Reverence: When Darkness Calls

The SoT review's editor will be surprised to see this review, I'm meant to be on a two week break! However you know that feeling you have when you hear an album that totally blows you away, you just have to tell people about it, don't you? Well the debut album When Darkness Calls from Reverence is one such album - and one that is well worth interrupting any vacation for!

Now like the next guy who's addicted to music, in recent years I've bemoaned the amount of albums happy to retread old ideas, giving them a quick wipe over and presenting them as something new. However you know what? When it is done well, the results actually remind you why you fell in love with howling guitars, pulsating bass, hammering drums and screaming vocals in the first place. That said with a pedigree that finds the various members of Reverence having spent time with bands such as Crimson Glory, Burning Starr, Tokyo Blade and Savatage the fact that When Darkness Calls kicks some serious ass, is no surprise at all!

Dealing in traditional US power metal, in the style of say early Savatage, Vicious Rumors, or Metal Church, but with strong hints of Judas Priest and even a touch of George Lynch like rifferama, Reverence have set out to ROCK and ROCK they do! Right from the off it's clear that WDC is gonna be crammed with galloping riffs, squealing guitars, drums that ravage your senses and vocals that both hit the heights and satisfy with a gut ripping roar. Pick a track (any track) and you'll be knocked off your feet by songs that insist on being played at ground shaking volume. Whether that be the break-neck groove of "Monster", the oddly, but scintillatingly Celtic "Too Late", where the guitars spiral in a way that brings the Uilleann pipes to mind, or the Dio like snarl of "Revolution Rising", you'll be mesmerised by the scything guitars of Bryan Holland and Pete Rossi and the powerful expressive vocals from Todd Michael Hall. We all know however that this style of music needs a rock solid foundation from which to form itself and look no further than Ned Meloni's bass work and the powerhouse drumming of Steve Wacholz for proof that Reverence surpass expectations in this department as well.

In an age of never ending reissues it really is so damn refreshing to hear a band every bit as good as metal's glory days, who treat the genre with the (ahem) reverence it deserves. In fact there's simply no denying that When Darkness Calls is the real deal and put quite simply, I just can't get enough of it.

You may well be wondering why I've shied away from giving this album the much coveted Sea of Tranquility full marks. Well only because this is just the beginning for Reverence and there's nothing here to suggest that they won't get even stronger.

The best old school US power metal album I've heard this year and truth be told, by some distance!

Track Listing
1. When Darkness Calls
2. Bleed For Me
3. Phantom Road
4. Devil Disguise
5. Too Late
6. Gatekeeper
7. The Price You Pay
8. Monster
9. Revolution Rising
10. After The Leaves Have Fallen
11. Vengeance Is Mine

Added: July 26th 2012
Reviewer: Steven Reid
Score:
Related Link: Reverence Online
Hits: 3464
Language: english

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