DevilDriver

LIKE ITS PREDECESSOR, DEALING WITH DEMONS VOL. II IS AN ALL-OUT WAR OF GUN-TURRET TREMOLO PICKING AND DARKLY ANTHEMIC CHORUSES

- Gregory Adams

WHEN DEVILDRIVER FINALLY got back on the road this past March — following a three-and-a-half-year absence reflective of the pandemic and vocalist Dez Farfara’s near-deadly bout with Covid — lead guitarist Mike Spreitzer got to take his number one guitar out of its case for the first time in ages. Spreitzer is quick to point out he was still shredding at home, but when it comes to his drastically angular ESP V, some things just aren’t built for riffing on the couch.

“They’re not the most comfortable shape to play sitting down,” Spreitzer says with a laugh, confessing that ESP Eclipses are his go-tos in those cases, this also extending to the guitar pool he turned to while tracking DevilDriver’s bombastically grooved Dealing with Demons Vol. I