The Devil's Heir

In my "journey" through the music I dial up every so often I find myself gravitating toward bands of a certain type.  Its not because I am a music snob, it has to do with the list I have created based on suggestions people give me or contacts I have made.  What I find is so interesting is the quality of music I have been hearing and more importantly I find that its music that YOU listen to.  When I found the band "The Devil's Heir", I was really happy that they were on that list.

My night started like every night (or every night I am able to write about this stuff) where I sought out my list and subsequently found  myself staring at a band named "The Devil's Heir".  I have preached many times about the importance of band name and how the name should fit the type of music they play and was I surprised when I realized that "The Devil's Heir" is a country band.  No its not, its a thrash band (did you really think that a band with that name would be singing Hank Williams, Sr. songs) and judging by the name, it could get really fun.

As I opened the Pandora's Box of music that is YouTube in search of the band I fell across some live video that had been shot at one of their shows.  I watched the video for a song called "Penetrator" and my interest was piqued.  As I wandered about their "Reverbnation" page I soon found six studio recorded songs including the aforementioned "Penetrator".  I began fumbling through each song to try to get a precursory feel for them before I would listen to them more in depth.

As the song "Sonic Poison" began to play I was struck by how much the band sounded like a band named M.O.D. (Method Of Destruction) but I soon moved to another song (#1 Fan) and it too sounded much like M.O.D..  So when I got to the song "Brainless Coward", I noticed similarities to another band, D.R.I. (Dirty Rotten Imbeciles or another band using initials) so I went back to listen to "Sonic Poison" throughout, six times.

What is striking about "Sonic Poison" really is how much the vocals sound like the M.O.D. frontman, Billy Milano.  It was easy for me to interchange the two sets of vocals and the music reminded me of "Testament", but despite the interchangeable parts I really was struck by the lyrics.  The lyrics were not as easily exchanged but they did fit vocally (meaning the voice fit the part).

With the song #1 Fan, I found myself stuck in the M.O.D. dynamic and once again the vocals struck a resemblance to those of Mr. Milano.  The similarities were striking and they felt so much alike, it was almost like the music was written by (or for) Milano.

With the song "Brainless Coward", the mood changed and it was out with M.O.D. and in with D.R.I. (D.R.I. is one of my all time favorite bands).  Despite the vocal twinges of Milano interspersed with the musical feel of D.R.I. the song was kind of campy but really a whole mess of fun.

This band is something of a conundrum for me, musically they are very, very talented (vocally too) but the more I listened to them the more glaring the comparisons were.  Its odd because I love those other two bands (plus the other two bands I heard with the remaining two songs, Slayer and Green Jelly) but the comparisons came back hot and heavy, each and every time I listened.  I have no qualms by telling you to give this band some interest, I think they are amazing musicians and you should give them a look.