Revenience – Daedalum

Revenience are a new act to enter the European metal scene only coming together as a group last year. The enigmatic five piece hail from Bologna, Italy and have released their first full length album, Daedalum which introduces their gothic metal sound to the world. Although the band may consider themselves to be gothic metal, Deadalum shows them to be more of a symphonic metal act with gothic elements. They follow in the same vein of bands like Delain, Within Temptation and Leaves’ Eyes. Imagine all these bands mixed with Evanescence and Lacuna Coil, then you get Revenience.

Their first full length album, is a very strong effort from the band. It’s a short but sweet album with 9 interesting songs on offer here. It starts off typically, with a beautifully haunting instrumental piece, ‘In a Landscape of Winter,’ whose epic orchestral elements truly transport you to another world, a bleak and cold one at that. In a Landscape of Winter sounds like it could belong in a video game soundtrack in a scene where a major battle is about to take place and the next track, ‘Blown away by the Winter.’ is the soundtrack to that battle. This song is the first real taste you get of Revenience. It’s’ a dark track with a cool blend of electronic synthesizes and more traditional orchestral sounds.

‘Shamble’ is the band’s first single and I can see why they chose it to be. It’s a track with a lot of energy and also happens to be the most cohesive song on the record. As you listen to it you feel like you’re going on an exciting quest. Furthermore, the piano and enchanting melodies really add some raw emotion to the track. Because of songs like Shamble, Deadalum is both a a moving and memorable listening experience and this may also be because of the cinematic elements to the music. Furthermore, the first time I listened to the record in full I felt so excited and as if I was going somewhere important. It was truly thrilling because of songs like ‘A-Maze,’ which have strong visual lyrics that create exciting images in your head while also touching your soul because of the emotional piano. This song has a real ballad like quality that for some reason symphonic metal acts are very good at writing, however.

While this is a good album, you can tell that the band has a long way to go  defining their sound and this is in part, because they haven’t quite yet defined their sound. In the beginning of my review I described them to obtain a whole host of metal styles in their music and having them all mixed up together doesn’t always work. It’s also the reason why many of their songs come across as fragmented because they don’t have a good solid sound. Revenience really need to work on this for their next album otherwise they could be in danger of getting lost in the endless stream of female fronted gothic metal bands. Which is a shame because they do have something really unique going on in their music that’s fresh and exciting. The album does end on a high note with the grand, ‘Shadows and Silence’ which brings this quest to a close.

Overall, Deadalum is an enjoyable enough album. You can seriously feel the passion and the chemistry between the band  and what’s even better is that they actually manage to make music that moves you such as the piano ballad, ‘Lone Island’. There’s also an incredible display of guitar work on here with lots of intricate riffs and ferocious shredding. And If you’re a fan of the classic symphonic metal acts like Nightwish or the more obscure gothic metal bands like Sirenia then you will more than likely appeal to you.

Track list:

1. In a Landscape of Winter
2. Blown Away by the Wind
3. Shamble
4. Flail
5. Lone Island
6. A-Maze
7. Not My Choice
8. Revenant
9. Shadows and Silence

Playing Time: 40:00

Label: Sliptrickrecords

Website: http://www.revenience.net/