REVELATION THEORY – Truth Is Currency

Like most bands, Revelation Theory started at the bottom of the pile and had to fight their way to the top, doing whatever it took to gain a handhold and pull themselves a little closer to the summit. After releasing a self-financed EP and playing lots of live shows to anyone who would listen, these four modern rockers from New York released their 10-song debut album, Truth Is Currency, in late 2005…

Truth Is Currency is a Modern Rock album, with all that entails: “introspective” lyrics, which may or may not contain gratuitous amounts of profanity, crashing guitar riffs, some angry shouting here and there, and a sensitive song or two that will get played on the radio and maybe end up on the soundtrack of a teen movie or one of those MTV compilation CDs.

For what it is, Truth Is Currency is a solid example of this kind of modern music. Revelation Theory has some skill when it comes to what they do: the riffs of guitarist Julian Jorgenson are pretty heavy, and give the music a hard edge. Vocalist Rich Iuzzi has a strong, forceful voice that grabs your attention, and the rhythm section of bassist Matt McCloskey and Dave Agoglia on drums provides a solid and heavy bottom end.

Some of Iuzzi’s vocal passages are delivered in a near-shout manner, much like what you might hear on a Disturbed album. While these parts are done sparingly, they’re done well. The band also effectively uses backing vocals on a lot of the songs.

Refreshingly, Revelation Theory eschews the fancy keyboards and sampled sounds other popular Modern Rock bands use, preferring to let their music speak for itself in a powerful and direct way and not be buried under layers of technical gimmicks. While Revelation Theory’s music is rough and loud, it still maintains a good sense of rhythm and melody.

Even if you’re not a fan of Modern Rock, you might find yourself enjoying Truth Is Currency. It’s fairly heavy, has some good riffs, and the lyrics aren’t too angsty, not even on the ballads “Selfish And Cold” and “Over The Line,” which closes out the album. Most of the songs manage to rock in a fairly convincing fashion, and a few of them are pretty catchy.

What would a Modern Rock album be without some casual swearing? With its excessive use of the “it rhymes with ‘duck’” word, “Loathe” may rub some listeners the wrong way, but since the song seems to be about substance abuse, the swearing helps convey a sense of hopeless anger and despair that someone “going straight down” might feel.

Once again, Truth Is Currency is a Modern Rock album, but it’s loud and heavy, and is relatively light on the angst — this isn’t a Linkin Park or Nickelback record. Fans of heavier Modern Rock will probably like it.