To be honest, I didn’t expext much from this cd after I heard their leadsinger is named Dez (Coal Chamber). I found him to be a pathetic guy with a number of childish frustrations that he had to ventilate with shitty lyrics. His anger sounded not real too. Like he had to be angry cause the music is angry. So far my anti-Dez part.

However, this cd - simply called ‘Devil Driver’ - surprised me. Dez sounds mad again, although he will never be a good lyricist, but he can surely grunt and scream. That’s enough for this music, which is a combination of death metal and nu-metal. The Coal chamber link will always be there, because of the specific sound of Dez, but the simple basic guitar lines of Coal Chamber are gone, and instead there are some brutal, superb death metal riffs (“Nothing’s Wrong”, “I Dreamed I Died”).

This album has more ideas than all 3 Coal Chamber albums together. Coal Chamber was a master (like Will Haven) in creating riffs, but not in writing good songs (unlike Will Haven).

Only Coal Chamber’s second cd (Chamber Music) is one I still play. But Devil Driver, breathes a sphere of creativity and enthousiasm. But, let’s not start sucking each other’s dicks quite yet. This is not a superb cd. Only compared to the last Coal Chamber cd it is, and compared to most released nu-metal garbage. There are some good songs on it, that work well especially live (“I Could Care Less”, “Nothing’s Wrong”, “Cry For Me Sky”), but some songs will make you scratch behind your ears (“Swinging The Dead”, “Knee Deep”) and “The Mountain” has such bad lyrics it’s almost hilarious.

This is a debut cd from a band that does not know which way to go. Brutal nu-metal or death metal? I suggest they use more death metal riffs. It only adds to the agression they (probably) want to ventilate.The drummer by the way, is one first class wood chopper. Is it enough? Well, I don’t know. The future will prove if there is room for Devil Driver. But Dez has improved himself, that is for sure.