HEAVY MUSIC HISTORY: The Fury Of Our Maker’s Hand – DevilDriver
If you’d told anyone who attended COAL CHAMBER‘s ill-fated Texas gig in 2002, that Dez Fafara would be an iconic figure in less than three years, they’d have laughed in your face. April 17th was the night that tensions between him and guitarist Miguel ‘Meegs’ Rascón reached boiling point and the band imploded in a horrible public spectacle. The two men had allegedly been fighting before even taking the stage, they didn’t finish playing the first song before coming to blows, and the gig ended abruptly with Dez storming offstage and the drum kit being destroyed.
In the wake of this disaster, COAL CHAMBER managed to get through a US summer tour, but the writing was on the wall. Creative differences and drug abuse had all contributed to the demise of a band who had once been a powerful force, and when Dez Fafara announced that he was forming a new project named DEATHRIDE, the reaction from the wider heavy music scene could best be described as a shrug. Hardly anyone was interested in gimmicky bands in silly outfits in late 2002, and the guy who once sang “me loco, me loco,” looked like he was desperately trying to cling to relevance. Instead, he completely reinvented his legacy and built one of the most in-demand bands of the mid-2000’s.
Due to trouble securing a copyright, DEATHRIDE soon changed their name to DEVILDRIVER and Dez hit the road, alongside drummer John Boecklin, bassist Jon Miller, and guitarists Evan Pitts and Jeff Kendrick. Only a few short years beforehand, he’d been playing on big stages to thousands of people but he was back to square one, travelling in cramped vans and performing at tiny venues that were often half empty. This would understandably have been demoralising, but he stubbornly dug his heels in and committed to the grind, and DEVILDRIVER played anywhere and everywhere they were allowed to plug the amps in.
And over time, this approach gradually paid off. The reception was tepid at first, but people started noticing that DEVILDRIVER weren’t COAL CHAMBER 2.0, but something nastier, heavier, and more authentic. They were playing in jeans and t-shirts instead of elaborate costumes and any trace of nu-metal was gone, the focus now was on a purer strain of groove metal. But even so, the early days were rough. When they toured as a support act for OPETH, there were reports of audiences turning their backs on them and it was hard to shake off the preconceptions that followed Dez around. The release of their self-titled debut proved that DEVILDRIVER had more in common with PANTERA than KORN, but they were struggling. The one glimmer of hope was the small but vocal contingent of supporters arguing their case online.
Things changed drastically in the summer of 2005. Their second album The Fury Of Our Maker’s Hand was a landmark release and by the end of the year, DEVILDRIVER were no longer begging for scraps but sat at the head of the table. It arrived on June 28th and sold 10,142 copies in the United States during the first week, a relatively small figure when compared to COAL CHAMBER’s record sales, but there was one significant difference. This time, the critics were on Dez’s side. Even the most popular COAL CHAMBER records received mixed reviews, but the reaction to The Fury Of Our Maker’s Hand was largely positive. Allmusic for instance, claimed that DEVILDRIVER “made their true debut the second time around” and there was a genuine sense of excitement about them.
Listen to the record now and there’s a noticeable leap in progress from the debut. The self-titled is decent enough, but it’s left in the dust by the charisma and confidence of The Fury Of Our Maker’s Hand. The eerie opening melodies lead into a string of killer tracks, with Driving Down The Darkness, Hold Back The Day, Sin And Sacrifice, and Ripped Apart being flawlessly executed slices of almost-death metal. Dez had long claimed to be a fan of the more extreme ends of heavy music, and for the first time, his love of black metal and hardcore punk was only too apparent. DEVILDRIVER were a groove metal act whose influences included the likes of SATYRICON and BLACK FLAG, and you could hear that on the neck-wrecking, pit-igniting likes of Pale Horse Apocalypse and the furious Just Run.
It wasn’t flawless, and some of their more knuckle-headed machismo has aged (Grinfucked is a rare misstep), but for the most part, The Fury Of Our Maker’s Hand was where DEVILDRIVER found their feet, then proceeded to use said feet to kick the naysayers in the testicles. It might not have set the billboard charts ablaze, but word of mouth led to some very healthy long-term sales and a growing respect for a man who hadn’t enjoyed the strongest reputation in the preceding years.
This was best reflected in how they were received at the 2006 incarnation of Download Festival. That was the year that METALLICA played Master Of Puppets in full, and TOOL headlined for the first time, but over on the second stage DEVILDRIVER came close to stealing the weekend. Dez’s opening remarks of “let’s not see any of that karate shit” won him cheers from the gathered throng and for thirty minutes, they turned the packed tent into a dusty, sweaty mosh and capped it off with the biggest circle pit of the festival. Later in the day, he filled in for a sick Jonathan Davies and performed Coming Undone with KORN, then on the Sunday they cemented their reputation by filling in for a last-minute cancellation from SOILWORK and performing a second set. DEVILDRIVER hadn’t just played two of the best shows of the weekend, they’d established themselves as a reliable, “break glass in case of emergency” band.
In the years since, DEVILDRIVER’s career has ebbed and flowed. The immediate follow-up – 2007’s The Last Kind Words – is just as good, if not better, than The Fury Of Our Maker’s Hand and saw them embracing melodeath with astonishing results. Their fanbase seems split on which is the better record and frankly, if you revisit Distorted Sound two years from now, you may well find a Heavy Music History feature on that one too. Their latter work hasn’t fared as well, with line-up changes and a COAL CHAMBER reunion often stalling their momentum. There is an argument to be made that 2016’s Trust No One was a proper return to form, but The Fury Of Our Maker’s Hand is where DEVILDRIVER truly came into their own. And considering their story begins with one of the more maligned nu-metal bands having a humiliating public melt down, it’s impressive that their frontman didn’t just redeem himself, but thrived.
The Fury Of Our Maker’s Hand was originally released on June 28th, 2005 via Roadrunner Records.
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