peacedogman.com review of 'Cash is King'

It's safe to say that anyone who's landed on Peacedogman and is reading this article right now is enjoying this current resurgence of rock as much as we are. So for a band that encompasses the spirit of the new rock resurgence, look no further than Indianapolis' DEVIL TO PAY. After conquering their own local scene and receiving rave reviews for their debut album "Thirty Pieces of Silver", they're back with a killer platter of plastic called "Cash is King" that showcases everything that rock should be: heavy, tight, dirty, dark and dangerous.

From the first track "Kill Everything", one thing is crystal clear: these guys have balls. Vocalist Steve Janiak is truly something special, and his soulful style mixed with gruff screams is a wonder to behold-man, check out those screams in the chorus of that first song! The guitars are C-tuned but manage to steer clear of muddiness, and the perfect amount of fuzzy distortion gives them a sound that's both classic and modern at the same time. The riffs themselves reinforce the marriage of old and new, rivaling anything HELMET or FIREBALL MINISTRY could come up with. Throughout the album, the mood switches seamlessly between the upbeat fist pumpers ("Born to Rue", southern-fried "The Bottom Line") to the brooding grinders ("Shake Hands with Death", "Belial") to somewhere in between ("Swallow the Fish", "A King's Bounty") and back again. As an added bonus, there's the whole forbidding, slightly arcane feel this guys give off with song titles like "Little Horns", "Over the Coals" and "Niflheim". Still, these tight, rockin' riffs are for everyone, and bring to mind other PDM modern rock heroes like PRIESTESS, AUTOMAG or THE ILLUMINATI. The most important thing is that by the time the 1 hour and 10 minutes of this CD are up, the listener will feel that they got their money's worth, and that's all we ask for around here. So just pick this one up already, because DEVIL TO PAY is due to cash in some well deserved success sooner than later.