REVAMP — Wild Card (review)

Album · 2013 · Progressive Metal

4/5 · 2013-08-25
arcane-beautiful

This album really is an interesting focal point of conversation, especially in today's metal world.

Now for those who don't know, Revamp are a band formed by former After Forever vocalist, Floor Jansen. Now ever since After Forever sadly broke up a few years ago, Floor's been keeping herself busy. From forming this band, doing guest vocals for Ayreon & Devin Townsend Project and (ahem) fronting Nightwish. What! Yes, that's right.

Ever since the departure of Annette Olson from Nightwish, Floor kindly has stepped in as a touring vocalist. Now, it has been debatable about this whole situation if Floor is actually good enough for Nightwish, and I think this album not only proves it, but makes her far superior than the band itself.

To say this album is a concept album is a bit of an overstatement, but the album certainly does have an overlying theme. The lyrics all deal with the different aspects of mental illness, mental breakdowns, split personalities and a lot of other crazy stuff. Musically the album is pretty much the standard prog metal, with some pretty interesting almost djenty musical bits at times.

One of the biggest changes in the music and in Floor's vocals styles is her new introduction to grunting and growling. Whenever I heard about Floor's grunts I was a bit sceptical, but then when ever I heard them, I was impressed. I admit it, she's no Angela Gossow, but this is only an additive of her vocals, so overall, I'm pretty impressed. In fact, the vocals in general are a pretty much the highlight of the whole album.

One of the most interesting moments on the album has to be the “Anatomy Of A Nervous Breakdown” song cycle. The opener to the album “On The Sideline”, which is also the first single is one of the bests songs these guys have made. With some absolutely insane vocals from Floor, it really is a highlight on this album. The second part “The Limbic System” is one of the more 'progressive' moments on the album, with a lot of interesting twists and turns throughout. The third part “Neurasthenia” is a vocal battle between Floor and Devin Townsend. Now, to try and outmatch Devin Townsend is usually laughable when tried, but Floor completely overshadows him...now that's impressive.

The album's title track could have been a possible single. A brilliant vocal performance from Floor too. “Misery's No Crime” is an interesting vocal battle between Floor and old band mate Mark Jensen. With Floor taking a back seat on the grunting, Mark opens the track off like a gorilla on heat before Floor matches it with some brilliant vocals.

In conclusion, this album proves that Floor is definitely one of the biggest talents in metal today. Nightwish better be lucky that Floor has been nice enough to lend her vocal duties in the band and if she was kind enough to join the band as a full time member. Whatever these guys

8/10

more than 2 years ago
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arcane-beautiful wrote:

more than 2 years ago

i didnt mean to was an accident. i keep on doing that. damn copy and paste. and i wasnt too keen on the debut album either, but I have always been a fan of Floor cause of her amazing voice.

adg211288 wrote:

more than 2 years ago

Nice write-up (not sure you meant to cut it off so abruptly though?). I listened to this one day and it really surprised me, since I wasn't keen on the debut album. Easily the album I've been waiting for from Floor Jansen.