The Devil Wears Prada

Forming in 2005, The Devil Wears Prada has become one of the biggest Christian metalcore band and continues to grow more and more. To me, it seems like with all five albums and the one EP they've released, each one just gets better and better. Judging by their older music, such as the albums "Dear Love: A Beautiful Discord" and "Plagues", it didn't seem like they took the band too seriously because of the names of their songs like "Dogs Can Grow Beards All Over" and "You Can't Spell Crap Without "C"." It seemed like they were just trying too be funny, but the songs in my opinion were really good and and had a lot of meaning.

Later in their musical career they seemed to grow more mature as musicians. In 2009, TDWP released their third album entitled "With Roots Above and Branches Below," which has my personal favorite song "Assistant to the Regional Manager" on it. This album was definitely their best so far, having more of a "darker, heavier, and more epic" sound, says vocalist Mike Hranica (Wikipedia). Even though there were a few humorous song titles, the band's musicality really matured and they took a big step with the album. They definitely grew a huge fan base as they played the Vans Warped Tour ans went on multiple headlining tours.

In 2010, they released a five song EP entitled "Zombie," and every song had to do with a zombie apocalypse in some way, due to Hranica's strong interest on the subject (Wikipedia). Like in the song "Escape" it says, "As clumsy as these beast may be, their mass numbers make up for slow speeds," and in "Outnumbered" it says "like vultures of the sick, zombies outnumber the living." In my opinion, I thought this EP was freakin awesome. The band stated that it was the "fastest music they had ever written," and even compared it to Slayer and Hatebreed (Wikipedia). I completely agreed with that. The album was so brutal and fast and it was the first release that didn't have any humorous song titles.

I didn't start to like heavy metal until early 2012, and my friend tried to show me TDWP by getting me to listen to the fourth album "Dead Throne," but I really wasn't into that music at the time and I couldn't stand listening to it. Early 2012, I saw the Mayhem Festival lineup and saw that The Devil Wears Prada was on the bill. I'd only liked a few of the bands on the festival, so I decided to look some of them up, which is also where I discovered Whitechapel, which is now my favorite band. Fortunately when I went to Mayhem, I got to meet The Devil Wears Prada, but I only got to see them perform 2 songs because I was watching Anthrax. I still didn't listen to TDWP a lot, but they were definitely drifting their way into my music library. Now after listening to all their albums from before and getting to like the band more, I really like "Dead Throne" and thought it was their best album yet.

The band's latest album, "8:18", was in my opinion their best album yet. The heavy, yet melodic riffs were a perfect blend and the lyrics had so much meaning. When the album first came out, I became obsessed with it and couldn't stop listening to it. The Devil Wears Prada has became one of my top favorite band now and I listen to them all the time. I've played drums for a few years now, and ever since late last year, I've learned multiple songs by them including, "Born to Lose," and "Assistant to the Regional Manager." They're some of my favorite songs to play and I'm trying to learn even more songs by them.

I'd like to know what you think of The Devil Wears Prada, so leave comments of what you think!







 "The Devil Wears Prada Official Website." TDWP Band Official Website. Roadrunner Records, n.d. Web. 21 Apr. 2014.

Riserecords. "The Devil Wears Prada - The Ascent." YouTube. YouTube, 03 Nov. 2010. Web. 21 Apr. 2014.

Kewlaids22. "The Devil Wears Prada - Goats On A Boat." YouTube. YouTube, 16 Mar. 2012. Web. 21 Apr. 2014.

Colourofviolence. "The Devil Wears Prada - Sassafras." YouTube. YouTube, 29 Apr. 2009. Web. 21 Apr. 2014.

Pariah582. "Zombie EP." YouTube. YouTube, 06 July 2011. Web. 21 Apr. 2014.

Kewlaids22. "The Devil Wears Prada - Dead Throne." YouTube. YouTube, 21 Mar. 2012. Web. 21 Apr. 2014.

