MetalKaos review of "Fate is Your Muse"; Devil To Pay - Fate Is Your Muse (CD, Ripple Music, 2013) How many times have you heard of a Stoner/Sludge-oriented album and been stuck to it due to the vocal melodies? I know, every stonerhead out there is looking for the heaviest of the heavy guitars, some monolithic fuzzy riffs that will clean out his breath between the munchies. Truth is that there aren’t many bands able to give the proper attention to the vocal lines, giving all the heft to the riff-crafting, and (at least) for this reason Indiana’s DEVIL TO PAY deserve our total respect. I still remember the best of impressions I had from the band’s debut, “Thirty Pieces Of Silver” back in 2004 and I was kinda worried whether they would return in discography with a brand new work, after 2009’s “Heavily Ever After”, knowing how busy Steve Janiak is in his APOSTLE OF SOLITUDE guitar-duties. But here it is! “Fate Is Your Muse”, delivered by Ripple Music’s excellency, marks DEVIL TO PAY’s fourth studio effort that I believe is the most technical, experimenting and soul-depositor than everything these guys had released so far. Sure, having in a solid album 12 bone-crushing compositions is quite a big thing (since nowadays the majority of this genre’s bands comes clean with 8-track albums), so I have to take my hat off to their ability to create a solid Rock record exceeding the previously set high quality standards. From the album’s aggressive opener “Prepare To Die” till the Doom-tuned “Beyond The Ether”, you’ll deal with head-banging Stoner-laden riffs, kickass hard-hitting drumming (hail Chad!), and on top of everything, Steve’s essential Grunge-like vocals who definitely sounds like Josh Homme in fluoxetine (prozac) due to his deep timbre and his very expressional reading, channeling all the esoteric slow-burning anger he probably feels. In case you have spotted some KYUSS-driven references in “Ten Lizardmen & One Pocketknife” or have enjoyed yourselves with the QOTSA-tongued refrain of “Already Dead”, you’re damn right, and I guess you already know that despite the numerous listening sessions you gave to “Fate Is Your Muse”, it was worth it, since most of the times a difficult to digest album (meaning not being that catchy from the first listening) can easily be enlisted as ‘the creation of a genius’ album. I remember how happy I felt listening to the news of DEVIL TO PAY’s joining with Ripple Music and “Fate Is Your Muse” (really, they couldn’t find more fitting title to name this album!) is the solid proof, meeting my (and their fans’) expectations. I really feel I can’t recommend this enough to the Stoner Rock/Metal heads out there, so press the ‘play’ button below and feel free to treat yourselves of this little sample of how Indiana does it these days. Doomsday Is Coming!!! 8/10 Written by Maria Voutiriadou Saturday, 30 March 2013 07:45