The Devil Wears Prada – ‘Space EP’ Review
Posted: by Tom
The Space EP is the second concept EP we get from metalcore act The Devil Wears Prada. As the title suggests the theme this time is Space. We’ve seen a steady improvement from this band over the years, they’ve gone from a fairly generic metalcore act to a more interesting and heavier sound, adding grooves and atmosphere to their dynamic as they went on. Their last album 8:18 saw a lot of experimentation from the band and much of that continues on here.
While definitely nothing I would call slow or soft, the Space EP is not quite as heavy as what they’ve done in the past. The opener called Planet A kicks things off starting with a radio transmission from what sounds like NASA. It explodes into a sound we really haven’t heard from the band. It’s a more emotional sound with an awesome guitar melody that breaks out of the chugga-chugga riffs the band normally uses. The use of electronics really just adds to the atmosphere and it feels like being launched into space.
The song ‘Alien’ is more traditional heavy TDWP but still with those grooves they’ve honed to perfection. It feels like an alien attack, not only conveyed through the lyrics but the feeling created by the guitars, drumming, and electronics. All these elements do their job and you do just a sense of being in space and of something extraterrestrial. TDWP really have perfected this art.
I only have a few minor complaints about this album. The first is that I feel like the clean vocals weren’t put to use as well as they could have. They’re in full force in songs like ‘Asteroid’ that masterfully blend the harsh growls and screams with the cleans with natural transitions, but the EP could have used more of it. The other issue that plays off of the previous issue is that the growls are sometimes a bit off putting. This is most prevalent on the song ‘Moongod’. However thankfully these are minor issues that don’t detract from the overall quality of this EP.
It’s definitely nice to see a metalcore bands, a genre not generally known for its progression or experimentation, take a risk like a concept album. In this case the risk pays off and we get a short but sweet EP that completes the job it set out to and does it well. It’s a bit of a departure from what we’ve come to expect from the band but that is actually a good thing in this case. Other bands in the genre should really start taking notes.
