Us Or Them
(self-financed)
50:32min
An album that opens up with a sample of Martin Luther King’s famous "I have a dream" speech can’t be bad at all. These were my thoughts when I checked in to the first album by REVOLTED MSASSES from the Greek capital Athens. The further I listened, the more I was impressed. This five-piece offers a quite astonishing debut. The political situation and the continuing crisis in their home country seems to have inspired them to a very aggressive album that deals with political themes and comes along as the soundtrack of anti-capitalist and anti-religious rebellion. Musically, REVOLTED MASSES is inspired by the more modern Thrash Metal of the 1990s, with staccato riffing and massive double bass drum overkills. Yet, this is just the foundation they use to create a progressive mix that sometimes comes along a little overachieving. But maybe we can blame it on youth. Nevertheless, "Us Or Them" is a very interesting album full of details and ideas. Sometimes you find oriental guitars, clean female choruses or Yngwiesque guitar fills, then there are acoustic guitars, a lot of modern Death Metal influences and some synthesizers. Even though this massive mix of ideas might end up chaotic, REVOLTED MASSES manage to use their creativity in a way that benefits the songs. So in the end, the album sounds progressive, but not disrupted. It’s the anger, the rage that keeps it all together, transported by a voice that reminds me of Dirk "Dicker" Weiss from the German WARPATH in its attitude. Check out songs like the marching ‘War In Heaven’, the juggernaut ‘Disaster Capitalism (The Rise Of)’ or the Hardcore inspired band anthem ‘Revolted Masses’ to get a hint of what I mean. My personal favorite turned out to be a song that is out of the line of "Us Or Them", the more melancholic doomer ‘Tale Of A Tortured Soul’, that features Tanya of UNIVERSE 217 as guest vocalist. The good, quite modern production fits the album well and rounds it off. If you’re not completely anti-modern, you won’t do wrong when you check these hopefuls out at: www.revoltedmasses.net, www.facebook.com/revoltedmasses
Thomas Meyer