The latest platter of poppy hard rock & prog from New York band 3 once again sees the group delivering catchy, memorable songs with just enough sprinkling of adventurous instrumentation & crunch to keep things insteresting. Lead singer and acoustic guitar player Joey Eppard is basically the star of the show these days; not only is his layers of guitar work impressive on all levels, but his vocals are completely addicting. He's quickly becoming the Dave Matthews of this genre, and on Revisions he more than shines, at times completely overshadowing the rest of the band. Much of Revisions are re-workings of older & unreleased songs, apparently a 'goodbye' to Metal Blade as they walk into their new arrangement with Roadrunner.
Tunes like "Rabid Animals", "Anyone Human", and "The Better Half of Me" are all melodic, hummable fare, kicked up with some tight rhythms, layers of acoustic & electric guitars, and a sprinkling of keyboards. In a perfect world, any of these tunes would and should be played on FM radio. The mix of pop and hard rock on "Automobile" offers up plenty of heartfelt moments, and tunes such as "Fable" and " The Emerald Undertow" reach equally into 3's bag of prog & AOR tricks. The main problem here is that the band did a good job of reeling in plenty of progressive rock fans with their releases Wake Pig and The End Is Begun, but they've taken a step back into more pop flavored material here on Revisions. No matter how good this material might be, the drastic change is going to certainly turn off some listeners who fell under the band's spell on the last few releases.
Hopefully the band gets into some more serious and challenging material once again on their Roadrunner debut. In the meantime, take a listen to their Metal Blade swan song; it's enjoyable, but just don't go expecting the high standards they set on their last two releases.
Track Listing
1. Anyone Human
2. Rabid Animals
3. The Better Half Of Me
4. Automobile
5. Why
6. Lexicon Of Extremism
7. Fable
8. You've Been Shot
9. Halloween
10. The Emerald Undertow
11. The Game
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