I caught Deever at their first ever gig and I wasn’t overly enamoured. However, they did have to follow Anchor Lane and there aren’t many bands that can follow them and fail to be overshadowed. That said, I’m always willing to give a band another shot, mainly because I’m always on the lookout for that elusive band to prove me wrong. And Deever are the ones who managed it.
You Need This is one-part Motörhead, one-part Foo Fighters and stretched across their respective extremes. So expect heavy tracks to blast loud and rattle your fillings alongside melody-driven moments with choruses more catching than a winter vomiting bug. There’s a lot going on with the album, with many different styles at play. Yet somehow, Deever manage to corral it into a consistent form.
Whilst opening track “Fire at Will” leads you down the modern hard rock path and sets you up for an album full of that, follow-up song “All Come Running” ensures that any predisposition is quickly forgotten. The former may seem like it’s all been done before but Phil Appleton provides one of the chunkiest bass lines you’ll have ever heard that isn’t from Lemmy himself. Then there’s the chorus, you have to hand it to him, Billy Taylor knows how to write a song. The modern hard rock sound is revisited on “Alright” and “Only Enemy”, the latter full of gargantuan snarling riffs from Taylor and Stevie Stoker, but there’s more hooks in the pair of those songs than bands with several albums to their name can lay claim to.
Meanwhile, the afore-mentioned “All Come Running” leads you into Foo Fighters territory at their gnarliest whilst “Parachute” sees them continue that influence but in their more radio-friendly format. “We Are” is loaded with screams and crunching and squealing guitars to represent the more metal influences the band have. It’s continued with the poignant “Jim”, Taylor’s ode to his departed grandfather. The juxtaposition of the lyrics combined with the punchy riffs and soaring vocals condenses everything which makes Deever into one song: rock, metal, punk and slap a pop varnish on it and you’ve got one of their most infectious and hard rocking songs on the album.
However, closing song “I Am the Cavalry” proves Deever aren’t all about the riffs. Sure, there’s plenty in this song, too but this one’s about Dan Higgins’ drums. With its marching rhythm during the verses before transforming into a storm in the chorus, nothing has come this close to stampeding horses since “The Trooper”. Couple it with its uplifting lyrics about rising to meet your challenges and it’s a song most bands can only dream of having to close their album.
“Back Down”, with its headbang-inducing stomp, keeps things varied as its intro strays into early Muse territory (when they made good albums). “Waves” is full of moments for crowd participation despite it being one of the most frenetic songs on the album, gritty and spitting venom.
From start to finish, it’s obvious Deever have dedicated as much time as they can to make the best album they possibly can. You Need This is an album which gets better with every listen and once you’ve hit the play button on its opening track, you’re at the end before you know it. There’s an incredibly solid band here, every member pulling his weight and everything’s well mixed to make sure all four are heard equally. It may sound like there’s a lot going on within the album but it works. We’re not even three weeks into 2019 and we already have a contender for album of the year. If you even remotely call yourself a fan of modern rock, you need this album.
You Need This is released on 25th January
Deever: official | facebook | twitter | instagram | youtube | bigcartel
