Brand New - The Devil And God Are Raging Inside Me (Interscope / Tiny Evil)
3/5
By: Alex Lee Thomson
This one seems to be an album that has the potential to be handsome, evocative and damn right genius, but it's not an instantly settling feeling and, although I know there's so much to love on here, the dry and sometimes overbearing delivery makes it tough going.
Previously signed to an indie label, you can certainly hear the difference between their earlier punk-upstart work and this more derived and focused piece, and though I'm sure the production values have increased ten fold I wonder how much of Brand New's heart has been sucked out of this o' so dull album. I don't want to give the impression that it's a wholly bad record, far from it in fact as its rich and artful windings are by no means talentless, having more in common with Smashing Pumpkins excellent later work than anything lower-class or 'emo' as they're far too often tagged.
'Limousine' dishes out some Deftones verses and Fall Out Boy choruses that customarily wouldn't gel together, but with a frantic and Radiohead echoing string lick that bandages the sections, sounds deliciously entrancing. 'You Wont Know' is another good illustration of how the albums' tracks can kick-in and bring on the fury to head-bowing consequence, but the slow bits are too senseless and only seem to be there to build up the full-on dissemination of sweat stirring mosh worthy lustre.
When Brand New go for it, they really go for it - lucratively producing some awesome and hugely powerful rock music, but when they settle back to be 'creative' it subsequently fails, and one is left fumbling around waiting for it to kick start itself so the riding oomph can persistently continue. Luckily, this album's full of these grandiose moments and it's these valuable seconds alone that make this the opus it is, ravished by masterful and cordially created guitar riffs and haunting layers that from time to time (and all through 'Luca') shriek like Led Zeppelin... and any piece of music that's mentioned within the same breath as the Zepp is instantly, by default, superior.
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