Brand New
The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me

Release Date: 2006 | Tracklist

Pain is something dreaded by the human race. We do all we can to forget it, avoid it, and remove it from our bodies. We do everything in our possible power to pry it from our sad little existence. Yet, humanity has failed. Never will this race be free of pestilence, disease, heartbreak, or suffering. This is our earth, and we call it home. This is our obliterated earth, this is where we must remain.

Brand New's The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me came at just the right time in my life. In the year of 2008 I was in a horrible place, I hated where I was and what I was. The previous year I had fallen ill to an odd variety of symptoms, the actual disease was never identified. It is assumed that I had Crohn's Disease, something that I believed I would have to battle for the remainder of my life. The pain I was in was crippling, and I found nothing that would take me through it, nothing to alleviate the pain I would feel continuously for a year. That is, until I found Brand New's magnum opus. I had never heard anything with such pain so evident in the vocals. I felt as if Jesse Lacey, the front man and chief lyricist of the band, had felt what I felt. He had been where I had been. When I was drowned in pain, I would plug myself into the pure emotion exuding from each and every track. Everything seemed to be coming to a close in my small life at that point. It pushed me through a time in my life which I thought would be the death of me. It brought me home.

My brother, he was dying. By arrival of 2008, he had been in and out of the hospital for 3 straight years and was, unlike me, officially diagnosed with Crohn's Disease. As all this was happening, I started to notice the first phases of mild Social Anxiety Disorder, and I pushed everyone at my school away. I never felt connected to them anyway, as none of them were people I particularly wished to associate with under any circumstance. I lacked company, however, and I had come to believe that my only form of companionship was being taken away from me. So, I drowned myself in the beautiful textures of Lacey's voice, the haunting guitar riffs, and the captivating drum work. In a world and a time when nowhere felt like home, The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me became my solace. It helped me isolate myself from the world.

Now, the reader may be asking themselves why I have spent a great deal of time detailing this album's impact upon my life. Well, the answer is quite simple. The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me is one of the most emotionally charging albums that I know of. During a time of utter chaos and despair in my life, it managed to connect with me in a way that not even a human could. Each individual chord or note is played out in such a way that prevents any moment from not being gut wrenching. Lacey's crooning voice spews out pain in even the slightest utterance. Emotion can be felt in every chord of his vocal performances within this album. There is not a single flaw, not a single weak moment or track. Everything is absolute perfection. Think of The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me like a leech. It latches onto you, seemingly sucking away at one's vitality. However, at the end of the record, one can easily raise their head above the surface of whatever dark water they may have been treading and face the next challenge with a renewed sense of being. Brand New has crafted an album that is nothing short of a brilliance, perfect for reflection upon the sad state of being in which humankind lives.

Though this may be the millionth review of this album that has graced this website, I feel as if it is necessary for me to write. Not so much for the readers out there, but for myself. I would be lost without this, I feel as if I owe some sort of homage to the album that changed my life and honestly turned me on to greater music. I am aware that my review, which is nothing more than text on an screen, will never quite repay what I feel I owe Brand New for writing this album. I rarely put this LP on anymore, as the storm which I faced for years has finally blown over. Yet, I tend to find myself thinking of the impact that The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me has made upon my life. Though it is no longer played on constant repeat as it was for years, I will always remember what this masterpiece helped me through. I will never forget.

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4.4 superb

Rank: #1 for 2006