Outlaws 'til the End, Vol. I

Almost dead and certainly low on gas, Devildriver pulled into 2018 like a dying horse limping towards a long-forgotten finishing line. Dez Fafara’s voice was rather the worse for wear on the preceding albums and Trust No One hadn’t panned out the way the band wanted. I personally renamed it Convinces No One. And then, quite literally, that dying horse took on a new demonic lease of life, got fucking lassoed by Johnny Cash and, eyes glowing in ominous undead orange, galloped off into the sunset of the Wild West. These things shouldn’t happen in real life, but Devildriver made an album full of country music covers. And, compared to what they were doing before that, it slays and sounds kind of fresh.

The band (specifically Dez) loving country was never a big secret, especially not since ‘Black Soul Choir’ proved the absolute highlight of Beast, though going all in for an entire album of the stuff was a shock, not least because it’s called Outlaws ‘Til the End, Vol. 1. That suggests Vol. 2 is at least a vague notion. Devildriver did this in the right way too, picking up the best bits from the songs that they cover and adding all the metalcore and melodeath weight and pace back in. If Dez was indeed the weak link on previous releases, his vocals are supported by a massive cast of guests, some of whom come from the source material (Hank Williams III appears on his own song and Johnny Cash’s son John Carter, plus his wife, contribute to ‘Ghost Riders in the Sky’), then some of the metal community get in on the action too, such as a pair from Lamb of God, 36 Crazyfists’ Brock Lindow and Fear Factory’s Burton C. Bell. Lee Ving is there too, known from the punk band Fear, and he does a great job on ‘The Ride’.

The guests don’t really make the music more special (except one that I’ll come to), though the twanging sounds of acoustic and steel string guitars form this into a more atmospheric listen than the otherwise regular modern metal that forms the chassis of the ramshackle vehicle. Starting off ‘Country Heroes’ with 30 seconds of eerie Ennio Morricone twang sets the scene perfectly, since first-time listeners will be unsure if Devildriver have adopted the country style as well as its standards. The guitarists rip into a chug soon after and the eerie phased guitar continues to hover above the music, upon which I knew that this was a good idea. The melodies play an enormously important role in keeping Outlaws ‘Til the End fresh, ensuring that problems with thinking of creative riffs don’t crop up, while the leads are also some of the best from Mark Spreitzer and newish partner Neal Tiemann. Austin D’Amond turns in one of the best drum performances since the almighty John Boecklin occupied the DD drum stool, packing the songs with energy and the band’s signature groove.

This all sounds positive as hell so far, so it’s time to cool off by learning that not all of the songs hit the spot. Some of them wind up to high intensity yet don’t manage to deliver the goods, which is a problem that plagues Fafara’s vocal style – maximum effort but medium impact. As a result, ‘A Country Boy Can Survive’ feels overdone, even if it gets attention. The real winners are ‘I’m the Only Hell Mama Ever Raised’ (originally by Johnny Paycheck) and ‘If Drinking Don’t Kill Me (Her Memory Will)’, which feature the smartest lyrics and some of the best delivery. The former benefits from a simply massive riff that drives the storytelling vocals, while Wednesday 13 (told you I’d hold one back) is the perfect choice for a song about getting blind drunk and being haunted. He and Fafara absolutely nail the chorus to that one too.

Metal bands have never really been into mash-ups, but if this is the way Devildriver’s experiment turned out, I’ll have to demand a few more. The Americans really had nothing to lose and a lot of fun to gain, so the decent overall result is an added bonus. It’s interesting to note that the structuring imposed upon the band by cover songs led to every song hitting close to the three or four minute mark: a simpler approach, it seems, meant better decision-making and concentration on the execution. I am so in for Vol. 2.