Review Summary: Quite the ironic album title.
Simply put, 9mm Parabellum Bullet’s third album is nothing short of a disappointment. After a collection of incredible EPs, a classic first album, and a solid follow up, Revolutionary fails to live up to its name. Lacking both the frenetic energy of Termination and the welcome variety of Vampire, their 2010 album often feels lacklustre and tired, which is a real shame considering what the band has to offer.
The majority of the album is dull and uninspired. Whilst songs such as ‘Invitation’ and ‘Candle no Hi wo’ aren’t bad as such, they do lack any kind of lasting appeal or true wow moments that can easily be located on any other release from the band. The music doesn’t scream ‘REVOLUTION!’, instead appearing subdued and unremarkable. ‘Black Market Blues’ tries to reclaim some of that old 9mm catchiness, yet is forgettable once the song is over. The repetitive and frankly annoying chorus quickly grows old, while the over-recurring riff and confusingly bad solo destroy any kind of likeability. This is also the case in ‘Finder’, which teases the listener with a loud pre-chorus that never leads into anything vaguely interesting until the end of the song. Furthermore, the lazy vocals and uninteresting guitar and drum work seem to be unfortunately reminiscent of the poorer tracks found on Vampire.
Despite this, the album does have some moments where the listener ignores the niggling feeling of regret for having listened to the album. Conveniently, these appear at the start and end of Revolutionary. ‘Lovecall from the World’ is a frustrating oxymoron, namely ‘brilliant disappointment’. The song itself is astounding, easily linkable to their previous abrasive yet catchy sound, replete with distorted screaming, a nice, fast pace and that trademark wall of noise at the end of the song. However, at 49 seconds, the listener is left questioning why one of the best songs on the album is cut so short. Another verse, even a repeated one, is sorely desired on an otherwise outstanding track. ‘Hikari no Ame ga Furu Yoru ni’, on the other hand, feels like a missing track from Vampire with it’s clean vocals, catchy chorus and surf rock-inspired riff. Furthermore, ‘Cold Edge’ and album closer ‘The Revolutionary’ easily rate as some of the band’s best tracks, with fantastic vocals and screaming, authoritative drumming, and brilliant guitar work between them, finding that delectable compromise between Termination’s power and speed and Vampire’s catchiness and technical skill. Such highlights are barely enough to rescue an otherwise poor album.
Throughout Revolutionary, the listener is left in want of even a sliver of aggression from the band. In return they are constantly teased by pseudo-raucousness and songs which fail to inspire or appeal. Furthermore, the album seems to have sidelined the drums and bass in favour of clearer vocals and guitar work, which certainly fails to demonstrate the band’s talent as a whole. As a result, despite the occasional outstanding track, Revolutionary is anything but its namesake, failing to do anything new and exciting like its predecessor. If anything, the album titles should be switched; Vampire is certainly revolutionary due to the sheer variety found on the album, whilst Revolutionary just plain sucks.
Highlights-
‘Lovecall from the World’, ‘Cold Edge’, ‘The Revolutonary’, ‘Hikari no Ame ga Furu Yoru ni’
