Review Summary: The Devil Wears Walmart.
Back in my teens, The Devil Wears Prada was my gateway to metal music.
Plagues was on repeat while I consumed every bit of content during the making of
With Roots and Above and Branches Below. While I can look back at those albums and see how corny they are now, The Devil Wears Prada seemed to have matured with me in the process. As I branched off to more mature metal music over time, the band also decided to experiment with different sounds in releases like the thrashy, pulsating
Zombie EP in 2010 and the more somber and stripped down approach of 2016’s
Transit Blues. The future seemed bright after last year's excellent
Zombie II, but
Color Decay is one of Prada’s biggest steps back in their discography delivering nothing more than monotonousness and dreary radio metal that sounds like they just tried to recreate
The Act's hit single “Chemical” twelve times in a row.
Let’s try to start with the few positives of this record. The synths and guitar are done exceptionally well here. There are some gnarly riffs throughout, and I think the more “analog” sounding synths add to the bands soundscape far more than the processed keys of old. “Noise” has a guttural riff that feels like it's scratching at your skin (in a good way). “Sacrifice” takes what worked on
The Act and gives it the umph that that record desperately needed at times. It’s just unfortunate it takes half of the runtime to get a track that delivers that. “Time” also has an insane introduction riff, but why does the track have to begin with a cringe-inducing chorus just like “Noise”.
Unfortunately, that’s where the positives end. Simply put, the singing on this record just ain’t it. Each chorus begins to blend with the last after only a few tracks and it’d be one thing if that one trick pony was fun to ride but it’s just not. Jeremy DePoyster has been really elevating his work by refraining from belting like the early days and solely focusing on what fits each track these last few records, but he sounds like he is phoning it in here. The energy on this record is severely lacking from him and Mike Hranica. The screams aren’t bad, but the lyrics are outright atrocious. There are a few moments that shine but the lyrics usually come off as ripoffs of better 2000’s post-hardcore at the best of times. Also, there is a strange duality going on here as Mike still tries to sound like they are trying to be a fusion of post-hardcore/metalcore while the music sounds like something I’d hear on Liquid Metal radio.
I honestly wish I had more positive things to say about this record, but it seems like the best parts here were the earlier singles (“Watchtower”, “Sacrifice”). Instead of getting any surprises throughout, I was left with radio metal with no heart. The Devil Wears Prada needs to honestly take a look at what made
Zombie II so beloved and just try to replicate that sound for a full length. That seemed like the natural progression for the band, but
Color Decay feels like the worst step back for the band since
8:18.
