Devildriver - The Fury of our Maker's Hand

I have kind of dug Devildriver from the get go (and there goes any credibility I have doesn't it!). I always perceived this bands mixture of black/death/speed metal with Dez Fafara's Coal Chamber like vocals to be perfect introduction to the heavier (nee better) side of metal to the Hot Topic crowd. There was some seriously kick ass songs on the first record, and their follow up, the 'The Fury of our Makers Hand' continues in that vein. Nothing original here, you can almost make a came out of picking out the references, but competent none the less. Production is handled by veteran knob twiddler Colin Richardson and sounds every bit of it, clear and polished. And I think that's were some of the problem lies. The band sounds too clean, and comes across exactly like a band being marketed to the Hot Topic kids. They're trying so hard to be credible and heavy and underground, wearing their influences on the sleeves, but there is nothing threatening here. Heck, I listened to this with my mom in the car and even she didn't mind. The second problem is with Dez. God, someone shut this guy up every so often please! It's the Dani Filth dilemma here; namely the band is going to get its recognition from who the vocalist is but Dez (and Dani) insist on trying to 'sing' on 80's of the songs length. The songs need breathing room and their not afforded it. There are some killer riffs here but this record seems less cohesive than the previous one.