"Wearing my Full Devil Jacket again/Keeps me safe in sin…"
- "Full Devil Jacket"
The banks of the Mississippi are awash with tales of good and evil, sin and salvation,
choices between darkness or light. On their self-titled debut album, full devil jacket’s
monstrously heavy sound brings forth images of the region, a swampy undercurrent
permeating their edgy vocals and music. "A lot of people think there’s a psychedelic,
voodoo vibe in what we do," says guitarist Jonathan Montoya. "The result of some deal
between good and evil."
"Heavy metal" and "aggro rock" don’t begin to do justice to the dark-hued, often unearthly
vortex of sound that these five musicians from Jackson, Tennessee, create. A
jackhammer rhythm section and torrents of thick guitars establish a formidable backdrop
for the vocals of Mississippi-born singer Josh Brown, whose wrath-fueled voice is capable
of summoning both heaven and hell.
Brown’s lyrics deal with spiritual issues – he is unafraid to face his demons, question sin
and temptation, and deal with the darker, seedier side of life. "The songs deal with drugs,
relationships, childhood – all the basic themes of life and how we deal with them every
day," says the moody, mysterious singer. "Everything either comes from personal
experience or things I grew up around." Whatever his inspiration, Brown’s emotionally
wrenching vocals perfectly complement the twisting musical fury and pounding,
hard-edged grooves that instantly place his band at the forefront of heavy rock’s new
school.
full devil jacket began life in 1995 when Foster and Reaves were planning a new project
and needed a guitar player. After connecting with bass player Bebout, they completed the
lineup with Brown and Montoya and full devil jacket was born. Local shows in front of
fanatical audiences led to demo recordings, a management deal, and a "local artist" slot at
the WXTB Livestock festival in Tampa, which caught the attention of Island Records.
The band’s first high-profile gig outside the South, an appearance on the "Emerging
Artists" stage at Woodstock ’99, stopped the crowd dead in their tracks, turning them into
a packed, chaotic, completely converted audience. Similar experiences occurred on last
summer’s Warped Tour.
Then on October 5th, the world got its first recorded taste of full devil jacket on a
five-song EP titled A Wax Box To Put Your Frankenstein Heads In. The track "Stain"
landed airplay in major markets like Tampa, Denver, Phoenix, Detroit, Orlando, Boston,
Milwaukee, Minneapolis, St. Louis and Miami, with the accompanying video being shown
on MTV’s "120 Minutes." full devil jacket was also handpicked by Megadeth to appear on
an Extra Value CD that came with the first 100,000 copies of the most recent Megadeth
album, Risk. But all this was just a prelude to the full-on revelation of their first full-length
album, which takes the basic sound established on A Wax Box… to the next level.
There’s still plenty of crunching, powerfully heavy grooves and frighteningly intense vocals
on hand, but songs like "Monster" and "Where Did You Go" add new layers of texture,
melody, and depth to the band’s sound.
"We picked up right where we left off with the EP, which was more hardcore," says
Brown about the new disc. "The album stretches out and shows all sides of the band. We
took the music in every direction possible. We went from slow, melodic tunes, to real, real
heavy tunes. It’s a little bit more mature. We accomplished our goals. I can listen to this
album and know that every single note and every single word that was put into that album
was real, and done with heart and grit."
After playing 80 shows with over 70,000 people in attendance, Brown says that the band’s
first taste of national touring last fall helped focus their musical attack even more. "So far,
the response has been awesome. We’ve learned a lot about personal endurance, played
for everything from 15 people to 1500 people, and it’s all been one incredible experience.
Playing music every night is a gift in itself, and when you give a crowd love and they give
it back, that’s the best in the world." Performing many times and selling the Wax Box EP
at each show is building full devil jacket’s fan base, setting the stage for the March debut.
The band is on the road again in 2000, having landed the coveted opening slot of the Type
O Negative/Coal Chamber tour.
full devil jacket has also contributed songs to the soundtracks of Scream 3 (which has
already sold over 500,000 units and includes music by Powerman 5000, Static-X, and
Godsmack) and Heavy Metal 2000 (out in April), and there’s more touring on the horizon
as well. "I’ve been all over America in the last four months," concludes Brown. "Everyone
out there is a slave to their own life. If there’s one thing I’d like to do with my music, it’s
to free somebody else from the chains that society has put on their minds. That’s part of
our mission."
Prepare yourself…
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