A bit of a guilty pleasure I know, but I quite enjoyed the debut Devildriver album. It was nothing groundbreaking, but it finally seemed like poor old Dez was doing something he wanted to do - rather than just adding "cookie-monster" growls over the top of taudry teenage down-tuned bollocks like in Coal Chamber. The music was fast, intense and enjoyable, even if you knew it was a definite mish-mash of a lot of things you've probably heard before.

In follow up "The Fury of Our Makers Hand" Devildriver have tried to up the extremity stakes by making everything faster, heavier and more "in your face". In doing so, what they have actually managed to do is neglect to write anything resembling a decent or indeed memorable metal tune.

It's a shame as the album starts off particularly well - the opener "End of the Line" features a fabulous and uplifting intro followed by some immensley heavy guitar work. It's probably better than anything on their debut album. For a brief moment you could be forgiven for thinking you were maybe listening to the start of something a little bit special....

That idea is soon shattered. Every song blends into the next without any exception, each one seemingly just an exercise in playing guitars slightly faster and hitting the drums a little bit harder than the last time around. The lyrics typically don't seem to mean anything other than the usual tiresome "We're ready to die!" and "don't let anyone fuck with you!" rubbish associated with the generic end of extreme metal (Not that anyone would expect Devildriver to be drenched in lyrical poetry - but still!). There are no catchy death-metal hooks to grab onto - at least none that aren't borrowed from some other song you are sure you've heard somewhere before. Half the time it's hard to know whether you are still listening to a chorus or a verse as Dez seems to bark the same old things through every song.

"End of the Line" and "Hold Back the Day" are good tracks (no surprises that they've been the MP3's freely available for download via Roadrunner) but songs like "Sin and Sacrifice" and "Bear Witness Onto" are truly awful. Oh and the "most ridiculous song-title of the year award" has to go to the charming "Grinfucked". The rest of the album just seems to sit in a deeply un-remarkable, generic middle-ground for any fan of extreme metal.

Production wise, you can't really fault the disc - it certainly sounds heavy - but it would have been wise to include something you can remember after pressing the stop button. If you are interested in Dez's new brand of metal in the slightest, then I would suggest giving this a wide berth and instead opt for the debut.

Standout Tracks:  End of the Line.

Overall Score:   5.5 /10