REVIEW: The Devil Wears Prada – “Dead Throne”

The Devil Wears Prada / Dead Throne / Ferret

After opening up a new breed with the Zombie EP, Ohio outfit The Devil Wears Prada we’re destined to rip open the box constricting their artistic ability behind the drum kit, guitars and bass and the microphone. Like artists swimming in their genre, the intent to bend the stick that is metalcore isn’t voluntary, it’s compulsory. Wrapping Dead Throne around the idea of idolatry and “making kings of out of things that shouldn’t be kings” seems like The Devil Wears Prada did enough to materialize a breaking point, but there’s more detail to it. As “Kansas” and the introductions to “Pretenders” and “Dead Throne” invade a focus of theatrical noise, it’s the group’s new found attention to be intricate with sound that fuses together their severing rhythms with an aura that’s just simply malevolent. Take in the opening kit run-over of “Vengeance” or the chug of guitars and group vocals during the closing of “My Questions”; each addition is diminutive but projects at a higher volume, accenting Mike Hranica’s carving yell that rarely loses muscle (“R.I.T.”) or ferocity (“Mammoth”).

Dead Throne’s heartbeat is composed of the group’s ability to mesh, project and nudge Hranica into balancing his voice and taste for deviate lyricism under a swinging spotlight. “Born To Lose”, among others, posts said formula to the wall and uses rhythm guitarist Jeremy DePoyster’s clean vocals to build a song that never ceases to be raucous, or in fact, be The Devil Wears Prada. To the band, the album Dead Throne is a portrait of what their music sounds like – and maybe even stands for. That seems to be the case even when the group drift off into a different landscape; “Chicago” clocks in at almost three minutes, bearing a striking resemblance to the ethereal instrumentation of Underoath’s Ø (Disambiguation) and manages to keep that basic instinct as Hranica’s scream comes off hopeless, desperate and vicious. Naked progression? Maybe. More or less, it’s The Devil Wears Prada exposing their capacity to be distinctive and deafening in a way that hacks your sense of hearing with a sublime touch.

Download: “Chicago”, “Constance”, “Mammoth”

 

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