The Devil Wears Prada "Plagues"

Man, I don't like myself for kind-of-sort-of-almost enjoying Plagues. I mean, it's so painfully obvious that The Devil Wears Prada is just riding a bunch of contemporary trends, writing metalcore for a youthful crowd that brings the brutal mosh (hence the constant barrage of breakdowns and death metal leanings) so hard that they need just as much clean, whiney singing, relaxed tempos and piano parts to keep from exploding. Yeah, Plagues is another conflicted mish-mash of chug-laden, melodic death-inspired metalcore and pristine "screamo." It's not all that poorly written, though, and the band at least tries to be a little ambitious with their almost-authentic metal, overdramatic synth parts and strong, bold melodies. If Plagues didn't simply fall into my music collection, I'd probably never listen to it, but it's not as bad as I had expected. And I still dig chug-a-luggin' breakdowns, which this has in spades.

Give 'em a few years to work on the keyboards, smooth out the transitions and maybe turn a few mosh parts into real substance, and there could be something there. Hey, they're young.

Listen, maybe with a grain of salt: The Devil Wears Prada - This Song Is Called

You can grab the album from Interpunk.