BIRTH / REVIVAL

This young band from Mexico have set off their career with a rather ambitious and risky project: a debut, double, album with a length that exceeds 90 minutes. Hailing from that part of the world, the sound of Birth/Revival is not a surprise: "typical" South American (allow me the inclusion of Mexico in this category) pompous power/progressive metal with emphasis on riffology and virtuosity.

The band members sound as fairly accomplished players, with compositions that have a start and an end, with adequate changes, heavy riffing, plethoric use of keyboards and so on. Although somewhat lacking on the innovation front, there is little wrong with the structure of songs, if one was to exclude the often long and unnecessary soloing of guitars and keyboards. The main problem appears in the vocals, where Afred's tonality and accent could certainly benefit from significant improvement. The problem can be so bad at times, that a track can be rendered "unlistenable".

Influences from (mainly) Dream Theater and Symphony X can be heard almost throughout the entire album, augmented with references to Helloween-type power metal (Silly Wisdom), neoclassical passages (Brightness) and (a nice surprise) 70's heavy prog-driven riff lines (Modern Life). Birth is generally the more "ferocious" part with Revival providing the "mellower", more mature, view and probably contains better and more interesting compositions overall.

The existence of great and pretty bad moments within the same track proves the inconsistency of this album, which can in a way be justified by the enthusiasm of the band. I would personally prefer to see a 45min album with the best ideas, rather than a 90min exhibition of talent, which runs a big risk of becoming tiring, especially given the maladies mentioned above. There is a lot of room for improvement for Magg, but also signs of quality, on which they would have to concentrate.

Best moments: Beyond, Chinese Room, Modern Life