Brand New have come a long way from the band who yelled “don’t apologise/I hope you choke and die” back in 2001. Their 2003 sophomore effort Deja Entendu saw them blitz into the music scene, reaching #63 on the Billboard charts that year. The maturity evident within Jesse Lacey’s heartfelt lyrics and the rest of the band’s layered and exquisite harmonies had fans and critics alike eating out of the palm of the young band’s hand, and, hand in hand with the release of nine album demos in January 2006, this meant that the release of the band’s third full-length The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me was most certainly one of the most anticipated of the last few years.

The album starts 15 seconds prior to what it may appear with a series of hidden phone calls and then blasts into the schizophrenic Sowing Season (Yeah), the first single from the release. The band’s literary influences are evident within the single, with lines from Rudyard Kipling’s If having been appropriated in several verses – proving, yet again, that Brand New’s roots lie deep within the jungles of classic literature. Alternating between eerily quiet and explosive, the single is only a taste of what TDAGARIM has to offer – longer, more epic songs which utilise unexpected dynamic shifts and random OK Computer-esque electronic sounds.

It’s also interesting, having heard the demos, to be able to pinpoint the band’s growth and development. Whereas the demos were both criticised and praised for the obvious Smiths allusions, this album has hints of an almost prog-rock influence – bands such as Explosions in the Sky and Sigur Rós are echoed in pieces such as Degausser and—, while the riffs in The Archers Bows Have Broken and Not the Sun reek of indie bands in the vein of Bloc Party and Death From Above 1979. Brand New ventures into new territory with completely instrumental pieces and does it pretty damn well.

Perhaps the standout tracks on the album are the brooding Jesus Christ, an almost evangelical number which showcases Lacey’s vocal development, and Limousine, an almost eight-minute requiem for a young girl killed in Long Island. The musicality of these tracks is vastly different from the Brand New we’ve become so accustomed to, and a sure sign that the band is continually developing and expanding their musical horizons. It’s also impossible to ignore the fact that one of the songs was penned entirely by guitarist Vin Accardi, and Handcuffs does not fail to disappoint either as the album’s grand finale.

The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me is indeed a change of direction for Brand New, but after the success of Deja Entendu it’s obvious that change isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Brand New have once again proved themselves as the little band that could – they can go anywhere from here.