original song, is that rather than being the ballad that
the song once was, it is merely just a slow industrial metal song, taking away
certain climactic moments such as the song’s bridge and guitar solo (while both
are still present, they just don’t have the same impact on the listener as the
original version did). This song would have been much more effective had it
been recorded for another album rather than this one.
The album continues
to surprise us with guest musicians with Out
of Line, this time being a duet with System
of a Down vocalist Serj Tankian
performing one of his better performances along with David. The song in itself
continues the Disturbed-esque sound. Black
Sabbath bassist Geezer Butler
also graces his presence on the song with his distinctive bass sound, giving a
much needed natural sound to the album. Opinion
features Rage Against the Machine guitarist
extraordinaire Tom Morello. It is
the chorus where Tom Morello can be distinctively heard, playing guitar over
David’s vocals. Tom also provides a much needed guitar solo to the album.
The album
ends with two more tracks featuring very notable guest singers; the first being
the song Haze. This song effectively
sounds like nothing else off of the album. It features a low sung verse that
keeps to itself with little guitars (but a lot of synthesizer) and not so heavy
sounding drums behind it all. This all leads to a mammoth of a chorus that
competes with many moments on the album. The second verse and chorus is where
we here none other than Avenged
Sevenfold vocalist M. Shadows,
singing quite effectively out of his element and giving the album a style of
melodic singing that only Shadows and few others can perform. The bridge of the
song, sung by David, bares similarities to moments in the Disturbed song Liberate, rounding off the song to make
it one of the best all around tracks on the album.
The album ends
on a heavy, but slow and dramatic note with the song Through It All, this time featuring legendary former Deep Purple and current Black Country Communion vocalist Glenn Hughes. Glenn’s vocal range makes
for the perfect duet partner for David. The song has a slow pace throughout the
until the instrumental break/bridge when it picks up in to a nice fast paced straight
up metal tune, with not much synthesizers. This carries on until the end of the
song, officially ending the album on an unexpected heavy and dramatic note.
The end
result of Device is, as mentioned
previously, an album rather similar to something Disturbed may have released. While both bands feature many
electronic elements to their sound, it is clear that Device has much more of an
electronic sound, as any “industrial” album should, which does differentiate
the album from its Disturbed counterparts. With no credit to a drummer or
bassist on this album, it is unclear if the rhythm sections heard on the album
were actual instruments or if they were just computer programs that sounded
like drums and bass, which in this day in age is all too possible. David
himself once said that he is a big supporter in the capability of making music
with the simply push of a button...something I still personally hold against
him.
Nevertheless,
David Draiman shows that he is not
out of the game, and despite certain hiccups in his career, he is still 100%
dedicated to making metal music. Disturbed
fans are sure not to be disappointed by the album. Industrial metal fans may
not like the album, especially industrial metal fans that have no interest in
Disturbed.
ALBUM HIGHLIGHT
“Hunted” – I wouldn’t necessarily say
this is the “best” song on the album, but it is the perfect song to show first
time listeners the different direction the album takes compared to something by
Disturbed. It is strongly synthesizer-driven,
but still has the heavy balls-out guitar sound that a metal fan would want. At
the same time, David Draiman shows
that he can still sing one hell of a great tune practically all the way
through, and not just concentrate on certain moments of a song to come out and
shine. I do not agree on the bands decision to release Vilify first. While it shows the industrial side of the band, the
singing doesn’t strike its listener the way Hunted does.
FINAL RATING
8 (Out of 10)
Track List:
1.
|
"You Think You Know"
|
3:39
|
|
2.
|
"Penance"
|
3:28
|
|
3.
|
"Vilify"
|
3:39
|
|
4.
|
"Close My Eyes Forever" (feat. Lzzy Hale)
|
(Lita Ford, Ozzy Osbourne cover)
|
4:36
|
5.
|
"Out of Line" (feat. Serj Tankian & Geezer Butler)
|
3:40
|
|
6.
|
"Hunted"
|
3:53
|
|
7.
|
"Opinion" (feat. Tom Morello)
|
3:52
|
|
8.
|
"War of Lies"
|
4:05
|
|
9.
|
"Haze" (feat. M. Shadows)
|
4:24
|
|
10.
|
"Through It All" (feat. Glenn Hughes)
|
5:04
|
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