Album review by Mz Terra
Strike And Kill is DevilDriver sounding less like a band trying to modernise and more like one recommitting to the thing they built their name on: groove, spit, punishment, consequence and Dez Fafara (vocals) still sounding like he is yelling from a busted nerve ending.
This is not “back to basics” in the lazy sense. It is old violence with better aim. Some bands age by sanding themselves down. DevilDriver have sharpened the machinery, dug into old feels with no steps to make it safer. On Strike And Kill , they are dragging the groove-metal engine back into the yard, kicking the rust off it, feeding it fresh blood and letting it chew.
Arriving after the two-part ‘Dealing With Demons’ cycle, Strike And Kill brings a reshaped lineup around Fafara, Jon Miller (bass), Alex Lee (guitar), Gabe Mangold (guitar) and Davier Ortega Perez (drums). The important bit is not just that the names have changed. It is that the engine feels hungry again. Miller’s return brings old blood back into the room, Lee and Mangold give the guitars more bite and movement and Perez keeps the floorboards rattling underneath it all.
This is not a record Fafara casually rolled into because the calendar said it was time. When I spoke with him, he was open about the fact there was a point where he was not sure he wanted to make another DevilDriver record at all. Then the music arrived, the right people were around him, and the pulse came back. That gives Strike And Kill a different temperature. It is not just aggression for aggression’s sake. It is a record made by someone who had to be convinced there was still a reason to open that door again, and once he did, the whole bloody room caught fire.
There is a difference between writing for the fans and writing for the thing the band has become. Strike And Kill feels like the latter. Not fan service. Not nostalgia bait. More like the DevilDriver logo itself has leaned over the desk, bared its teeth and told everyone where the songs needed to go.
That is why this feels like a consequence album. Not heartbreak. Not healing. Not some grand spiritual rebirth. This is decisions catching up, old damage remembering where it lives, loyalty being tested, betrayal discovered, mercy being wasted and survival meeting rage with discipline. It is DevilDriver groove wearing new scars.
‘Dig Your Own Grave’ is not so much an opener as the first shovel in the dirt. Fafara has framed the track around one wrong move, the kind made with too much nerve and not enough thought, and the realisation that follows when there is nobody left to blame. The riffing is all forward pressure; the drums keep the thing moving with ugly purpose and Fafara sounds less like he is warning someone than already watching the consequences arrive.
There is also something satisfying about knowing ‘Dig Your Own Grave’ was one of Mangold’s first major shots at writing for DevilDriver. It matters because it does not sound like someone trying to impress from the outside. It sounds like someone walking into the shed, picking up the right tool and knowing exactly where to swing. The solo work gives the track a spark without turning it shiny, and the whole thing lands as a statement of intent from a lineup that clearly knows what the name on the front demands.
‘Dead In The Water’ follows like the mercy was not respected. If ‘Dig Your Own Grave’ is the mistake, this is what happens when the lesson gets ignored. The groove is still planted firmly in DevilDriver’s old hunting ground, but the guitars are cutting wider shapes around it. Lee and Mangold are not just thickening the wall. They are carving movement into it, letting the track lurch, snap and snarl without losing that shoulder-first momentum. Mangold is pure gold here, bringing enough flash and filth to stop the song from becoming a straight-line beating.
‘Sanctified In Scars’ is where the album starts letting smoke into the room. It is still ugly and muscular, but there is a colder texture creeping through it. The industrial pulse and darker atmosphere make the track feel like the record has stopped swinging wildly and started staring instead.
The title track plants itself exactly where it should. No mystery. No apology. No decorative little detour. ‘Strike And Kill’ locks into that familiar DevilDriver shove and makes the album title feel less like a phrase and more like an instruction. After hearing Fafara talk about the last five years, the health scares, the people who vanished when things were ugly, and the fight-or-flight headspace behind this album, the track lands less like chest-beating and more like a man drawing a line in the dirt with his boot.
The middle of the record is where ‘Strike And Kill’ proves it is not just one long clenched fist. ‘In The Moonlight’ lets shadow and melody through the cracks, but it does not soften the blow. It also makes sense once Fafara talks about embracing the goth side of where he comes from, only filtered through DevilDriver’s own dirt and teeth. The melody is being used like a bruise, not a sweetener.
‘Ride Or Die’ puts the foot back down and gives the album one of its most immediate bursts of movement, while ‘Headed For The Fall’ starts bending the floor underneath it with a more off-kilter attack. ‘Shut The Silence On’ brings the thrashier teeth, pushing the record back toward speed without losing the groove that keeps DevilDriver grounded in their own lane.
That is where the album works best. It is not trying to trick anyone into thinking this is a different beast. It knows the shape of its own jaw. The difference is in the way this lineup bites down. Perez is not just keeping time. He is driving the songs from underneath, kicking at their ribs and keeping the album from sagging when the writing moves into more familiar territory.
‘Never Coming Home’ gives the back half a little more melodic reach before ‘Summoning Shadows’ turns the lights down. It is the closest thing here to a breather, but it is not relief. The cleaner opening feels more like standing in the quiet after a fight, waiting to see whether the other body is getting back up. When the weight returns, it lands with more emotional pull because the song has actually allowed some air into the room first.
‘You’re Just A Ghost’ is the late-album shadow piece, all haunted corners and sharper angles. It gives the record one of its more interesting detours without wandering too far from the fence line. By the time ‘Oath Of Iron’ and ‘All Bets Are Off’ are closing in, Strike And Kill is not searching for a grand emotional exit. It is leaving the same way it arrived: shoulders squared, teeth showing and no real interest in asking permission.
The album does not completely escape familiar DevilDriver patterns, and it does not need pretending otherwise. There are moments where longtime listeners will know exactly where the next stomp is going to land. But that familiarity feels more like muscle memory than laziness. The riffs move like machinery with a temper, the drums chase the songs forward, and the production is clean enough to hit hard without washing the dirt from under the nails.
Fafara is the constant, as always, but Strike And Kill does not feel like a frontman dragging a band behind him. It feels like a band bracing around him and giving that voice somewhere nastier to live. He sounds seasoned, not softened, and there is a difference. The years are in there, but so is the spit.
There is a real human ugliness to the record, in the best possible way. Not ugly as in careless. Ugly as in hungry. Ugly as in someone choosing discomfort over coasting. Ugly as in sleeping on the floor, starving the comfort out of the body, chasing the voice into a place where the songs demand more than a tidy performance. That is the difference here. Strike And Kill does not just sound energetic. It sounds like it had to be dragged out of the gut.
Strike And Kill is not asking to be admired from a safe distance. It wants volume, sweat, bad decisions and enough room for your shoulders to start moving before your brain catches up. It is DevilDriver doing what DevilDriver do best: not reinventing the blade, just making sure it still cuts. It does not arrive shiny. It arrives armed.
Order DevilDriver’s new album STRIKE AND KILL here: https://lnk.to/DevilDriver-StrikeAndKill/napalmmrecords
