Staying relevant in the music scene these days is extremely difficult. Sure there are your hardcore fans and the new fans you will make along the way, but bands have to continue to push the envelope; to make what has already been done… better.
With seven recorded albums/EPs under their belt, The Devil Wears Prada have now reversed to a former strength and have tactfully and brilliantly released another themed EP. Remember 2010’s The Zombie EP? Well, it killed. It was 5 songs full of blood and gore set to some of the band’s most furious metal work.
Now, 5 years later and two more full lengths deep, The Devil Wears Prada unveil the Space EP upon us.
“Planet A” is the first of six tracks, and we are immediately a part of an audio space documentary. We hear the maturity of a band who have played in every corner of the globe, and has yet remained humble and stoic. Mike Hranica’s shrill vocals sound just as awesome as ever, and it’s great to hear that he has embraced his dirty singing voice as well. This song has a cool atmospheric overtone thanks to great keyboard work, set among heaviness, breakdowns, and a short bridge where the clean vocals remind us again why we love The Devil Wears Prada so much.
“Alien” has many alien type sounds, and then quickly feels like you are being chased, abducted, and then possibly tortured by the little green men! This is a very heavy song, with that familiar sonic boom that The Devil Wears Prada loves to randomly throw into their songs. This one will get the circle pits bloody for sure! This is one band that can effortlessly create some of today’s heaviest metalcore songs.
Track three, “Moon God” takes us into black space with sounds and music that can transport. This one has more of a slower start, and Jeremy Depoyster’s clean vocals are smooth and well placed as always. Hranica does more of his understandable dirty singing in the verses, and has definitely mastered that weapon within his vocal arsenal. This song is sort of different for them as a band, but I hope they continue to push into this territory further.
Track four “Celestial Mechanics” is an interlude, and is a muffled spoken word track set to beautiful spacey music and sounds. It is relaxing and moody, and continues to take us deeper into space. “Supernova” follows immediately after is not as heavy as I expected, but it has a powerful driving riff. The vocals are cleaner, and the song as a whole has a very pulsating rhythm that could actually relax you. The last track is entitled “Asteroid” and it is dark, heavy and mean, but also atmospherically beautiful and as big as space itself.
The Devil Wears Prada set out to make an EP that sounded like a particular theme: Space. They have accomplished that! Each song takes you on a journey and lets you escape into another world. By the end, you really wish that there were five or six more songs, but at the same time, they did an amazing job at making these six songs sound complete.
I am stoked that The Devil Wears Prada went back to an obvious strength and made another themed EP. Not many bands can write music in this way this well. This EP is a big step forward for this band, and will continue to propel them further into relevancy in the metal world and music scene as a whole.
May I recommend that you put on your favorite sci-fi film, turn that volume to zero, and instead turn the Space EP up to 11 and take a metalcore journey into the final frontier!
Rating: 4.5/5
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