Plagues

Album Review

It's unclear whether Dayton, OH's the Devil Wears Prada took their moniker from the popular chick flick, or the novel that spawned it (maybe they asked the horned one himself?), but one can only guess at their motive for doing so. Were they seeking an endorsement deal with the pricey Italian fashion label (do they have a mosh pit clothing line)? Trying to convert teen girls who liked the movie into fans? Or perhaps, appropriating a relatively well-known marketing catch-phrase that also conveniently alluded to their Christian beliefs? Whatever the reason, the youthful sextet shifted a respectable amount of units with their first CD, 2006's Dear Love: A Beautiful Discord, and therefore saw no reason to tarry, nor alter their spastic screamo/metalcore formula while recording sophomore outing, Plagues, lest this peculiar trend should suddenly go cold on them. As a result, typical new offerings like "Number Three, Never Forget" and "Hey John, What's Your Name Again?" jostle the usual conflicting tendencies toward downtuned brutality and soaring harmonies, topped with alternately growled or clean-sung vocals to match each occasion — but attempt nothing that TDWP influences like Norma Jean, Haste the Day, and the similarly synthesizer-addled Still Remains haven't already explored more extensively and effectively. What's more, the Devil Wears Prada also subscribes to the irritating post-emo fad of consigning silly and/or utterly unrelated titles to songs whose stream-of-consciousness lyrics meld romantic/existential/religious allusions both recklessly and indiscriminately (e.g. "HTML Rulez D00d," "Don't Dink and Drance," "Nickels Is Money Too") — as if scripture wasn't misleading enough as is. Another flagrant example, "You Can't Spell 'Crap' Without 'C'" actually makes the Sesame Street classic "'C' Is for Cookie" sound remarkably profound, and counts with the ringing intellectual endorsement of Chiodos singer Craig Owens, to boot. But hey, whatever works, and this seemingly faulty recipe seems to have done just fine for the Devil Wears Prada in the past, so one can only assume that more Christian screamo fans will be happy to accept their fashion advice a second time around, and embrace these Plagues wholeheartedly.