For twenty years, The Devil Wears Prada have met life at its sharpest edges.
Staring down everything from faith and doubt to depression and overcoming whilst shapeshifting between jagged heaviness and aching melody, the Ohio metalcore heavyweights have long been defined by their dynamicity.
That push-and-pull soars through the band’s ninth album ‘Flowers’, a record that processes grief, weathers struggle and ultimately finds new ways to heal. Its foundations taking shape in a quiet corner of Arkansas back in 2024 and completed alongside a tight circle of collaborators, ‘Flowers’ brings a bold creative leap, notching up even more fresh milestones two decades into their story.
Documenting the soaring highs and brutal lows, it’s an album that reckons with what it means to be human in the rawest way. Guided by vivid emotion and driven by the same stark candour and authenticity that has always pushed them forwards, The Devil Wears Prada are on the edge of another defiant chapter.
From the lyrical poetry of their earliest days to the unflinchingly raw songwriting that dominates their recent work, we sat down with Jeremy DePoyster to look back on ten lyrics that map the band’s evolution.
“I’m going to hope for you // I’m going to pray for you amongst the reckless and the black // Salvation lies within // I’m going to hope for you // I’m going to pray for you amongst the reckless and the black // My time is yours my friend” ‘Hey John, What’s Your Name Again?’, ‘Plagues’ (2007)
“Oh yeah, the Christian years… we’re going all the way back! That lyric is just about… it was such a preachy album. ‘Plagues’ was kind of telling people what to do, and I think this was more of an optimistic lyric – saying that in all the darkness that exists, I’m gonna hope for you.”
“This is the faith complex // Try not to write another disappointing letter to integrity // Only go faster when you’ve stopped and thought // Only go slower when you’ve learned of wisdom” ‘Sassafras’, ‘With Roots Above And Branches Below’ (2009)
“I’m trying to remember what Mike [Hranica, co-vocalist] was saying when he wrote that. I think that song is sort of a juxtaposition – having been in the machine for a while – and a bit of disenchantment with what we’d seen inside that machine, if that makes sense.”
“The sun and the moon // You’ll always take them for granted // What’s delicate is lost // As the selfish forget what is sacred // The humble forgot themselves” ‘Danger: Wildman’, ‘With Roots Above And Branches Below’ (2009)
“I won’t lie, I have no idea what this one means, so I’m just gonna say – how poetic is Mike Hranica?! That’s gonna be my quote for that one. It’s a beautiful line.”
“Blessed be those who have no idols” ‘Born To Lose’, ‘Dead Throne’ (2011)
“I feel like this record – and the next, ‘8:18’ – was when most of the band was no longer Christian. We’d come out of our hillbilly era, after growning up in rural America, and we’d seen the world by then. Mike was building his own version of what that faith meant before it finally went away. The whole concept of ‘Dead Throne’ is putting all your things in the wrong place – idolatry and whatnot. This line is basically us going against the glorification we were seeing. This was around 2010, after years of Warped Tour, huge crowds, people idolising us, and we were like, ‘We’re just dudes.’ Coming out of hardcore scenes where that stuff was different, suddenly feeling like pop stars was uncomfortable.”
“The blood that binds pours through you // Blinded eyes soon black and blue” ‘Black & Blue’, ‘8:18’ (2013)
“I remember Mike writing that in a hotel room in Portland, Oregon. I have no idea what it means – maybe it’s about being bonded with people… and having your eyes punched out. Mike’s gonna be like, ‘Dude…’ and think I’m an even bigger idiot than he thought when he reads this!”
“Push me ‘til the very end // This life was all but over when // All of my friends found their graves // Now use me ‘til there’s nothing left // Then shoot me with your medicine // So I can’t feel any more pain // I’m numb to this place” ‘Numb’, ‘The Act’ (2019)
“It’s kind of self-explanatory, but it also feels like a precursor to ‘Color Decay’ and now ‘Flowers’. All the chase and the high of trying to make this into something has slowed down. We’ve been in the band a whole lifetime now, so there’s more time to reflect on adult emotions. It’s basically saying, ‘Do whatever you want to me. I’m numb. I don’t care anymore.’”
“Some days I think I’m afraid of my shadow // I show up to fight at all the wrong battles // And I don’t think my mind will be right ‘til I // Pour the salt into the wound” ‘Salt’, ‘Color Decay’ (2022)
“That line is about the feeling when you do something really stupid and think, ‘Why do I keep doing this?’ It’s thinking everyone else is doing things the right way and you just… can’t. It’s about when there’s someone saying to you, ‘You can’t do anything the right way.’ You’re holding your hands up and saying, ‘Just pour it in, man. You’re right. Salt the wound, it’s already bad enough.’ It’s a happy one. Real optimistic…”
“It felt like a dream but now it’s over // The best of me has found some closure // Run it back inside my head // Been a week since I said // Goodbye to who I used to be // I hate what this did to me // I fall back on what I know // That same place where the flowers never grow” ‘Where The Flowers Never Grow’, ‘Flowers’ (2025)
“That song’s about a conceptual place in your mind that’s deserted and barren – no life can grow there. It’s the pits of depression and anxiety; the bleak parts of existence. It’s the first song on the record, and it was designed that way, introducing the idea that this is what the record is about. It’s about the place I’ve been stuck in since I got home from the best show of my life. The high is gone, and now I have to deal with this.”
“When the ice thawed // We set our sights to the north // The center of the sun for all that it’s worth // We went all out” ‘All Out’, ‘Flowers’ (2025)
“Mike wrote all of this one. It’s about a relationship with someone we both know from our past, feeling like everything was aligned, and then the betrayal of that. The concept is basically, ‘Really? I thought we were doing this together, and we’re clearly not.’ After he wrote it, he read it back and was like, ‘I don’t know why I wrote that, I just did.’”
“Drown ourselves in the routine // Comfort in conformity // Know your future // Give up your dreams” ‘Ritual’, ‘Flowers’ (2025)
“‘Ritual’, and that line particularly, is about the cliché that if you just go along with what you’re supposed to do, everything will be fine. It’s a myth, and it’s not fine at all. You have to forge your own path. It’s almost like an Orwellian, dystopian computer voice saying, ‘Give up on your dreams.’ It even speaks to some online communities and comment sections that go, ‘Oh, you want to do something new? No, you’re useless. Just recreate the same thing over and over for my pleasure.’ It’s like, no, we’re human beings with different wants and needs.”
The Devil Wears Prada’s latest album ‘Flowers’ arrives on November 14.
