DEVILDRIVER‘s music video for the song “Wishing” can be seen below. The track is taken from the band’s recently announced double album, “Dealing With Demons”. The first volume — titled “Dealing With Demons I” — drops on October 9 via Napalm Records and marks the California metallers’ first release of new, original material since 2016’s acclaimed “Trust No One”. Representing the onset of a final purging of the themes that have long possessed frontman Dez Fafara and DEVILDRIVER‘s music, each track on “Dealing With Demons I” illustrates a different demon to be dealt with or released.
As “Dealing With Demons I” explores the purging of a different demon per track, “Wishing” illustrates the theme of loss — more specifically, wishing a loved one would return. The clean vocals sung on “Wishing” mark Fafara‘s first in DEVILDRIVER history, harking back to his goth roots. Influences of BAUHAUS, SISTERS OF MERCY and more can be heard in Dez‘s brooding vocal delivery on the verses, while a heavy chorus punches with raw emotion as he screams, “wishing you were with me right now!”
The dreamlike official music video for “Wishing” — the band’s most surreal visual yet — places each member of DEVILDRIVER in a nightmarish state, trying to physically reach their loved ones just to have them disappear once they’ve nearly grasped them. Echoing the lyrical themes of the track itself, Dez and his bandmates experience this loss again and again down an eerie rabbit hole, surrounded by faceless beings and distorted imagery.
The footage seen in the “Wishing” video was filmed in separate locations by each band member, with social distancing practiced as a top priority. The finished product was directed by Vicente Cordero of Industrialism Films.
“Dealing With Demons I” showcases the supreme form of the band — Dez, guitarists Mike Spreitzer and Tiemann, drummer Austin D’Amond and bassist Diego Ibarra. This isn’t just some of the most vicious DEVILDRIVER material to date, but some of their most lethally memorable too. Co-produced by Steve Evetts and Spreitzer, it’s a triumph for teamwork and tenacity.
Fafara said about the band’s writing and recording process: “I said to the guys, ‘If we just met today, what kind of music would we make? How would we stand the test of time, stand apart from others and stand above the competition? Let’s not focus on the past sound. Instead let’s kick into the future together.'”
With new milestones like Fafara‘s eerie verses on “Wishing”, “Dealing With Demons I” ferociously delivers the goods while kicking open several new doors for DEVILDRIVER to power through in the future. It’s a vital and violent clearing of the emotional decks, but it’s also powerful evidence that Dez and his bandmates have given DEVILDRIVER a volatile, visceral kick in the ass. Demons are getting dealt with in the harshest of manners.
Fafara added: “It’s time to lay it all out, on two records. I’m never gonna revisit these subjects again. I’ve been writing about this sort of human nature, disloyalty and dishonesty, love and loss, since the beginning of my career. I am going in a more lyrically woke direction in the future. A lot of people say my music gives them strength. But what they don’t realize is that these topics haunt me. Over the course of these last few years we fled from wildfires, my wife battled cancer and now we are going through a pandemic… so it is what it is… let’s dump it all on the table and purge. I want to go through different topics in the future, so here we are now. I’ve laid it all out on a double record for all of you to hear.”
This is just the beginning – fans should be prepared for the onslaught of what is to come with the impending second volume of the double album, which promises to go even harder. This is a two-part acceleration into the future — after witnessing “Dealing With Demons I”, listeners will be clamoring for the second half.
Dez added about the upcoming remainder of the “Dealing With Demons” saga: “Volume two will get into some very heavy topics as well. You’ll see the band progress even further musically as we finish this ode to the purge of all things demonic.”
“Dealing With Demons I” track listing:
01. Keep Away From Me
02. Vengeance Is Clear
03. Nest Of Vipers
04. Iona
05. Wishing
06. You Give Me A Reason To Drink (feat. Simon Blade Fafara)
07. Witches
08. Dealing With Demons
09. The Damned Don’t Cry
10. Scars Me Forever
