Saturday 16 March 2013

Devil To Pay - Fate Is Your Muse - Review

Devil to Pay - Fate Is Your Muse

Devil To Pay is a Sludge/Stoner Metal Band from Indianapolis, IN, USA

The members are:

Steve Janiak (Vocals/Guitar), Chad Prifogle (Drums), Matt Stokes (Bass), Rob Hough (Guitar)

Devil To Pay are a band who have a great reputation within the Sludge/Stoner Metal scene. They have released three excellent albums with their last one – Heavily Ever After – being a personal fave of mine.

Well 4 years later, the guys are back with their new album – Fate is Your Muse – A 12 track opus that runs for a thrilling 52 mins or so. Nothing much has changed in the Devil To Pay style of Sludge/Stoner Metal riffage. The riffs are still fast and loud as they have ever been.

Devil To Pay are now signed to one of our fave record labels – Ripple Music. Ripple Music always sign great bands to their roster – Mos Generator, Cody Foster Army, Grifter to name but a few. So you know when Ripple Music signs a band you now you are in for a great time.

That is what you get with Fate is Your Muse. A hard-rocking collection of great Sludge/Stoner Metal tracks to rock out to. Hugely entertaining from the word go. Devil To Pay have lost none of their magic. They simply get better with age. If you are already a fan of this great band then you are going to love this album. If you are a new visitor to the world of Devil To Pay then this is a great place to start. If you are a fan of Kyuss, Thin Lizzy, and Black Sabbath then you will be right at home here.

Head-banging riffs are the main order of business for the band. They have pulled out all of the stops here especially on great tracks – The Naked Truth, Wearing You Down, This Train Won’t Stop and my fave track – Beyond The Ether.

The album has frontman - Steve - on top form. This is probably the best he has ever sounded in his career. He has a cool restrained anger waiting to explode at the world. Fate Is Your Muse is Devil To Pay’s most hard hitting album to date. It is good to see Devil To Pay mixing the darker moments of the album with sublime angrier riffs to rock out to but also giving the listener something to think about as well.

It’s been a long time for this album but it has definitely been worth the wait. Devil To Pay have delivered a hard-hitting and action packed blast of great tunes that should cement their reputation as one of the best bands in the Sludge/Stoner Metal scene today.

All in all this is an excellent release I can’t recommend highly enough. Let’s hope the wait for the next album is not another 4-year long wait.

Excellent and Highly Recommended

Fate Is Your Muse is available to buy on CD and Vinyl on Ripple Music from April 9th 2013.