In the first months of 2009, The Devil Wears Prada entered the studio with producer Joey Sturgis to record their third full length album and Ferret Music debut, With Roots Above And Branches Below.
Alternative Press regarded the upcoming album one of the most anticipated albums of 2009. “With Roots Above And Branches Below is going to be much more mature, I know that’s cliché and it’s what everyone says, but we’ve really grown as songwriters.” Hranica commented. “It’s going to be a heavier record as a whole. There are songs on the new album that are heavier than anything we’ve ever written. Joey (Sturgis) was able to do a lot more with the album as well; you’ll find lots of orchestral add-ins on the record, the production quality on this record is really special.” Hranica continued about the new album, “Vocally, the album is much beefier. The way we recorded the album, Jeremy (DePoyster) and I were both able to put more time into it, and the songs came out with much more emotion in the vocals. Lyrically, I’ve always had the same idea in my head; all of our songs are about tragedy, life, the real world, and God. I’m pretty excited about the lyrics on this album. Every Christian band has songs about God and ‘come to God, God is good’. I took a different approach and I have written songs for this record about people that have come to God and are struggling now to keep their faith and need help.”
The Devil Wears Prada’s music is possessed of equal parts slithering metal riffage meshed with plush rock passages, peppered with a barrage of synth sounds and harsh to melodic vocals. Their attack is complicated further with unexpected twists and turns in composition, larger melodies and a more focused aggression. DePoyster adds, “Everything in our sound is an evolution of what we’ve done before. If you liked our previous material, you’ll enjoy what we are doing now. I don’t feel
like there is as big of a gap in between this record and Plagues as there was between Plagues and Dear Love, but our sound has become massive.”
Although the band’s inspiration for their name was from the eponymous novel, The Devil Wears Prada, Hranica states about the band’s name, “It’s the same concept as our lyrics ‘emeralds hold no hope’ and many many others. What we believe it to mean is that possessions don’t matter at all and someday everyone will realize that this is true. When standing before God, He won’t care about your sweet Prada scarf or Gucci shoes or whatever. It’s a Christian reasoning for the name, we didn’t name it to attempt at being fashionable or whatever.
The Devil Wears Prada, formed in 2005 in Dayton, Ohio, started out riding high on Rise Records, releasing Dear Love: A Beautiful Discord which scanned over 50,000 copies and Plagues which has sold over 100,000 copies. In 2008, right before embarking on the Van’s Warped Tour, The Devil Wears Prada announced their signing with Ferret.
The band composed of Jeremy DePoyster (guitar/vocals), Daniel Williams (drums), Mike Hranica (vocals), Chris Rubey (guitar), Andy Trick (bass) and James Baney (keys) has been incredibly busy since the release of Plagues, including headlining multiple tours in the US and internationally and have also been featured on multiple festivals worldwide.
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