The Devil Wears Prada have been one of the most consistent acts in metalcore for almost their entire career. Their willingness and ability to experiment and evolve their sound in different directions while still maintaining a core sound that feels iconically TDWP truly sets them apart from the masses of core groups of their era. Most from back in the late noughties have either fallen off the grid entirely, or diverted their sounds in ways that have been met with varying degrees of praise or criticism. The group’s consistency not only in keeping a solid sonic identity, but also of quality throughout their many eras (despite a constantly shifting lineup) have earned them their place as one of the genre’s most beloved acts; and I don’t think I’ve seen any release from the group light up the eyes of current and former scene kids quite like 2010’s iconic Zombie EP.
Containing easily the most crushingly heavy music The Devil Wears Prada have ever penned, the original EP is a well-aged staple of the genre—and one from a time in which many of its releases have tended to stagnate. Many assumed that the brutally heavy nature of Zombie was a one-and-done deal. The band have always carried elements of that brutality with them throughout their many releases, but have never quite hit that level of pure blinding aggression for an entire release since.
So here we are, almost 11 years on, and much to the (welcome) surprise of TDWP fans old and new, the band announced ZII: a follow-up to the iconic EP that promises to be “the heaviest music of [the band’s] career.”
When news first broke of the EP’s release, I tempered my expectations. A promised follow-up to a release that marked the heaviest music of the band’s career, hot off the heels of what is arguably the band’s ‘softest’ affair to date with 2019’s The Act (though ‘soft’ is highly subjective, the record contained one of the band’s more aggressive tracks to date with “The Thread”), I kept my expectations in check. That was until the teaser for the release’s first single, “Termination” was released. Dissonant, chugging guitars; Mike Hranica’s signature scream. It felt like 2010 again.
The track fiercely opens with chugging guitars and frantic drums, swapping between these equally crushing standard time and triplet patterns to create this nostalgically chaotic feeling right off the bat, while further demonstrating how creative the band can be with this sound now (and really showing off drummer Giuseppe Capolupo’s chops). The song’s massive chorus features mainstay vocalists Mike Hranica and Jeremy DePoyster trading off screams and cleans (akin to the chorus of their 2016 album’s title track, “Transit Blues“) before heading back into their track’s more stripped back and emotive verses. The track ends with the exact moment that was initially teased; with Hranica screaming with his iconic timbre over the best mallcore breakdown you’ve ever heard.
It at times feels like a well-earned throwback. But despite that, “Termination,” more than anything, feels less like an outright callback, but rather the perfect marriage of the sounds of Zombie and their more recent, more experimental bodies of work. The crushing dissonance, the blast beats, the piercing screams; but also their tasteful and reserved use of electronic elements. Be that through their gorgeous ambient synth work, their use of pedals to create a strange dynamic with the abrasive vocals in the verses, the band’s experimental production chops found on The Act are here in full force—and they’re a welcome addition to the group’s arsenal. Despite being a throwback to the more straightforward days of metalcore, “Termination” is anything but straightforward. Sure, the obnoxiously heavy breakdown at the ends certainly exudes a very nostalgically 2010 metalcore energy; but the rest of the song truly feels like an evolution of that sound, maturing it and giving it new life through all of the new songwriting and production chops they’ve developed over the past decade.
If this track is anything to go by, then ZII will be sure to go down in history as one of The Devil Wears Prada’s laundry list of beloved projects. Check back in May for our full review of the EP, and for all things TDWP and music in general, keep it locked on Boolin Tunes.
ZII is due for release on May 21st via Solid State. You can find the official artwork and track listing below, and you can pre-order the EP & buy tickets for their ZII Undeadstream virtual concert here.
TRACKLIST:
1. Nightfall
2. Forlorn
3. Termination
4. Nora
5. Contagion