REVERENCE – Foreverence

REVERENCE – Foreverence
Label(s):
Razar Ice Records
Released Year:
2017
Type:
EP
Tracklist:
1. Foreverence2. Fire Lord3. Phoenix Rising4. New Order5. Last Flight6. Sleep7. When Darkness Calls (Live)8. The Price You Pay (Live)

Due to the fact that US Metal releases of good quality come once in a million these days, the appearance at the forefront of any US Metal band playing in the right way and even releasing albums is not just news but a major event.

Things are simple: whenever such an album appears, we simply have to stop doing what we’re doing and fall with our faces down in a listening / analyzing session to comprehend what we’re dealing with. I don’t know about you, but from the very first moment I heard the first notes from the new Reverence album, I’ve entered this kind of process.

I’ll start with the basics: Scott Oliva. If you have even the slightest connection with ‘steel’ forged in the right continent, then your radars immediately turn on because the name of the gods Inner Strength immediately comes to mind. Now, if you are a true devotee to the genre, the fan boy you hide deep inside will be instantly activated and other names will pop into mind, like Wind Wrath (both of the albums they released were amazing), Last Vision Black etc…

To cut a long story short, that voice… That voice, that angel’s voice is now permanently included in the Reverence lineup, substituting NOTORIOUS (capital lettering is intended) Todd Michael Hall, who mastered the vocals in the previous two Reverence releases, who rocketed Riot V with his vocal talents, who gifted his vocal mastery to Jack Starr’s Burning Star. Yes, I am basically referring to the last three record albums of the latter, from 2009 onwards. It’s nice to analyze the names, but what does it matter in front of the absolute INNER STRENGTH vocal tone, in front of this out-of-this-world interpretation, which at times approaches in a very lyrical way paranoia itself? This unique voice recorded the new material on the current Reverence album.

Since we’re talking about names, we should mention that Mr Bryan Holland was once a part of Tokyo Blade, while Steve “Doc” Wacholz served as the main drummer of Savatage from the Avatar period to 1995. If you search the lineup, you’ll see that all the members of the band have participated in numerous other bands with success.

Of course, none of the aforementioned matter, if Reverence hadn’t released this great album. Yes, I’m referring to “Forevermore”. I didn’t expect anything average, like anyone who is familiar with the band’s two previous records and EP. US Metal of the best quality, massive sounds, rhythms that carry you away. It looks that Helstar school straight in the eye, however it elaborates more on the riffs. It will bring in mind Glory of the ‘Astronomica’ era, but having taken full care of that part of Metal Church that corresponds to two simple words with which the whole subjects begins and ends: US Metal.

It is logical in all of this rhythmic war machine that Oliva finds space to stretch his vocal talent. Either creating lyric contrast, or rocketing each piece to the clouds with an aggressive but not philistine way. US Metal made for headbanging. In a few words.

The entire album is dedicated to Peter Rossi, the guitarist of the band that left last March. Perhaps this may justify in a sense the charged emotion that exists in every composition here. Just listen to “Last Flight” the band wrote it for him.

Anyway, I’ve already wrote a lot. We have a private – I know you like private, me too – US Metal release of the best quality. No more thought.

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I breathe for music. And I am more than sure that my mission in this universe is to make everybody agree that "Awaken The Guardian" by FATES WARNING is the best album ever released, yes in all musical genres. My next mission is to feed homeless cats and when I am not busy with all this stuff I listen to US Prog / Power and Epic Doom Metal. And I cast spells in rituals in order to awake the old ones. After my subscription to the "Happy Otters" team on Facebook.
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