3 out of 5

Label: Acerbic Noise Development

Producer: Matt Jeansonne

Harumph man, I was looking forward to Devil and The Sea’s full-length after their short ‘Demo’ delivered straight forward metal gold.  ‘Heart’ is a good album, absolutely worthy of pumping into your ears, it just lacks the punch of ‘Demo,’ and with the expanded scope and production, the group tries to pull off some in-song tricks – tempo changes, mostly – that they frankly miss by one or two beats, giving the songs a slightly dodgy feel.  I’m also all for experimentation, but if you’re going to put it on an album as an actual track (not a hidden track or something), then it should have a place within the context of the album, and the rumbling extra-length last track ‘Abra’ feels, for better or worse, like space filler than a composition, even though there are random bursts of drum fills and vocals.  ‘Demo’ had this sort of watery production style that really let the slow cymbal crashes ring out, and with most of the EP rocked out at a snail’s pace, the warmth of the sound was a plus.  Things have been sharpened up a bit for ‘Heart’ but it’s to the band’s detriment, I feel, as guitars and bass shift forward in order to discern some of the interplay going on, leaving the lower range drumming intact (it helps that the drummer sounds like he’s beating the shit out of his kit) but any brass smashes (or whatever allow cymbals are made out of) sorta get lost…  And our vocal experimentation is gone, sticking mostly to a throaty howl.  Just one more: the sequencing that worked so well on ‘Demo’ – super slow lead-ins to explosions of noise, to a quicker song, back to slow… well, until finally bringing it all back with the amazing penultimate 15-minute Heart vs. Spine, a lot of tracks try to reverse the formula by starting with quicker riffs and then slowing down, but it just doesn’t hit as well.

WOW SO NEGATIVE, RIGHT?  But the thing to realize is that I had expectations.  Because this really is a solid album of rock, and DatS compositions have matured – as the re-recorded ‘Monolith’ shows, with some added breakdowns tossed in there – but it seems like the group would’ve needed one album beyond this to nail the formula.  Otherwise, this is typical of AND’s output, great metal that has a tough time moving beyond average.