Ahead of Saturday's home opener, the New Jersey Devils announced a brand new goal song. The song is called "Devils Rule" by Rich Andruska. For those of you with more than a finger on the pulse of the Devils online community, you may have heard about it or even the track from his Soundcloud. Today, it was confirmed to be official. They even put up on the team's official site with an appropriate video. Here it is:
Personally, the song's pretty good. Even if I'm still sort of expecting Adam Rose and/or a menagerie of party-goers in various costumes to appear at the Rock. The song is a little similar to his WWE theme and his original NXT theme, in fact. (Hm, maybe they should've licensed that last one?) That was my initial reaction.
I think it is an improvement over last year's goal song: Seven Nation Army by The White Stripes. It's a massive improvement over the other two songs the organization claimed fans voted for this time last season. It's an upbeat tune with plenty of elements from Rock and Roll Part 2, such as a straight forward beat and a good riff. The idea of a goal song isn't to come up with something particularly deep in meaning or incredibly complex. It's supposed to get everyone up and excited and I think this does that. I especially like that it was an original composed by a local fan of the team. As mockable as the Our Hated Rivals' goal song is called (I call it "Golf in May"), it's something original.
However, it is not perfect. Clearly, management wanted to cram a "Let's Go Devils" in there. As if no Devils fan knows to do that on their own away from any song or cue from the PA. To their credit, they actually got fans to do it. It's still not really necessary. The song doesn't need a bridge like that. My only concern is whether someone decides to blast the song to drown out the crowd as they've done with Seven Nation Army last season. If not, then it won't be as big of a deal.
I will credit Andruska for writing a song that also appeals to the fans who like to yell "You suck" after a goal. It will fit in perfectly after the "Whoo's." It's like a surrogate "Hey!" So I'm really looking forward to that on Saturday. Hopefully, multiple times. Hopefully, so many times that management will learn that accepting the crowd acting like, you know, a legitimate crowd having fun is more important than their "brand." People remember atmosphere in addition to the game; a quiet crowd being
By the way, no, I will not fan-police here. For the amount of money people pay for tickets (a price that I fear went up this season), I'm not going to tell them how to celebrate. You want to boo the song? Go for it. Want to cheer for it? Go right ahead. Think it's silly to yell "You suck?" Then you're free to stay quiet. Want to scream it at the top of your lungs? Better that than bellowing "SHOOOOOOT" during the run of play. If anything, I'd rather have 17,200 or (whatever the new capacity number being claimed for the arena) people scream "You suck" then getting compliments, usually online, for cheering in a "classy" by way of being quiet and boring. No disrespect to those of you who do that, but I'm not paying that much money to shut up and/or consider the feelings of those who want to make my favorite team lose in front of my eyes. But I will admit that I'm classless.
As one last aside, I'm more curious what an unofficial song would be like. Fortunately, Joey Southside of The Banner and others are on this. I may be the only one, but I'm looking forward to that song. I'm expecting something heavier than Dainius Zubrus crashing into the corner. And, somehow, a breakdown.
Anyway, as far as a new song goes, I think it's pretty good. Let's see how it plays out. What do you think of it? Is this something you can get into? If not, what would be something you can get into and why? Will this last? Please leave your answers and other thoughts in the comments