New Wave of American Heavy Metal legends DevilDriver have finally unleashed a brand new slab of bloodstained steel in the form of Strike and Kill. This new record comes with a brand new lineup, with Alex Lee and Gabe Mangold handling lethal dual guitar work, and boasts some of the band’s strongest riffing and lead work since Last Kind Words.
A particular strength of Strike and Kill is its catchy hooks, with tracks like ‘Dead in the Water’ promising to become setlist staples, legions of fans already gearing up to scream along until their lungs collapse. The more calm moments of the album allow Dez Fafara to showcase an emotion other than blind psychotic rage, and that just adds to a subtle versatility he seldom gets to portray, as his music tends to keep him playing to his strengths.
While the name of the game is hostility, there’s still plenty of time for gorgeous clean guitar work in between extended segments of furious fretwork, with tracks like ‘In the Moonlight’ offering moments of reprieve between sections of vicious pummeling. The record is at its best when it’s succinct. DevilDriver have never wasted time with progressive elements or long unnecessary noodling, and the latter half of Strike and Kill exemplifies this brilliantly. Tracks like ‘Oath of Iron’ and ‘Shut the Silence On’ hit hard and fast, and before you know it, they’re over, leaving maximum damage with a mix of pummeling fury and sharp, serrated guitar solos.
Vocalist Dez Fafara has honed his technique over many decades, and Strike and Kill showcases some of his strongest vocal performances in years. Not only does he show off brilliant clarity and enunciation, he also manages to sound thoroughly monstrous, with tracks like ‘In the Moonlight’ unleashing a powerful force of nature that few bands of this age can match.
The seething intensity of tracks like ‘Strike and Kill’ and the borderline ballad ‘Summoning Shadows’ stand alone magnificently, but the record unfortunately feels a bit bloated at 50 minutes. It’s a strange paradox that almost every song works on its own merits but becomes a bit too much to stomach from start to finish. It’s the problem of too much of a good thing, but in short controlled bursts… it’s a barnstormer of an album.
After 25 years, DevilDriver can still hit harder and faster than most, and this new album proves that this new lineup could bring DevilDriver to new heights of wild aggression and insanity. Strike and Kill is set to be a highlight for melodic death metal in 2026.
Strike and Kill is available July 10th via Napalm Records.