The Devil Wears Prada. "The Devil Wears Prada - Gloom (Audio)." YouTube. YouTube, 16 Sept. 2013. Web. 21 Apr. 2014.

As I Lay Dying

As I Lay Dying is a metalcore band from San Diego, California, forming as a full band in 2001. Even though all the members are practicing Christians, the band is usually classified as metalcore, not Christian metal (Wikipedia). This is mainly because their lyrics do not focus on Christian themes. The words God or Jesus do not appear in any AILD songs, nor do they specifically invoke Christian doctrine or quote the Bible. Most songs are about spiritual concepts like existential angst or struggle between reason and spirituality (Wikipedia). Over the course of 13 years, the band has released six studio albums, one split album and one compilation album.

Vocalist Tim Lambesis formed As I Lay Dying in 2001, but started as a full band in 2001. The bands debut album "Beneath the Encasing of Ashes," released through Pluto Records, showed a powerful sound from the band, but I don't think the band had fully found its sound on later albums. I thought it was a good album, but didn't even compare to some of their later albums.

After the band went on a tour, they realized they needed another guitarist and a bassist to complete the band. After the contract to Pluto Records expired, the band was signed to Metal Blade Records. In the summer of 2003, the sophomore album "Frail Words Collapse" was released. The album wasn't a really big change to the sound and they didn't really "break the barrier," but it was described by Sherwin Frias as "executed so well and with such precision that no song misses its target." But the band still hadn't really found its distinct sound.

The band's third album was released the summer two years later entitled "Shadows Are Security" and debut at number 1 on the Independent Albums chart. The band started to get more and more popular as the album was described as "one of the strongest releases of 2005." (Wikipedia) In my opinion, this was the album where the band found its personal sound. I think a part of that was because of new guitarists Phil Sgrosso and Nick Hipa, contributing more powerful yet melodic guitar riffs in the music.

The fourth album "An Ocean Between Us" was released in August of 2007 and debut at No. 8 on the Billboard 200. This became the highest charting release for the band. (Wikipedia) The album got very good reviews and it seemed like As I Lay Dying were one if the bands that actually wrote music that they liked themselves, instead music that they thought the fans wanted.

The next album "The Powerless Rise" was released in May of 2010 and received positive feedback with one critic saying fans will be more than satisfied with "The Powerless Rise" as the band's gradual progression and consistency makes this their best album." The band went out on multiple headlining tours to support the album. In late 2011, the band released a compilation album entitled "Decas" to celebrate its ten year anniversary. It included three new songs, a few cover sings of bands such as Judas Priest and Slayer, and a few mixed songs from earlier albums.

The bands sixth full-length album "Awakened" was released in September of 2012. It was given generally good review, but it wasn't "ground breaking for heavy metal music." (Wikipedia) Personally, I thought "Awakened" was their best overall album. It had many melodic and harmonic guitar riffs and had very fast speed and lots of great guitar solos. In May of 2013, Tim Lambesis was arrested for hiring an undercover detective to kill his estranged wife. In early 2014, Lambesis changed his plea from "not guilty" to "guilty" and was sentenced nine years to prison. (Wikipedia) No one was really sure what would happen to the band because of what happened to the front man, but it was recently announced that As I Lay Dying is continuing on without Lambesis with a new unnamed vocalist. I'm glad to see that the band is not breaking up because it would be a lot of wasted musical talent and potential, but I'm sad to see that it won't be with an awesome front man such as Tim Lambesis.

Tell me what  you think of As I Lay Dying in the comments below. I'd love to hear!



Sedupereviewer. "SudupeReviewer: Top 10 The Best Metalcore Bands Ever."SudupeReviewer: Top 10 The Best Metalcore Bands Ever. Blogger, 2 Feb. 2014. Web. 08 Apr. 2014.

Hellcat, Sweneck. "As I Lay Dying - Awakened (Full Album)." YouTube. YouTube, 24 Nov. 2013. Web. 08 Apr. 2014.