Review Summary: The Devil Wears Prada's new release. Overall this album is worth a listen to with some great tracks some not so great tracks and someone yelling about ghosts honestly what more could you want?
These days there are many bands trying to branch their styles from TDWP and terribly fail, also the incredible amount of scene kids that talk their asses off about them about how much they love them is staggering too. But the truth is, set aside all of the s.hit people say about these guys The Devil Wears Prada are a marvelous band who only have room to improve in their bands style and sound.
On to the case of there new album With Roots Above and Branches Below. This album shows much maturity in the bands sound in the sense that their songs have more meaning and you can really tell that every song in this album they tried their hardest to make an effort.But of course the album isn't perfect its flaws are that mikes screams are just really annoying in this album its halfway between a yell and a scream and it doesn't work for me, though on the other hand Jeremy's clean vocals are something that brings the album up to a new level and the guitars are more noticeable in this one and the synth is truly amazing.
The album is started off with Sassafras (what ever that means?) the song to me wasn't the best choice to start the album with the riffs are quite bland and boring and midway through a metal riff some keyboard comes in and it doesn't make much sense, though when Jeremy DePoyster starts singing he lights up he song until mike comes back in with his whiny vocals and ruins it.
I Hate Buffering is probably worse than the first song lacking variety in its sound though at the end it shows some good synth work and that's about it.
Third Song Assistant To The Regional Manager is a much more uplifting song here is were we see this album getting better starting off with a slower riff then jumping into a more brutal metallic sounding riff until the chorus were it is the definitely the high point of this song with excellent singing and i don't even mind mikes screaming when it accompanies Jeremy's cleans and his screams do sound much better in this song the synths are great as are the drums, great song.
Dez Moines shows a lot more singing in the song showing off much more guitar work by Jeremy and Chris the chorus is really great all of the instruments work really well together in this song the drumming is great as is the synth, the climax of the song is at 3:10 the sound is amazing and the song as a whole is great.
Big Wiggly style starts off with a symphonic style sound into a great breakdown and then kicks in with a hard metal riff with slight synth and the chorus is amazing followed by keyboard and screams until a breakdown a very good song not lacking any variety with constant changes in tempo synth and riff/breakdowns i enjoyed this one.
Danger: Wildman could be one of my favourites starting off with "I KNOW A GHOST!" i don't understand it but it sound quite cool most of the song is a bit of a drag, and constant heavy guitar work until the clean vocals and after that the whole sound of the song changes it goes into a much better direction with more synth and better guitar work.
Ben Has A Kid Starts of very hard and "brutal" its more of a filler song i think by the end of this song you start to feel quite bored.
Until the next song Wapakalypse which is also a bit more of a brutal sounding riff and the guitars are more highlighted in this song and do very well though the stopping and starting in the song is quite annoying but it does improve after about 1:40 but my favourite part of this song is the rocking sort of pattern used in the last fifty seconds of the song.
Gimme Half start of using gratuitous amounts of synth and doesn't waste time getting to mikes screaming it wasn't the best song in the album though the end of it goes in well with the interlude.
Louder Than Thunder is a nice slow soft break from the bands metal sound with a very electronic sound and Jeremy's clean vocals are very strong and are very nice.
The last song Lord Xenu reminds we alot of Hey John Whats your name again? in the start of the song but keeps going and has a lot to offer and has excellent use of synth guitars and the drums are really great the chorus does wonders for this song making mikes screams bearable and the rest of the song is fast paced until the final breakdown.
To conclude With Roots Above And Branches Bellow is a fairly good album with a bit too much filler to me but it does have quite a few high points which make it a good listen.
Songs Worth a Listen to:
Assistant To The Regional Manager
Dez Moines
Lord Xenu
Danger: Wildman
Big Wiggly Style
and Wapakalypse
