Review Summary: Emmure on steroids.
There is a certain stigma attached to the genre of deathcore, at least among purists. They tend to treat the genre with a tinge of condescension and insouciance. However, bands such as Despised Icon and All Shall Perish have garnered marginal respectability for the genre. Apart from the aforementioned bands, contemporary bands have more often than not fallen victim to mediocrity and blandness. Henceforth I borrowed an ear to Deadrise's EP, The Revelation, rather frivolously. I was pleasantly surprised.
While The Revelation certainly isn't a revelation as far as deathcore is concerned, it's a straightforward fun album. If you put all your deathcore prejudices aside, you may just enjoy this EP. This album is as good as you allow it to be. The EP spans a relatively short 13 minutes, sporting four tracks.
The first track is arguably the highlight, it starts with a very basic but enchanting guitar hook which forms the backbone of the song. While perhaps being a little soft, the drum rolls are good, the vocalist has a somewhat hollow growl but pulls his weight and his performance is memorable. The song utilizes bridges well, which eventually leads to thumping breakdowns, an impressive feat. The breakdowns are grandiose and in your face. They typically kick off with a loud thud, which settles into down tuned chugging and bass kicks. The bridge with the soaring guitar riffs which crushes into a hammering breakdown at 01:15 just emphasizes the potency of Deadrise's breakdowns and how well they utilize it.
The second track is a bit of an enigma, it contains a few rather incongruous sound clips, one of the clips are more suited for a techno song. It's a little obtrusive to say the least. The lyricism is mindlessly impudent with lines such as "Now ugly faces seem so beautiful. You are all dickheads but now I love you all." The song handles about getting drunk. The track is sadly devoid of any good instrumentation. In the third track, Deadrise's hardcore influences are conspicuously present, oddly enough the song isn't a bottleneck. The infectious breakdowns will inevitably have you banging your head. At 0:43 a very heavy but melodic riff sets in, the drummer blasts a few frantic beats at 01:00 when the song gets some direction and speed. At 01:48 a colossal breakdown assaults your ears, the best one on the album. The track concludes with a pretty epic and melancholic riff in coalition with gang vocals. The aforementioned attests to good songwriting on Deadrise’s part.
The fourth song boasts with a pretty melodic guitar hook. There's some versatility on vocals as well, with the low growls alternating with cleanly sung vocals and some gang vocals. Deadrise even manage to convey a bit of emotion, at 02:35 the song slows down and a few melancholic riffs take center stage. The section is unceremoniously interrupted by another one of the album’s ample breakdowns, as you would expect.
While not being overly innovative or grabbing, this EP can be tons of fun if you allow it to be. Allow yourself to wallow in the hard hitting breakdowns, the decent riffing and the potent vocals.
