Review Summary: Devour the Day play it safe. Really safe.
Devour the Day have a problem. Since their inception from the ashes of Egypt Central, they’ve constantly failed to distinguish themselves from other, more popular acts such as Linkin Park, Staind, and Godsmack. While they aren’t awful by any means, it’s more than likely that they’ll never manage to reach the same amount of success due to the fact that they’ve never really brought anything new or refreshing to the table. Their previous album,
Time & Pressure, showed that they had talent, and possibly potential, yet its lack of real inspiration prevented it from becoming a great radio rock album. Their second album,
S.O.A.R. (Suffer, Overcome and Recover), unfortunately seems to show the band’s lack of actually trying this time around.
Once again we have a band suffering from a case of “Nickelback Syndrome”, in which the band believes that repeating the same ideas, musical styles and lyrical themes of their previous material will somehow manage to be continuously successful.
S.O.A.R. is essentially a second version of their first album, except most of the songs are slower paced. While
Time & Pressure wasn’t a particularly great album, it’s faster pace and catchier songs helped give the album substance. Here on the other hand, most of the songs drag the seemingly shorter album and it never manages to pick itself up again, with the exception of the final track ‘Save Yourself’. To give the record some credit, the band does seem to focus more on creating stronger melodies and it does work on occasion with songs like the title track and ‘Golden City’, yet most of the album is filled with these songs in an attempt to sound more emotional and it just ends up being boring.
There’s almost nothing in here in terms of progression in comparison to the last album. The production, the structure, the songwriting, and the performances feel way too similar. The lyrics, while not as “angry”, are incredibly clichéd and fail to give listeners anything to relate to.
S.O.A.R. marks the first time Devour the Day recorded as a four-piece band; however you most likely won’t be able to tell the different since the performances sound exactly the same as before, tracks like ‘Fake It To Make It’ and ‘Step Aside’ provide good examples. Joey Walser’s vocal performance is practically the same as before, albeit with less screaming, while the guitar work and drumming takes few risks, if any, and never provide that much energy throughout the record.
S.O.A.R. has Devour the Day at an incredibly safe point in their careers. With very little to offer in terms of improvement, Joey Walser and company fail to really deliver a more impactful album that could highlight their potential even more. Granted, they were never really groundbreaking to begin with, but they had the ability to create catchy and enjoyable songs. However, what we get is a predictable, regressive, and dated product that gives us the impression that Devour the Day will never get the success they clamor for, especially if they continue with this route. It seems as though, just like the title (mostly) suggests, Devour the Day will need to overcome and recover from this if they ever want a bigger audience.
