Artist Profile

Full Devil Jacket

By Dan ⋅ July 4, 2008 ⋅  Email This Post ⋅  Print This Post ⋅ Post a comment

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Full Devil Jacket is another one of those bands in my arsenal from my days of blindly purchasing new music. It’s very rare that anyone on the other end of my music conversations has heard of these guys, even though they were signed to a major record label and toured with some several well-known bands. But I guess that’s just what happens when a band lasts only long enough to crank out one full length album.

If you research these guys online, you might find them referred to as a nu-metal band. I find this classification both wholly incorrect and insulting to the band. Aside from the fact that calling a band nu-metal is inevitably comparing said band to Limp Bizkit and/or Korn… Full Devil Jacket simply is not nu-metal, nor do they remind me of either of those bands. They do remind me of a unique twist of hard rock and metal. Perhaps that’s where the confusion came in. I might go so far as to compare them to early Staind. Full Devil Jacket is the direction I wished Staind had gone after their first (and not widely released) album, Tormented (1996). I definitely wouldn’t say Full Devil Jacket is metal for the elitist, but it’s still very good and accessible in a good way. The vocals are relatively strong and the band makes good use of snyths and effects without being tacky or cliché in the slightest. It’s just straight-up, good hard rock just heavy enough to be metal.

Unfortunately, Full Devil Jacket broke up without officially releasing anything beyond their self titled release in 2000. Apparently, their lead singer Josh Brown had a drug overdose and subsequently left the industry only to return years later with a Christian rock band, Day of Fire. One of the guitarists, Jonathan Montoya went on to join Saliva mid-tour and seemingly simultaneously with One Less Reason. Saliva never managed to capture my interest long enough to develop a desire to purchase anything, but then again, I haven’t heard any of their work since high school… maybe they’ve changed. I did just purchase One Less Reason’s Every Day Life (2006) late last night and I haven’t yet had a chance to form a developed opinion. But it’s passed the preliminaries and may warrant purchasing their newest release, A Lifetime Burning (2007). I would warn you that One Less Reason is not Full Devil Jacket and can’t really be compared. I would never have guessed there was a connection between the bands if I hadn’t written this post and coincidentally found one.

Tags: metal, rock