Device - Device (Album Review)
It's been about a year and a half since Disturbed went on their hiatus and now we get the first offering from frontman David Draiman's new band, Device. Being a longtime fan of Disturbed it was hard for me to go into this with an open mind, but after listening to it front to back numerous times part of me feels like Draiman is the one having trouble letting go of his Disturbed past. Device is classified as an Industrial Metal band, but there's a lot of similarities to be made between Device and Disturbed.
I'm not going to spend the entire review breaking down these similarities because it wouldn't really serve any purpose. Those who have heard the album already know what I'm talking about. For those who haven't, think of this as Disturbed, but with some heavier riffs. The album's intro, "You Think You Know", does a solid job of setting the tone for the overall album: enjoyable, but lacking in creativity. My only complaint with this song in particular is that the bridge on this song is very... lifeless. In fact, this is the only point in the album where I can use this term.
Once this song ends everything is going pretty smooth until we reach track four, "Close My Eyes Forever", which is a cover of the 1988 Lita Ford and Ozzy Osbourne duet. Now if there was one song on here that felt out of place it would be this one. I was never crazy about the original and I didn't find this cover to be much better. It's dull, it's boring, and it feels slightly misplaced after the album's single, "Vilify".
After we get over that rough patch the album is pretty much more of the same from this point on. Take what you heard on the album's first three songs and that's what you're going to hear for the remaining 25 minutes. Which may be a good or a bad thing depending on the listener. Sonically the middle portion of the album is a little more experimental in comparison with the rest of the album, but it's still very easy to label majority of the album as a Disturbed clone, which was a little disappointing to me.
One of this album's biggest differences in comparison to Disturbed is its use of guests. You have Lzzy Hale assisting Draiman with the Lita Ford cover, and Serj Tankian, M. Shadows, and Glenn Hughes each lend their vocals to a few songs. Then Tom Morello and Geezer Butler both make an appearance as well. Serj sounds fantastic with Draiman on track five, "Out of Line", as does M. Shadows on track nine, "Haze". Glenn Hughes, on the other hand, did a less than spectacular job on the album's closer, "Through It All". I really could've seen this being way more powerful if Draiman had done it solo, but sadly that's not the case.
On top of the main album's ten songs there's a deluxe edition with two bonus songs and a Best Buy exclusive song as well. The deluxe edition contains a cover of Nine Inch Nail's "Wish" and a song called "A Part of Me". While the Best Buy exclusive is a song called "Recover". The Nine Inch Nails cover is a pretty unique take on the song, in a good way. It definitely sounds different when compared to the original, but it's enjoyable in its own right. The other two songs were enjoyable as well and I don't understand why they weren't on the main album. If you ask me I would've taken out the Lita Ford cover from the main album and put these three bonus songs onto the tracklist.
Standout Songs: "Vilify", "Out of Line (Feat. Serj Tankian & Geezer Butler)" & "Haze (Feat. M. Shadows)"
Overall Score: 7/10 - The Device debut is an interesting one, but ultimately one that feels uninspired and unsure of itself. I think it might have been a good idea to play around with their sound a little more so they developed one that was more unique. Still, it's not terrible and it's not too far from the core Disturbed sound so fans will have an easy time adjusting. I look forward to hearing what they do with future projects.
You can purchase the album on iTunes, Amazon, or your local retailer.
