If you didn’t have Christian metalcore on your top of the 2009 charts bingo card, you might be excused…but that gives you an idea of how eagerly awaited With Roots Above and Branches Below was, and how well it delivered the goods. Dayton band The Devil Wears Prada had built their audience through performing (most notably on the 2008 and 2009 Warped tours) and by some video airplay on MTV, but this release blew away everybody’s expectations, going to #11 on the Billboard Top 200 and commanding the #1 position on the Top Independent Albums, Top Hard Rock Albums, and Top Christian Albums charts. The key was, in the words of vocalist Daniel Hranica, their “darker, heavier, and more epic” sound, as crazed verses alternate with anthemic choruses to create a disorienting thrill ride of a record. Add to that the foreboding album art by noted heavy metal artist Daniel Seagrave, and With Roots Above and Branches Below lives up to its title, where up is down and down is up. Repressed just in time for the album's 15th anniversary, the ETR Exclusive vinyl variant is "Louder Than Thunder" Iridescent Blue, limited to 200 copies. The release also includes a printed inner sleeve featuring lyrics.