Plagues — The Devil Wears Prada

The Devil Wears Prada's Plagues came out on Rise Records on 21 August 2007, with Ferret Music handling the UK release. It's ten tracks and runs thirty-seven minutes forty-eight seconds. The band recorded it from late 2006 into early 2007 at The Foundation Recording Studios in Connersville, Indiana. Joey Sturgis produced, engineered, mixed and mastered it, and MusicBrainz credits the band as co-producers. Mike Hranica did the unclean vocals, and Jeremy DePoyster played rhythm guitar and sang clean. Chris Rubey played lead guitar and also designed the original booklet. Andy Trick played bass, James Baney played keyboards and piano, and Daniel Williams played drums. Craig Owens of Chiodos guests on "You Can't Spell 'Crap' Without 'C'," and Cole Wallace of Gwen Stacy is listed too. The title points to the plagues in Revelation.

It peaked at No. 57 on the Billboard 200 in the week of 8 September 2007, and it went on to sell about thirty thousand more copies than their debut, Dear Love: A Beautiful Discord. An October 2008 digipak reissue added DVD footage from Warped Tour and the Ultimatour, along with the official videos for Hey John and HTML Rulez. Here's how the songs run. Goats on a Boat, Number Three, Never Forget, HTML Rulez D00d, Hey John, What's Your Name Again?, Don't Dink and Drance, You Can't Spell "Crap" Without "C", This Song Is Called, Reptar, King of the Ozone, The Scorpion Deathlock and Nickels Is Money Too. It's the Dayton, Ohio band's second album, and like the debut, they made it with Sturgis in Connersville.

Who they were in 2007

In 2007 they were a Christian metalcore band from Dayton on Rise, and they didn't hide it. You can hear the faith in the lyrics, but it's rough around the edges, not Sunday-best. Cross Rhythms later described them as Christian hard music rising fast out of Ohio.

What the critics keep saying about this album

AbsolutePunk gave it 80%, a strong score. Jesus Freak Hideout liked it too, and AllMusic was mixed.

Scott Fryberger reviewed it for Jesus Freak Hideout on 28 August 2007. He opened with a joke about Anne Hathaway and then got down to business. He found the vocals a little sloppy early on but well done from there, ranging from high shrieks and deep growls to melodic harmonies. He heard metalcore and life metal with a hint of emo, songs that refuse the usual verse-chorus shape, and catchy, sometimes funny titles. He heard the futility of life without God on HTML Rulez D00d, with its "mountains composed of tombstones," and on Hey John, with "it's all of nothing." He heard self-loathing on Reptar, in "composing our funeral songs note by note." God rarely gets named outright, but he heard a real passion for people's souls on Number Three, Never Forget, with "Come back to your faith, come back to grace." He finished by saying hardcore fans would keep coming back to it, and fans of Norma Jean and As I Lay Dying would love it.

AllMusic's Eduardo Rivadavia was tougher. He said the young six-piece had sold plenty of Dear Love and saw no reason to change their spastic screamo and metalcore formula. He heard Number Three and Hey John pitting downtuned brutality against soaring harmonies, with growled or clean vocals, but said they tried nothing Norma Jean, Haste the Day and the synth-heavy Still Remains hadn't already done more thoroughly. The post-emo fad of silly titles that have nothing to do with the songs got on his nerves, like "HTML Rulez D00d," "Don't Dink and Drance" and "Nickels Is Money Too," as if scripture wasn't misleading enough. He said You Can't Spell "Crap" Without "C" gets a ringing endorsement from Owens and still sounds less profound than "'C' Is for Cookie." His points about the formula and the silly titles are a fair counterweight.

JoshIVM at Indie Vision Music reviewed it on 18 November 2007. He heard better production and more coherent songwriting, almost a year after the debut. He called Goats on a Boat the highlight, a Norma Jean-style mix of highs and lows that breaks into a gallop, with bass drops, breakdowns, deathly keys and a huge harmonised chorus. He said Hranica's range from high to low is a joy, and that Reptar and Don't Dink have some of the best breakdowns on the record. He heard You Can't Spell and This Song Is Called as more melodic without losing any intensity. The weak spot, he said, is how alike the songs sound if you listen to a lot of metalcore. He gave it 9 out of 10, called it an awesome second album and definitely not a slump, and picked Hey John and Don't Dink as standouts.

Sputnikmusic criticised the heavy sections and Hranica's vocals but praised the melodic keys.

Four tracks from this LP

Hey John, What's Your Name Again? got an official video from Rise Records, and it leads off the videos. It later became downloadable content for Rock Band. Fryberger pointed to its "kings and queens" and "all of nothing" lines, IVM named it a standout, and Rivadavia used it as an example of the formula.

HTML Rulez D00d got an official video from Rise Records too, and it's on the 2008 reissue DVD. It has the spiderwebs and tombstones lines Fryberger heard as being about faith, and it came out for Rock Band as well.

Number Three, Never Forget has the line about coming back to faith and grace that Fryberger quoted, and Rivadavia picked it as his other typical track. It's the faith at the heart of the album, and it doesn't go soft.

Don't Dink and Drance is an IVM standout packed with breakdowns. It's also one of the silly titles Rivadavia complained about, but it still hits.

After those four, you've got You Can't Spell "Crap" Without "C," This Song Is Called and Reptar to dig into. Set Rivadavia's point about the formula and AbsolutePunk's 80% next to what Fryberger and IVM heard, and you get a fair picture.

What the room sounded like in 2007

Sturgis' sessions at The Foundation in Connersville put the Dayton band on a Rise album, with Baney's horror-movie keys and Hranica and DePoyster trading vocals, and nobody smoothed them into soft Christian pop. The videos for Hey John and HTML Rulez are still fun to watch. The facts on record are a No. 57 chart peak and about thirty thousand more sales than the debut. It isn't an arena legend. It's the second album that made The Devil Wears Prada, and critics still argue over it, with AbsolutePunk at 80% and IVM at 9 against Rivadavia's complaints about the formula.

The score

My score is an 8/10.

What keeps it from a nine? Rivadavia pointed out that they didn't change the formula and complained about the silly titles, Sputnik didn't like the heavy parts or Hranica's vocals, and even IVM's 9 admits the songs sound alike. What keeps it above a seven? AbsolutePunk's 80%, Fryberger putting them alongside Norma Jean and As I Lay Dying, IVM's praise for Goats on a Boat and its 9, the No. 57 chart peak, the videos for Hey John and HTML Rulez, and the faith in Number Three. All of that still stands up nearly twenty years on. It's the Rise album that made them, with Sturgis in Connersville, even if it's not perfect.

Where this album sits on Loud Faith

Christian metalcore on Rise in 2007 was pulling in kids by the vanload. It meant the studio in Connersville, Myspace video premieres, Warped Tour DVD extras, and kids who wanted breakdowns and belief on the same CD. Plagues is The Devil Wears Prada's second album. AbsolutePunk gave it 80%, Fryberger dug into its faith, Rivadavia called it formulaic, and IVM loved Goats on a Boat and Hey John. If you only hear one, make it Hey John.