The debut EP from Uk-based blues rock outfit Revenant is out this coming Friday. I am not at all familiar with the band, but am always excited for more hard rock/blues music, especially local stuff, so just had to check it out!
‘Coming Back to Life’ opens the EP perfectly, with a heavy blues riff just dripping in swagger. The guitars drop out for the verse, replaced by the powerful, Blackberry Smoke-esque vocals. The bass and drums do a great job of keeping the stomping pace and feel up, and the pre builds to an awesome, catchy chorus. The harmonies on the vocals are awesome and add so much to the sound. We also get an absolutely amazing guitar solo tucked in the middle of the track, reminding me a lot of Slash’s style. It starts off slow and quickens as the instrumentation behind it gets more intense, which I LOVE. It’s an amazing song, and the perfect way to open this EP! It’s a track that easily jumps onto our playlist!
Similar vibes continue through ‘Draw the Lines’, another awesome riff and some great vocals. The verse is a touch heavier, the instruments playing between the vocal lines and sounding awesome. It all builds to another great pre and chorus, it giving off more AC/DC vibes than country at this point, though it does still have that twang. The closest comparison I can think of is actually another UK band, Sons of Liberty. That’s certainly not a bad thing, either! The bridge riff is heavy, simple awesomeness, and another great solo comes in over the top of it. It’s another amazing song!
‘The Healer’ slows things down pretty perfectly. It opens on just a clean guitar and the vocals, sounding awesome. The drums herald the coming of the rest of the instrumentation, it getting more distorted but staying slower and more ballady. And yet we still get another technically and sonically brilliant solo too. The guitaring has been a massive highlight on this EP, and that’s saying a lot given the quality of everything else. The chorus is massive too, something I can easily hear ringing out across huge festival crowds. And the lyrics here are incredible, my favourite on the release. It’s an awesome song, and another that easily makes it onto our playlist!
The heaviness returns with ‘The Masquerade’, an awesome bluesy riff made even better with some great use of the wah. The track follows a similar structure as the opening song, a very radio-friendly writing style that usually produces awesome results, like this! The call-and-response from the backing vocals in the chorus was awesome and will be a lot of fun live. The wah returns for the epic guitar solo, used perfectly enough that it would give Kirk Hammett a hard on. The whole song is awesome though, and yet another that sneaks onto our Spotify!
The closing track, ‘Rolling on my Back’, slows things down again. It opens much the same as ‘The Healer’, the great vocals over a clean guitar, slowly building more and more. This one is much slower build though, not kicking in really until the second chorus. I love the writing to it, the structure making it stand out to the other songs on the EP. And even then, it stays fairly simple and stripped-back all the way through, much more closely resembling an old-school blues track. It’s an interesting way to close the EP too, as usually bands do a big epic finale or an acoustic ballad these days, while this was neither. It’s another perfect representation of what the band is about though, and is another great song!
Overall: This was awesome! All five tracks knocked it out of the park and gave fans and new listeners plenty to love and sink their teeth into. As usual, it simply wasn’t long enough. I’d be curious to see what the band do with an album too, as while they didn’t venture too far away from their core sound with this release, there were certainly flashes of diversity, and I think they could craft something awesome with more time. Still though, that shouldn’t take anything away from this release. I loved every track and will have a lot of it stuck in my head for days to come! If you are in any way a rock fan, check this out!
The Score: 9/10