If proof were ever needed that hard times inspire equally hard art, we need look no further than the new DevilDriver album. They are a band who’ve been crushing skulls since forming in 2003, yet the current period of global instability appears to have fed into their sound and given them fresh impetus, and indicative of this is latest album, Strike And Kill. Featuring a (lucky) thirteen songs, studio album number eleven finds DevilDriver on the front foot and leaping straight for the listener’s jugular. Offering no quarter, Strike And Kill is brutal, bloodthirsty and comes fully armed, as such it is not recommended for the weak of constitution, but if it is unbridled metal you are after, look no further.
You might expect a band fast approaching their twenty-fifth anniversary to be easing off the accelerator somewhat, but DevilDriver are having none of it. Opening track ‘Dig Your Own Grave’ appears with little warning, and is all the more powerful for it; like a bullet aimed between your eyebrows, you don’t see it until it hits, and a similar thing happens here. A thunderous drum roll and serrated riff act as a warning to the curious, and then DevilDriver arrive with wrecking ball force, swinging from speaker to speaker, and intent on causing maximum carnage. However, the band are finely nuanced and the acoustic outro on ‘Dig Your Own Grave’ serves dual purpose. Firstly, it acts as a foil to highlight and enhance the preceding tempest, making it all the more potent, and suggests this will be no straight up metal album (although there’s plenty of that on offer), and it’s wise to expect the unexpected, DevilDriver keeping the listener on their toes with a record that’s built on shifting sands.
Prior to recording Strike And Kill DevilDriver underwent several line-up changes with over half of the band being replaced. Such a flux could have a negative impact on a group, unbalancing the equilibrium and upsetting the chemistry that exists between musicians. However, in the case of DevilDriver it seems to have given the band fresh impetus and are operating with the same kind of frenetic energy that characterised their early career, and they attack songs such as ‘Never Coming Home’ like birds of prey. Part of the credit for the band’s new found vigour must go to producer Gabe Mangold who has furnished Strike And Kill with a deep sound that puts plenty of emphasis on the bottom end and ensures the likes of ‘Oath Of Iron’ weigh down with gravitational force.
Bringing the album to a cataclysmic conclusion is ‘All Bets Are Off’, a song that finds the band in ruddy health and suggests Strike And Kill is a bold rebirth.
- Strike And Kill is released via Napalm Records on 10th July 2026.
Track List:
- Dig Your Own Grave
- Dead In The Water
- Sanctified In Scars
- Strike And Kill
- In The Moonlight
- Ride Or Die
- Headed For The Fall
- Shut The Silence On
- Never Coming Home
- Summoning Shadows
- You’re Just A Ghost
- Oath Of Iron
- All Bets Are Off
