{"id":14568,"date":"2013-08-23T00:00:16","date_gmt":"2013-08-23T00:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=14568"},"modified":"2013-10-09T18:35:36","modified_gmt":"2013-10-09T18:35:36","slug":"album-review-revamp-wild-card","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-revamp-wild-card\/","title":{"rendered":"REVAMP – Wild Card (2013) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

REVAMP
Wild Card<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nNuclear Blast (2013)<\/span>
Rating: 5\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Dutch singer Floor Jansen returns from her stint fronting live dates for Nightwish with a sophomore effort from her \u201csolo\u201d band ReVamp. Jansen has become well known in symphonic, gothic and progressive metal circles over the years as the frontwoman for After Forever (who officially disbanded in 2009) and for her vocal contributions to Ayreon and Star One albums. Wild Card<\/em> is ReVamp\u2019s second album for Nuclear Blast and takes a much more aggressive stance than the band\u2019s 2010 self-titled debut, which had a much stronger commercial edge to it.<\/p>\n

Wild Card<\/em> is a hit and miss bag of operatic vocals, growling, and metal-tinged songwriting that grinds and parades in fairly typical patterns. This is best looked at through the album\u2019s focal point, a trio of songs generally titled \u2018The Anatomy Of A Nervous Breakdown\u2019.<\/p>\n

The \u2018Neurasthenia\u2019 portion is a helping of aggression that features almost-growling male vocals counterpointing Jansen\u2019s strong, but distinctly feminine, vocals. She sings fairly straightforward here and the avoidance of overly operatic parts gives it a live feel that I really like. Unfortunately, musically the song doesn\u2019t seem to go anywhere at all. The time changes get annoying and when it does settle in a groove, it feels a bit too much like what Five Finger Death Punch might do.<\/p>\n

\u2018On The Sideline\u2019 continues the time change-happy confusion, but balances out a little better than \u2018Neuresthania\u2019 with a semi-radio friendly chorus that sneaks into your psyche on repeated listens. \u2018The Limbic System\u2019 completes the trio, offering up a more progressive approach that sounds a little like what I\u2019d imagine a heavy metal performance on Broadway might sound like. Like the others, it\u2019s got some nice moments but it never stays in them long enough to allow you to really feel it deep down in my opinion. <\/p>\n

While the album\u2019s obvious centrepieces aren\u2019t really my cup of tea, the album is not without out its solid moments. The title track reminds me a good deal of the band\u2019s debut. It\u2019s semi-aggressive but it keeps the commercial appeal that \u2018The Anatomy Of A Nervous Breakdown\u2019 songs seem hell bent on destroying. Mid-song, the big symphonic parts come to life and by the song\u2019s end they almost have you ready to bow down before them.<\/p>\n

\u2018Distorted Lullabies\u2019 slows things down to a pace that I personally feel is better suited to Jansen\u2019s voice. It moves in a mid-tempo groove that allows her to sing more operatically without it sounding quite as awkward as it does on some of the other songs. <\/p>\n

Overall, I want to love this album. I really dug After Forever, I\u2019m praying Jansen joins Nightwish, and I\u2019m certainly a fan of ReVamp\u2019s debut. For me, Wild Card<\/em> is an ambitious project but it never manages to quite wrap itself around you in the way her music usually does. This is an average album; it isn\u2019t bad by any means, but also not one we will be seeing on 2013 \u201cBest Of\u201d lists either.<\/p>\n

Mark Fisher<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

REVAMPWild Card Nuclear Blast (2013)Rating: 5\/10 Dutch singer Floor Jansen returns from her stint fronting live dates for Nightwish with a sophomore effort from her \u201csolo\u201d band ReVamp. Jansen has become well known in symphonic, gothic and progressive metal circles over the years as the frontwoman for After Forever (who officially disbanded in 2009) and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,769],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14568","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-ep-reviews","category-revamp"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14568","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14568"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14568\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14623,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14568\/revisions\/14623"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}