Album Review: The Devil Wears Prada - 'Dead & Alive'

After releasing arguably one of their most successful and strongest albums to date, 'Dead Throne,' The Devil Wears Prada have decided to offer a live package of both audio and visual to give people an idea of what they are like in the flesh. As one of the front-runners in the metalcore genre due to their experimental approach, the band have more than proved their talents on a recording, now they are showing that they can back it up in real life.

Filmed on the Dead Throne tour in Worcester, Massachusetts, the DVD features a live concert as well as some behind-the-scenes footage. The main problem however was the decision to film the final show of the tour, which has clearly taken its toll on vocalist Mike Hranica. Musically the band are near flawless but the countless nights of screaming have clearly effected the vocalists performance, at times reducing his scream to mere talking.

While ‘Dead Throne’ obviously dominates most of the play-list, older numbers such as 'Hey John, What’s Your Name Again' and 'Dogs Can Grow Beards All Over' are approached with the same enthusiasm and energy as the newer tracks. The recording quality is extremely good, as is the visual footage, capturing the chaos of the live show well and showing the band’s quick transition to larger stages.

The ‘live’ versions of the band’s catalogue really don’t differ much from their recorded forms, the one exception being 'Escape' from the ‘Zombie’ EP, which sounds particularly brutal live, but for the most part, things are as expected. This is both a good and a bad thing as it shows off the band’s precision-like musical abilities, but doesn’t create much excitement or a point of difference when listening to the audio disc.

It would have been good to see a little bit more behind-the-scenes footage as the parts that are included are fun and give a good insight to the individual band members and their touring life.

‘Dead & Alive’ is really just something for the fans, and not a good way to “get into” the band. It serves its purpose however and gives a clear snapshot into the live world of The Devil Wears Prada, whilst subtly demonstrating how far this band has really come.

1. Dead Throne

2. Untidaled

3. Escape

4. Sassafras

5. Born To Lose

6. Mammoth

7. Kansas

8. Hey John, What's Your Name Again?

9. Vengence

10. Outnumbered

11. Assistant To The Regional Manager

12. Dez Moines

13. Dogs Can Grow Beards All Over

14. Chicago

15. Constance

16. Danger: Wildman