London, England's Reverted have been around for about four years now. They are a borderline case, whether they are metal or hard rock. My scale weighs a bit more towards the former, due to guitar work.

Those metal guitar riffs come from the realms of stoner metal, crossover and heavy metal. They are pretty heavy-handedly played, but also open-string stuff that bring in lightness. The music is rather protean to tell the truth. The bass guitar is funky, meaning it's lively and comparable to Robert Trujillo more than Jason Newsted. This Metallica connection isn't totally irrelevant, because in a way, those metal/rock giants' spirit can be heard on several occasions here. Sometimes on the riffing, sometimes in the vocals, but not generally in songwriting zone. The drums are everywhere; there's not much of basic 4/4 rock beat to be heard. It sounds busy! The tempo changes are abound, as are weirder time signatures. So, I can hear echoes from other bands here, such as Black Label Society, Soundgarden and Tool.

The first 8 songs out of 12 are three to almost five minutes long. They are more or less speedy affairs that tends to bounce from part to part and back again. They aren't easy to digest due to their volatile nature. They got like great riffs and bits, but I really cannot find any red thread in some of them. For me, the nature of Reverted's music is such, that it goes in one ear, and out the other. It certainly needs focus from a listener, but I believe it can be rewarding.

However, 'Insanity' brings a huge change in songwriting style. It starts all calm and eerie with acoustics and strings, before entering distorted realms. It is more straight yet far from being boring or stagnating at any point. Think of something like Megadeth when they put 'In My Darkest Hour' between two mad thrashers! This Reverted song isn't anything like the Megadeth one, but I just mention it to demonstrate what kind of a change is heard here. In this case, the change lasts till the end. This darker aura suddenly, and surprisingly, came down. There's still variety between these longer and slower songs, though. 'Forsaken' is more acoutics-infused, beautiful song, while 'Stairs of Guilt' certainly reminds of Alice In Chains' gloominess.

The vocals are the biggest con for the band. Clean sung vocals don't have a big range, and therefore the vocal melodies are abstract or virtually non-existent. The main voice is like a mixture of James Hetfield and Corey Taylor (Slipknot, Stone Sour). It lacks of character. There are some screamed or even growled bits thrown in for some alteration.

The production is good all around. There's no lack of punch, plus instruments and vocals are well audible in the mix. The band isn't afraid to play with varying effects and sounds. I believe this album has, if not story-based, but at least conjunctive lyrical theme(s), so a lyrics booklet would have been a nice addition into the digipak.

I'm not sure, if Reverted are indecisive in what kind of songs to play, or then they just wanted to express different material here. This way, the album feels somewhat cloudy. But if you are looking for music with that WTF?!-element and like to listen to aforementioned bands, then Reverted might be a perfect find for you.

Rating: 5½ (out of 10) ratings explained

Reviewed by Lane
10/27/2015 12:49