✦✧✧✧ Pissed-off groove metal that just throws aimless haymakers all day long. There are a lot of ideas on here that could use some more development, but most of it feels underdeveloped and underbaked. Volume 1 is the better half of the pair of albums. See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ Far be it for me to accuse DevilDriver of being experimental, but this album (or rather, this first half of a double album) takes a lot of chances with the band’s formula. By and large, those gambles pay off handsomely, leading to the most brutal yet interesting album they’ve put out in a decade. See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ I’m always prepared for a metal supergroup to sound more or less like an amalgam of its constituent parts. What I wasn’t ready for is the idea of a supergroup sound like a blend of a bunch of other bands not at all related to its members. And yet what you get with Bad Wolves is an awkward fusion of Sepultura, The Acacia Strain, Vildhjarta, Tremonti, and Linkin Park. See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ It’s melodeath, sounding like a fusion of… just about everything else. Very solidly okay metal. It’s not particularly imaginative or memorable, but it does what it says on the tin. See the rest here
★★☆☆ Pretty powerful effort from DevilDriver. Sadly, the second half is more memorable and successful than the first… meaning, you’ve gotta wade through some lackluster filler to get to the goods. Also, that AWOLNATION cover does a decent enough job; it blows almost as hard as the original. See the rest here
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