Album Review: Devilskin

Devilskin – Red
(Independent)

The Kiwi hard rock band Devilskin are often considered to be a bit of a “Marmite” act. While they have one of the most intense dedicated fanbases ever seen by a New Zealand band, they are also the subject of much derision from others in the heavy music scene for whatever reason.

Historically I have always sat somewhere in-between the two groups – as part of my other life as a live music photographer it has been almost impossible to not catch these guys performing as either a support act for some of the biggest acts in the world, or as a headliner on one of the many tours across the country – Devilskin surely are one of the most hard working bands on the circuit today, and as such it’s very difficult not to have some sort of opinion on their music.

With their ten year anniversary as a band fast approaching, and with two studio albums (plus a live album & DVD) under their belt, Devilskin hit the legendary Roundhead Studios in Auckland to record their new album ‘Red’, and what an album it is!

The first track ‘Do You See Birds’ hits you like a kick in the teeth, lead singer Jennie Smathers adopting a metalcore growl that would rival both Walls Of Jericho’s Candace Kucsulain and Jinjer’s Tatiana Shmailyuk, backed by the ’bouncy’ metal riffs Paul (Bass) and Nail (Guitar) have come to be known for.

It seems things have certainly been stepped up a notch on this release – the production ensuring a bigger sound than their past releases, the musicianship also being showcased a lot more on certain tracks. While it often felt in the past that the band was only really there as a support for Jennie’s vocals, Red sees the rest of the band step forward to perform as a whole – the ripping guitar solo on the second track ‘All Fall Down’ finally bringing Nail’s live intensity to Devilskin’s recorded sound.

One of the standout tracks on the album is ‘Eyes Red Heavy’ – a huge track that is surely suited to being performed in some of the biggest stadiums worldwide, and has rock radio hit written all over it.   Other great tracks include the third single ‘Corrode’, ‘Be Like The River’ and the punk-tinged ‘Everybody’s High But Me’ which employs an early System Of A Down mixed with Mike Patton vocal delivery to great effect.

Unfortunately, it’s not all roses – there are moments on Red that seem a bit clumsy. ‘Same Life’ sees Jennie’s screamed vocals on the verses not quite hitting the mark, while ’Bright Lights’ has parts that don’t gel together (that beautiful picked style intro, muddied with the unnecessary heavy guitar played over the top is a perfect example of what happens when a less is more approach is not employed).

However, in the scheme of the whole album these are very small nitpicks and as such don’t detract from what is ultimately Devilskin’s finest album to date. Sure there is an argument for the fact that despite the increase in production values a lot of Red could still be considered “Devilskin by numbers” – but why fix something that clearly isn’t broken?

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