Review: Jack the Joker – The Devil to Pay in the Backlands

Style: Progressive metal (mixed vocals, mostly clean)
Recommended for fans of: Symphony X, Angra, Haken
Country: Brazil
Release date: 22 August 2025

In 1956, João Guimarães Rosa published The Devil to Pay in the Backlands. Credited with pioneering a uniquely neologistic form of Brazilian Portuguese, the novel became a cornerstone of the country’s literary canon. It chronicles an existential journey through Brazil’s harsh sertão (backcountry), an intractable landscape dotted with thorny, scrubby vegetation. It’s here that Brazilian prog metal outfit Jack the Joker have found a name and inspiration for their second album. Their Devil to Pay in the Backlands charts a different kind of passage through forbidding territory: an intrepid trek across tangled time signatures, dense riffs, and meandering solos. Have Jack the Joker blazed a fresh trail through prog’s wilderness, or merely lost themselves among its thickets?

Clearly traceable to the same family tree that leads from bands like Symphony X and Dream Theater down to Haken or Nospūn, Jack the Joker’s core of quirky prog metal is densely rhythmic and surprisingly heavy. The Devil to Pay in the Backlands wastes no time on preamble, as it bursts from the opening seconds with gallivanting Haken-esque guitars and whippy bass. In terms of instrumental prowess, Jack the Joker could go toe-to-toe with many modern prog bands. The zigzagging incidental divertissements of the guitars and keyboard are more about the journey than the destination, scuttering across lightning-quick runs and frenzied flourishes—like the noodly guitar solo at 3:30 of “Between the Sky Lines”—with no concern for finding a finish line. Not to be outdone by the rest of the band, the boffo bass performance by Gustavo Pinheiro zings with a djent-y slant. It’s irrepressibly rhythmic and breathless, whether jackhammering away in “Between the Sky Lines” or tearing off on a punchy solo in “Sun”.

Vocalist Raphael Joer limberly foils the zany prog maneuverings of his instrumental counterparts with a labile clean tenor timbre. His growls, though underused, are roundly trenchant and add considerably to some of the sneakily heavy moments on The Devil to Pay in the Backlands (the opening of “Thousand Witnesses” is a good example). However, less successful is the transitional zone between Joer’s clean and harsh vocals. It gives the impression that he’s straining too hard to sound tough and gravelly, which leaves me really wishing he would clear his throat.

If the vocals only occasionally reach their fullest potential, the band’s engagement with their Brazilian heritage feels similarly tentative. Unlike their countrymen in Angra or Sepultura, Jack the Joker don’t incorporate direct instrumental or melodic influences from traditional Brazilian styles outside a few moments (mostly nestled in the album’s back half; “Thousand Witnesses” and “Saudade” have a few). Rather, those influences are reflected more subtly in the rhythmic underpinnings inspired by the danceable Brazilian beats of maracatu, baião, and more. Embracing those influences more openly could give Jack the Joker a clearer identity within the modern prog landscape. 

Concision seems not to be a virtue rated highly by Jack the Joker. Neither the album title nor the album itself are particularly succinct: The Devil to Pay in the Backlands clocks in at sixty-seven minutes. While the momentum never drops and there are no particular clunkers on the track list, I still think the album’s midsection could do with some toning. However impressive, an hour-plus of technical mastery can never outdo the taut cogency that comes when a band is willing to leave several of its favourite riffs on the cutting-room floor. 

Though the path is sometimes overgrown, The Devil to Pay in the Backlands is a trek worth taking, and Jack the Joker prove themselves to be capable navigators of prog’s trickiest terrain. If they can wield a sharper machete to hack down the runtime, a more generous hand with the traditional Brazilian influences, and get vocalist Joer to hock that loogie that’s stuck in his throat, a third outing from the band could reconcile their technical chops with the focus and execution needed to rival their peers. For now, the backlands remain dense—but promising.

Recommended tracks: Sun, Thousand Witnesses, Hope
You may also like: Nospūn, Turbulence, Need, Maestrick
Final verdict: 6.5/10

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Label: Frontiers Music – Bandcamp | Facebook | Official Website

Jack the Joker is:
– Raphael Joer (vocals)
– Felipe Facó (guitar)
– Lucas Colares (guitar)
– Gustavo Pinheiro (bass)
– Vicente Ferreira (drums, percussion)