Reviver is a heavy metal band from the Netherlands formed in 1997, releasing a number of demos before releasing their self-titled debut album in 2005. The band split shortly after – reforming in 2017 with the same line-up as their debut. The band’s sophomore album ‘A Thousand Lives’ was released in 2022.
Featuring ten songs of unabashed heavy metal, Reviver has returned to the music scene with a bang! For forty-six fast-paced minutes, the band tore through the ten songs on offer with aplomb – each and everyone highly melodic and overly infectious. The carousel of metal begins with the traditional, old-school flavored ‘Kill The King’, displaying the glorious guitar sound so synonymous with the iconic NWOBHM evolution. Reviver may be from mainland Europe but are well adept at delivering a very British style of heavy metal. The title song ‘A Thousand Lives’ takes the album in a heavier direction, fairly rattling as it thunders on. Across the chorus break, the band breaks open the melodic bottle, making for a very infectious and catchy sing-along.
And the melodic bottle remains open, ‘The Fearless’ trotting on with a very addictive rhythm. A lighter vibe sees ‘The Fearless’ open the band’s sound to a wider audience, appealing to fans of the heavy, and hard rock genres.
Moving the album back to the band’s heavy metal roots, ‘Hands Of The USA’ is the heaviest song heard so far. With the intensity at its highest point since the album began, Reviver inserts one helluva catchy and anthemic style chorus, the kinda chorus that drives an in concert crowd wild. Moving into ballad territory, the band delivers the mellow ‘You Belong To Me’ with passion and emotion, trying to tug on the strings of fans’ hearts. But as regular readers already know, in my opinion, ballads are for rock bands – and not metal ones.
And I can’t be the only one who believes this!
It’s just an opinion, and one I’m not gonna debate with you. Thankfully, the band makes a quick return to the realms of heavy metal with the fast-paced headbanger ‘Our Voice’. Lifting one foot and planting it firmly on the monitor, Reviver deliver a galloping gourmet of traditional metal in the shape of ‘Our Voice’, the fastest and most head bang-able song heard so far. Oh, the sound of NWOBHM guitar riffing is rife as ‘Shelter From Sorrow’ gets underway, the smell of old-school metal stronger than ever. ‘Shelter From Sorrow’ is heavy, full of pace changes, and a vocal delivery that is mildly aggressive – in fact, the most aggressive heard so far.
The album moves swiftly on with ‘Into The Tomb’ taking a more hustle and bustle approach to metal, changing pace to become a high-velocity sprint – and as we all know, sprints don’t last for too long! ‘Into The Tomb’ goes through many changes of pace before it runs its course, twisting and turning numerous times. The album dives for the safety of traditional metal with ‘Prisoner Of Faith’, delivered at a head bangingly comfortable trot. Heads will be nodding hard to this one, along with feet stamping the ground and fists raised high punching the air. ‘Tell Me’ heralds the album’s final hurrah, and is a darker, more menacing offering than any other song, with atmosphere and tension in abundance over the song’s first minute and a half. And then a blistering change of pace and tone, and we’re off and running like it’s the final mile of a marathon.
Overall, a traditional metal mix of fast and mid-paced old-school-flavored songs.
TRACKLIST
Kill The King
A Thousand Lives
The Fearless
Hands Of The USA
You Belong To Me
Our Voice
Shelter From Sorrow
Into The Tomb
Prisoner Of Faith
Tell Me
Reviver: Facebook
Release Year: 2022
Label: Remedy Records
Category: Album
Country: Netherlands
Reviewed by Iron Mathew for Frenzy Fire, and Metal-Roos.
