Blog By James

Unfortunately I didn’t discover After Forever until they had released their self-titled and sadly, last album back in 2007. I’ve always been a big fan and supporter of the female voice in metal, but front woman plus heavy guitars does not always equal good music. However, in the case of Floor Jansen and her band mates in After Forever, what they created together was absolutely the good stuff.

After only a few listens of the After Forever album, it quickly became one of my faves and I made a point to follow Floor’s work in hopes of a new project. The time has come for ReVamp and I couldn’t be happier about it.

ReVamp is Floor’s new solo project with almost all new musicians, all of which play their asses off on this debut recording. Although I enjoyed the album upon first listen, it didn’t really sink in until after I’d heard it the third or fourth time. In my experience, that’s how it goes for all of the really good records.

Floor has a very dynamic and versatile voice with the kind of power that is ideal for this style of music. As an example, check out the bridge of “Break” in the studio report below at about 4:40:

I like the overall production and I especially dig the guitar sound. Check out a few of the tracks at the official site here. I really hope Floor and the band make it over to the US at some point.

While we were doing the main tracking for our upcoming CD back in November, I threw up a camera behind the drums and manged to get footage for a few songs. Now that we’ve got final mixes for 6 of the 10 tunes, I put together the below clip of “Camel’s Back”. Thankfully my lovely wife had experience with Adobe Premier and between the two of us, I think it turned out quite well. Ryan had a camera up at the time as well so we’re hoping to get some more footage edited and posted of the guitar tracking soon. I think I’ve got two more songs worth of drum footage and plan to put them up later on my YouTube channel.

I want to say thanks to Dave at Invisible Sound Studios here in Baltimore for making everything sound so awesome.

About 9 months ago I sent $30 of my hard earned (I work in IT support) money to the gentlemen in Spock’s Beard, one of the greatest progressive rock bands that has ever been. Anyone who understands and appreciates what the genre is truly about would back me up. I sent them the money to help with the cost of recording their next album and I did so with no hesitation at all.

Early this week I received the beautifully packaged result (see Twitter post here) and as I am with every SB release, I’m absolutely floored with the quality in all aspects of the recording. First thing I noticed was how it was properly mastered and that I had to turn it up slightly more than I do with other recent recordings. (See “Loudness War”) That made me smile straight away.

First thing I heard was huge, full band unison hits going into an eighth note bass line that gave me chills within the first minute. Before hearing any more, I knew then that I had yet another proper, Spock’s Beard record that would be added to my list of treasured recordings. As “X” continues to repeat in my car and all of my media players, I still feel the same way as I did during that first listen.

The mix is wonderful, with the drums and bass nice an hot where they should be. All of Nick D’Virgilio’s vocals are brilliant, simply breathtaking at times. And as usual, his drumming is nothing short of mind-blowing. Dave Meros’ bass playing on this one is standing out more than ever before for me, as are Ryo Okumoto’s keyboards. It’s a modern sound with all of the welcomed nods to the past. I don’t know… it’s like I’m experiencing Spock’s Beard again for the first time. With “X” I sometimes can’t believe what I’m hearing.

I could go on but I’m going to shut up now. But before I do… If you’re somebody that enjoys a proper, smart progressive record with only the finest musicianship and songwriting, and for all that is good in this world, go buy a copy here.