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DEVIL YOU KNOW
The Beauty Of Destruction

Nuclear Blast Entertainment (2014)
Rating: 9/10

Devil You Know is the “new” band featuring ex-Killswitch Engage frontman Howard Jones alongside All Shall Perish’s Francesco Artusato and John Sankey (Devolved, Divine Heresy, Fear Factory). The band came together in 2012 and hit the studio in 2013 with producer Logan Mader (ex-Machine Head). The result is The Beauty Of Destruction, the Los Angeles-based band’s full-length debut.

As a fan of All Shall Perish and Killswitch Engage, I wasn’t really that interested in this. Both bands are responsible for some of the only metalcore releases worth calling heavy metal and I just didn’t see them keeping pace, let alone topping their prior works.

However, I begrudgingly downloaded it, thinking I owed it to the heavy metal gods to at least give it a chance, the whole time wondering how it could possibly be anywhere near as good as I dared hope. After all, most “supergroups” are a massive letdown.

The first few bars of ‘A New Beginning’ hit with heavy guitars and pounding drums complete with 90s style hardcore tones, breakdowns, and bounce. The vocals march alongside the guitars with Jones recognisable higher-pitched grunts. It certainly gets your attention, as it’s much more crushing and anthemic than I expected. It’s the heaviest track overall, with the possible exception of the chaotic and often disconnected sounding ‘Shut It Down’ (the album’s lone weak moment).

While I love the way this album starts off, the majority of the album is full of what you are hoping to hear; big, metalcore anthems with the soaring choruses that Jones perfected a decade ago with his last band. This isn’t a rip-off though. Musically, The Beauty Of Destruction has a spark and bite that hasn’t been heard in quite awhile from metalcore. ‘My Own’ and ‘Seven Years Alone’, for example, are by the numbers metalcore tunes but they exemplify the genre. The guitars are bombastic and melodic, and the solo in ‘My Own’ (albeit short) will make you wonder why the hell Artusato didn’t do that more in All Shall Perish.

The band prove though that they are not a one trick pony with ‘Crawl From The Dark’. While there are some familiar elements, it’s got a much darker feel and Jones’ vocals branch out, utilizing the softer (read as “slightly gothier”) side of his singing voice. It’s not a side we hear very often and it breaks any potential monotony that the record might have had. The soaring ‘For The Dead And Broken’ is the other potential monotony breaker, featuring clean vocals and more of a heavy, alternative rock overall sound. I really like the groove the guitars have on this one, and how the riff takes centre stage while the drums and bass just fill everything out.

I truly dig everything about this album. I didn’t expect this to be able to live up to the members’ former glories but, in some ways, it surpasses them. Devil You Know doesn’t feel like a one-off supergroup at all, they feel like a metal band hungry to make a name for themselves. If you like any kind of metal, there’s a lot to love here, and vocally this is arguably Howard Jones’ best work (with the possible exception of Killswitch Engage’s 2004 album, The End Of Heartache).

Mark Fisher

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