With Roots Below and Branches Above, Devil Wears Prada launches their most mature offering to date and the first to be written under the Ferret banner. Opening the 11 track album is Sassafras which launches straight into a ferocious sprint and immediately shows that the band have also shaped a heavier sound on this their third album.

One thing I like is that the sound actually has more balanced melodies swinging between aggressive and sweet smoothly and not so jerkily as on so many tracks that I have heard of theirs. So that's the first song what about the rest?

I Hate Buffering.. are they singing about internet streaming and waiting for the stream to finish buffering?, not sure as its all roaring, but I would like to think that they are as pissed as me when trying to watch footie on the net and the bleeding vid freezes as it starts to buffer, the song becomes more intelligentable when the roaring stops, a bit like buffering, but only a few sentences are sung then its back to the hardcore roar, there is a
little electronica and keyboards creep in this song, which is again nicely melodic. One thing about US hardcore productions, they know how to keep it aggressive and passionately raw but round off the sound so it doesn't make your guts churn with spiky vibrations ripping out of your speaker system.

The Devil Wears Prada proudly class themselves as a Christian band and often make assertions to their God, although I have read that this album is about coming back into the fold.. natter natter, although stating that material processions are irrelevant, don't go down well in the temple of capitalism that is America.

The album does have a good mix of sounds in the songs, the last two for example 'Louder Then Thunder' which is an extremely mellow tune and sung throughout and the last song, Lord Xenu which contrasts nicely with its raw aggressiveness, but I am jumping the gun here as the third track 'Assistant To The Regional Manager' is nicely balanced with
a mix of singing and roaring, which I think Devil do rather well as they can obviously write fresh melodies and layer them.

Some of the tunes become complex with a smooth and bumpy sensation to go along with the aggressive and sweet sounds they are capable of. You can hear the keys in many of the songs, although perhaps more subdued in this album then previously. A good album with a great mix of passions and styles this is defiantly their best to date.

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