Band : Device

Album title : Obstacles And Playgrounds

Label : Lockjaw

Distributor : Progressive Publicity

Release date : 31/03/2008

Release : CD

Having honed their skills as musicians in several kinds of bands in and around Milton Keynes (a town in the Northampton county, some 30 kms away from Northampton city in the direction of London), the members of this British act came together due to their common love for stupidly loud guitars, long hair, and Rock music, in the Summer of 2007. Well, actually drummer Richard "Bud" Clark joined singer/ guitarist Joe Ray Greenal , guitarist/ singer Nick Fisher , and bassist Daniel McGrath in 2006 to form the current dream-team.

As the band puts it, the first year of their existence was spent writing songs, gigging, and strengthening the band's internal relationships and commitments. Then, in September of 2006, the band was offerered a sponsorship, which was exactly what the guys needed to take out time to finish writing the material needed for their album, then rehearsing tirelessly until they felt confident enough to go record the album at Cornwall's Sawmills Studios (where some of the band's favourite bands like Muse and Idlewild had recorded before them) during February 2007. I've been trying to find out whether the band might've self-released the album on their own effort before they hooked up with Lockjaw in January 2008, but the band's own website deviceuk.com is currently off-line for up-dating purposes.

Having played in different kinds of bands means the guys are influenced by a wide array of Rock music from the sixties to today. However, on their Myspace page the band limits this to the likes of (in alphabetical order) At The Drive In , Biffy Clyro , Death From Above 1979 , Fugazi , Idlewild , Kyuss , Led Zeppelin , Muse , Placebo , Queens Of The Stone Age , Rage Against The Machine , and The Mars Volta . In other words: they play a somewhat Heavy Rock with Progressive tendencies and a certain content of Emo (also evident in the lyrics) coming through in the dual vocal delivery. Check it out for yourself by surfing to myspace.com/deviceuk, where you'll find mp3-files to no less than 5 songs off the album. In my own opinion, album closer "Whilst We're On The Subject" is not only the longest track, but also their Opus Magnum on the album. Noth that the other songs aren't equally well-written and executed, but the instrumental passage in said song certainly gives it an extra allure. I ain't sure which songs will be posted when yoù will be checking, because since I got the album, the guys have already jumbled the available songs around somewhat...but if the above mentioned bands are of your liking I recommend you to check these guys out!

Their album's material (10 tracks totalling just over 53 minutes of listening time) probably needs some attention to get into, but once dó get hooked, you're caught "hook, line, and sinker", as the saying goes! Great album.

90/100

Tony.