devildriver again. this time with their self-titled debut and its first vinyl edition. i remember when i was listening to bands such as korn, system of a down or deftones there was another band on heavy rotation in my discman. coal chamber and their three records got a lot of playtime and i was pretty disappointed when they called it a day in 2003. almost in the same breath vocalist dez fafara intorduced his new band - devildriver.
back in 2003 social media wasn't big at all. if one was lucky, record labels offered mp3 downloads of one or two singles. so i was eagerly waiting for my favourite metal show on music television to watch the video for "i could care less", the first single of the album. when the album finally dropped, a friend of mine bought it and i got a burned cd copy. i was playing it a lot and bought my own original cd copy years later. therefore it was really a no-brainer for me to pick up this vinyl version.
after i listened to the record from start to finish, my impression was not too overwhelming. i mean, still i could sing along and knew the breaks and solos but the album didn't age that well. it's still a solid debut with one or two real hits but in comparison to "the fury of our maker's hand", one feels that the band needed this first album to find their own identity. a must have for any remote sympathiser of devildriver, anyway. nice vinyl edition that comes with single sleeve, printed dust sleeve and slick white with brown splatter vinyl. 1500 copies made. bmg. 2018.
