Review by Dan Perks
Release Date: 25 April 2014
Devil You Know come straight out of the gate with a musical pedigree that immediately commands a bit of respect. Featuring ex members of Killswitch Engage, All Shall Perish, Divine Heresy and Bleeding Through, Devil You Know come full of promise. A mix of radio friendly metalcore anthems and faster paced heavy tracks that could easily sit next to Devildriver in a playlist, there are some outstanding moments within the heavier tracks with touches of Jones-era Killswitch Engage and Bleeding Through leaking through in some. The guitar work through the album is outstanding, the riffs in the aptly named ‘A New Beginning’, ‘Shut It Down’ and the heaviest track ‘A Mind Insane’ are worthy of any mosh pit, and the solo at the end of ‘Crawl From The Dark’ is a particular highlight on the album.
There are some brilliant moments on the album but generally it feels a little ‘safe’, there are no real balls to the album. The harmonies feel light and without heart, the lyrics feel soft and watered down with Jones’ typical post-relationship whinging appearing on a number of the tracks. I’m not going to lie I was a little disappointed with The Beauty Of Destruction. I was hoping for something a bit heavier when considering the pedigree of the band members, and although to me the album felt a bit hollow it definitely is as catchy as most annoying pop tracks played on the radio (I’ve been singing ‘7 Years Alone’ in the shower all bloody week). This tells me that The Beauty Of Destruction is doing what it was written for: catchy, radio-friendly songs that get stuck in your head. So when I stopped sulking about how it wasn’t as heavy as I wanted, and started looking at the album objectively I realised that Devil You Know have written a solid metalcore to the masses album that could easily help the spread of alternative music.
7 out of 10
Track listing:
- A New Beginning
- My Own
- Embracing The Torture
- For The Dead And Broken
- Seven Years Alone
- It’s Over
- A Mind Insane
- Crawl From The Dark
- The Killer
- I Am The Nothing
- Shut It Down
- As Bright As The Darkness
