Growing up, I had three main influences on what would form my music taste. The first is my family, the second is what was popular in school and the third was internet recommendations. Discovering this band feels like a combination of all of those influences. Recently, I’ve been really getting back into my old favourites. With new albums being released or announced from Underoath, Destroy Rebuild Until God Shows, Senses Fail, Billy Talent and others of that ilk. It’s inspired me to just get back into my old favourite bands from yesteryear. However, I realised there was one of those bands that have stuck with me and I feel have matured and grown up with me. That would be the topic of this blog post, The Devil Wears Prada. I mean their recent singles Sacrifice and Watchtower have shined a light back on them for me and after hearing those songs, I thought to go back over their albums and assess what I love about them.
Let’s go back to 2009. I had left high school the year before. I was sixteen going on seventeen. I was mostly into alternative rock bands and post-grunge. Most of the metalcore bands I listened to were the bigger names with super slick and clean production. Bands like Killswitch Engage and All That Remains would have been the heaviest metal I would listen to. I was browsing around to find new bands when I come across this song that totally took me off guard. A song called “Reptar, King of the Ozone”. My jaw hit the floor. It was so chaotic and wild, something that was not used to, and I loved it. It was just something that I could not comprehend. I looked up the band's name and found the album Plagues. Then in quick succession their debut Dear Love: A Beautiful Discord and then their latest album, at the time, With Roots Above and Branches Below. Those three albums were just so different from anything else I was listening to at the time. Still in the same realm as metalcore and obviously in the Warped Tour crowd of bands. Yet, to me, The Devil Wears Prada was the first and the standout band for the genre. They were the proverbial white rabbit that lead me down the rabbit hole of melodic metalcore, deathcore and more bands like that.
Those albums were stuck on replay on my MP3 player for a long time. Mike Hranica’s screamed vocals clawed away at me, then the beautiful juxtaposition of the melodic chorus lines sung by Jeremy DePoyster felt anthemic and light over the top of the heavy metal. There’s nothing revolutionary about their sound as a whole. Yet, to a young impressionable teenager just discovering his individual music taste. They certainly made their mark. Those first three albums just completely changed my world and expanded my horizons when it came to heavy metal music. I took the time to read the lyrics and interpret what they meant to me. Songs like “Danger: Wildman”, “Assistant to the Regional Manager”, “Hey John, What’s Your Name Again?” became some of the most played songs on all of my playlists. They were one of the first bands that I took the time to think about their music. To the point where I started writing about music in blog format.
The band would take a sharp turn for their next project. The 2010 EP, Zombie. I don’t know if this EP did especially well, or if I was just too involved in the community at the time. However, I remember there being a real buzz about this EP. The EP is a concept about a zombie apocalypse and each song represents a different aspect of zombie stories. I just remember this EP being talked about very highly. This felt different from the first three records. It was more focused and less chaotic. It put The Devil Wears Prada on display as a band that could take a super-specific concept and flesh it out and make it work in musical form. They would follow this up, like any good story it got a sequel. ZII would come out eleven years later in 2021. This capitalises on the popularity of Zombie and fleshed out more musical ideas based on the mere thought of a Zombie apocalypse. The fact it even got a sequel should demonstrate how much the fans, and even the band, hold the original EP in such regard.
So, at this point a was fully on board the hype train for this band. So much so, that when the next album was announced I preordered the special edition. Dead Throne was something else entirely. It was big and bold and felt like a statement of a record. Singles like “Born To Lose”, “Mammoth” and “R.I.T.” are captivating and were probably the best sales pitch for an album a band could ever ask for. The album being produced by Adam Dutkiewicz, of Killswitch Engage, gave fans confidence that it would sound amazing and it does. Man, this album still sounds excellent to this day. Sometimes, I will just play this album from start to finish to appreciate the writing and production. If you want to appreciate how this album sounds live on stage, then check out the live record Dead & Alive which contains majorly songs from Dead Throne. If someone asked me what album I would recommend so that they can get into this band I would say Dead Throne.
My connection with The Devil Wears Prada would not be as strong as it was with Dead Throne. I had seen them live and I was starting to diversify my music collection and listen to different things. However, every time they released something new I would find myself diving back into their music. For 8:18 they continued their melodic metalcore stylings and didn’t really deviate from what made Dead Throne a success. Which I can understand, if it isn’t broken don’t fix it. Transit Blues and the Space EP saw the band experimenting with their sound as they changed members. In fact, the Space EP was really different from their previous output and another venture into musical storytelling with another concept EP. Like I said though, my connection with the band and fandom would not be as strong as it was before.
Then, I would come back to the band in 2019 with the album The Act. I don’t know what spurred me to go back to listen to them after only vaguely listening to them over the course of the years. However, I’m glad I did as The Act hit me hard. It made me realise what I loved about this band, to begin with. Drawing on more gothic rock elements The Act really stands out as something different from their previous work. There was more emphasis on the melodic segments of their songs and less of a need to be “heavy”. However, I still think this album packs a punch when it needs to, like on “Switchblade” or “Spiderhead”.
Recently, I’ve been listening to the new singles over and over. I feel like I’ve been welcomed back into the community as if I’d never left in the first place. The Devil Wears Prada is not the same band I discovered in 2009, but that’s OK. The band has grown over the years and matured along with its fanbase. They have tried and tested what works and refined their sound to something that they can just nail time and time again. Going through their music and listening to songs from 2007 and then comparing them to now, you can hear the growth. Taking a sample out of each era of their discography and playing them together, you feel the experimentation. When I hear the wild, kinetic energy of "Swords, Dragons & Diet Coke" or “The Scorpion Deathlock”, then blast through the overwhelming power and boldness of “Outnumbered” and “First Sight”, take the experimentation of a song like “Planet A” and end the trip on the emotional single “Chemical”. You hear a band that put any idea to the test, but at the same time, it’s all recognisably The Devil Wears Prada. They’re a band that remains special to me and a band that I have a lot of memories of. Their music is still a constent source of enjoyment and I look forward to the next time I get to see them tear up the stage in a blistering live show.
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