REVANGEL – Awakening

Revangel is a one-man band project that was put together by the Italian Rock guitarist Fabrizio Chiruzzi. Awakening happens to be his second release, the first being Gates of Doom back in 2001. Both albums have similar styles to some extent and that would be the amount of shredding that goes on. To put it bluntly, it is nothing short of a small atomic explosion. Other than that, there aren’t any similar styles, features, or sounds copied from one to the next that encompass both releases. They are truly separate entities of each other and why shouldn’t they be considering the seven years between the two? With Gates of Doom it was a Melodic Prog tone ranging from Pop to Heavy Metal while with Awakening there is more of an Instrumental Industrial Shred Metal or “cybershred” that is the overall tone.

Fabrizio should have been very proud of his accomplishment with the release of Gates of Doom, especially since he was a self-taught musician/guitarist with only a little over five years under his belt. Yes, he was the writer, composer, arranger, musician, and guitarist all by himself on his first album and believe it or not, he still is the same on his second album. He started teaching himself guitar back in 1995 when he was 18 years of age. Now that Fabrizio is coming out with Awakening, 13 years later, everyone is curious to see what direction he has decided to take with his latest project.

After listening to both albums, it is clearly evident that the first release was more listener-friendly. This latest release is more suited for a certain type of fan base believe it or not. If you are a fan of Industrial/Cyber-Techno/non-stop shredding, then you will probably give this album high scores and will want to add it to your collection. While Fabrizio has done nothing wrong in his latest attempt, he has alienated his fan base somewhat. But then again, it is personal opinion and not to be taken as gospel. As with any album just released, it will have songs on it that will appeal to all, some, or even none. Just as prevalent is the fact that some albums take time to get used to-the more you listen to an album, the more it grows on you-or at least that is what they say. With this album the jury is still out however.

This album is the first one encountered that has the opposite effect that one would expect. Usually, the more you listen to an album the more things you hear and the more you begin to enjoy it and you start to get into it. With this album it just wasn’t the case for some reason. The more listens it got the more annoying it became which was very bothersome considering the caliber guitarist/musician involved. Also, to justify this even more, consider the fact that the first album, Gates of Doom, was so damn good and ever so enjoyable to listen to. After days of contemplation the answer was finally evident. The album, well actually the songs, are way too busy in most instances. There are certain songs that just have too much going on at once. There are machines playing a continuous beat (some type of Industrial Techno beat) in the background on top of which you have numerous keyboards, on top of which there are numerous guitars-some shredding and some not, followed by bass and drums. All of this is layered one on top of the other without any let-up. It just gets too involved and makes the listener go crazy and want to pull out his/her hair. After a while, it makes one think what the hell am I listening to? This is not the message you want to relay from your latest release by any means.

The album begins with “Entropy,” a deep, heavy intro that has bells chiming and all. At first listen you think this album is going to be really hard and heavy and you can’t wait until the second songs kicks into gear. Then it happens, “Twilight Zone” appears and within seconds you are confused and left in a mesmerized state. Only after a while do you begin to realize that you are plainly overwhelmed by too much going on at once and you wish the song was over. You think to yourself, “Hopefully the rest of the album isn’t like this.” “Neural Shred Implants” is almost what the title implies. There is plenty of shredding going on but not much else. There is a bit of Industrial flavor added in there for some spice. “Bioraptor” has an eerie and spacey vibe to it. Almost as if we just came out of a nuclear attack and there are all types of robots and machines roaming the earth. So far it is better than the previous tracks. The only thing that is somewhat annoying is the endless loop processor (or whatever they use) playing the same thing over and over in the background. It could be shorter in length as well-it seems to go on and on to nowhere.

The title track is something that belongs in a class by itself-something that should have been left off the album with the emphasis strongly aimed at left off. Come on now, really-what the hell is this song all about. Never mind even that-who cares what it’s about really-why include it with the rest of the album if it doesn’t fit? It sounds like someone’s keyboard stuck in gear with some sort of German/Nazi/propaganda rally going on in the background. The next track is “Genoma” and is about as strange as it is good in a weird way. It is one second shy of being the longest track on the album and by the time it is over it has you wondering if that was time well spent. “Supernova” opens with some heavy guitar licks and sounds promising but as time goes on it loses some of its appeal. There is nothing too flashy going on just some decent guitar and excessive keyboard if one wants to be brutally honest. “Intruder” features keyboard great Mistheria and offers some of Fabrizio’s best sounding guitar work up to that point. “No Boundaries” is a cover version of Michael Angelo Batio that features drummer Fabio Colella and he makes his presence felt right away. This is the first song where there is an emphasis on drums throughout the entire track.

“Dehumanizing Box” is another strong Techno mix with a constant bombardment of bass to induce the headache one would certainly get if the volume would hit the certain volume level most discotheque and nightclubs live by. “Twilight Zone” is a remix version that features U.S. singer Taryn J. Murphy. It is the only track with vocals which doesn’t help out one way or another. It sounds almost like the other Techno material that has been going on except for some vocals thrown in for good measure. The closer is “Tehom” which is another noise track like the opener “Entropy.” The only difference being that the opener was short and to the point, whereas the closer seems to drag on forever, not to mention the track isn’t that good to begin with.

It is obvious that Fabrizio’s inspiration from bands like Ministry, Rammstein, Annihilator, Kovenant, and Shotgun Messiah have steered him into a new direction from which he decided to experiment upon. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to have worked out as well as Fabrizio had hoped for most likely. Personally, his music from his first release Gates of Doom blows this out of the water. It is like comparing night and day or apples and oranges. With Awakening, the 64 plus minutes seem to take much longer than it should-there’s a shock! Hopefully this was just a phase and that Fabrizio gets it out of his system and goes back to what works. Fabrizio, go back to your earlier work and give us the beautiful music that you once made for your devoted fans.