REVELATION PROJECT (E)

We have a new musical genre here! It’s called gospel progressive metal, but you probably think: I’ve heard music in the same vein before (Kerry Livgren’s AD perhaps?) and you are probably right. From my point of view, Revelation Project is the first release I came across, that tries to combine ‘spreading the gospel’ on music we could easily classify as progressive rock, although sometimes it sounds more like melodic metal and also some beautiful symphonic pieces like Promise have been included. Main composer Revelation Project is is Graeme Swallow (keyboards, guitars), who has been playing and composing music for about twenty years. Lots of guests collaborate to make this project a bombastic, progressive metal musical. The music, as described, is very varied with a lot of orchestral parts, good instrumentation and a good sound quality. The fourteen tracks have lyrics obviously taken from or predominantly inspired by the Bible and music influenced by Dream Theater - Judgement and Glory amongst others - but it is a bit more melodic and not as difficult to play. The voice of lead vocalist Tom Bender is a pleasant one to listen to, but not extremely powerful and mellower than the voice of the average progressive metal singer. A duet between guitar and keyboard as in Liars sounds really cool as most of the instrumental parts do. Some spoken words between the tracks emphasize that this eponymous album is based on a concept.