Where to start? Brand New have certainly changed a lot since their first album, "Your Favourite Weapon", which is being re-released for it's 10th anniversary this year. Switching their sound away from the pop-punk based two albums, "Sowing Season (Yeah)" builds up from a nice slow acoustic track into a massive rock song which lead singer Jesse Lacey almost building up to a scream in some parts. That's the thing with Brand New, you can never really tell what's gonna happen next. The transition from the hard "Sowing Season" into the weird "Millstone" which is a mid tempo rock track with Jesse's voice really being at the forefront.

The wonderful "Jesus" slowly kicks in and then builds up gradually, vocally, that is, with the instrumentation staying pretty much constant throughout the whole track, excluding a lovely 2/3 second silent break. Other bands would use this to make a song explode and really hit you in the face, but that is way too obvious for Brand New, with the music coming back in just as slow and soft as before the break. It's the little things like this that really make the band stand out. "Degausser" is a fun listen, another great build up and some great lyrics, carrying on quite a lot of religious imagery that is obvious throughout the album.

The next song, "Limousine (MS Rebridge)" is very interesting, and even feels like it could be split into sections. Of course, this was probably on purpose as the song tells the horrific story of a 7 year old girl who was hit by a drunk driver on the way back from being the flower girl at her parents wedding, from a few different points of view. The last verse counts up to 7 ("1, I loved you so much, but do me a favour, baby, don't reply") and is extremely, extremely powerful.

"You Won't Know" is another powerful song starting slow, building up to a fast middle section and slowing down again to end. It's followed by the first of two instrumentals on the album, "Welcome to Bangkok" which starts acoustically and builds into a full band affair, being the perfect intro to the more typical rock song "Not the Sun", but of course the band can't rest just playing a straight up rock song, so there's a lovely unexpected tempo change during the bridge. "Luca" then starts off acoustically and features perhaps the least expected outro on the album with Jesse screaming "where've you been?" "-" is the second instrumental and is a guitar melody with some strange voice repeating "I can never love you, I can never reach you."

It feels like the perfect intro to my personal favourite, "The Archers' Bows Have Broken", which starts with a snare roll, which is actually the base of the drumbeat for the whole song. Everything on this track is spectacular, the vocals are stunning, and even though they have been throughout, this song really shows the emotion in Jesse's voice and some lovely melody guitar in the chorus really backs it up. The song has a real live vibe to it and feels like something you'd love to scream along to at a gig. The album ends with the dark acoustic song "Handcuffs" which even features a string section. It's a very fitting end, and definitely fits the theme of darkness shown throughout the album.

All in all, The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me is a wonderful rock album, beautifully crafted and lyrically genius.