Album Review: Poets Of The Fall - Revolution Roulette
The 1990’s represented major achievements in the United States. The economic activity of the country went through the roof, Generation X led the way for what looked like a promising future for the first time since the late 1960’s and many highly influential albums released throughout the decade set the world aflame.
The 1990’s however had it’s setbacks. In a retrospective sense, the 90’s split into two completely different halves, much like the 60’s did. The first half of the 90’s were lead by their de-facto leader, Kurt Cobain of Nirvana. Unofficially he became the spokesman seemingly overnight for an entire generation of people destined to change the world. After his death in 1994, things shifted from a much deeper and personal sound (again, much like the 60’s) to the later, corporate and marketable sound of the late 90’s.
With the rise of nu-metal and the watered-down grunge movement intact, the unofficial leader of the late 90’s title has to go to Fred Durst of Limp Bizkit. The 90’s split itself into two opposites of each other; Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde; day and night; the Union against the Confederacy. The 90’s became a highly-touted boxing match between the two eras, each entering the ring with undefeated records and a strong list of knockouts.
Timeline aside, Finland’s own, Poets Of The Fall’s third album Revolution Roulette contains elements from both eras of the 90’s, seemingly wedges itself right in the middle and like the 90’s itself is incredibly hit or miss. The album opens with the heavy handed rocker “More” in which lead singer and guitarist Marko Saaresto sings with a heavy handed ferocity behind a strong guitar progression. The band happens to combine Marilyn Manson, Better Than Ezra, Seven Mary Three, Nirvana and Motley Crue all at once. While on the surface this may look good, the band has it’s ups and downs. The album continues with the first single “The Ultimate Fling.” Memories of 1996 post-grunge come back just in the guitar distortion alone. The song resembles a strong output by the band and the nostalgia factor for the 90’s clearly hits home.
“Revolution Roulette” follows afterwards and the drums have that punchy, 80’s gated reverb sound which isn’t bad for the song, but the overall sound of the band at this point seems to begin to stretch itself a bit too thin. While not a bad song musically, it becomes a bit too predictable. Fortunately, the heavy-handed rocker “Psychosis” follows this and gives another good kickstart to the album. The bass and guitars really sound great on this track and Saaresto’s vocals are at his punchiest here. The weak and tiresome ballad “Fragile” follows this followed by the alternative pop rock sounding “Clevermind.” The problem with this album is its inconsistency
While the band has some really great tunes, like the seventh track “Miss Impossible” as well as “The Ultimate Fling,” Poets Of The Fall put a few songs on here that slow the overall breathing evolution of the album. It creates a sluggish listening experience. This isn’t to say that the band is at all bad because they are talented, it’s just this album has material that could be better left off. The other major issue concerning Poets Of The Fall is the length of their songs. With an average length of about four and a half minutes, this either makes or breaks the album. While the rockers sound great, the throwaways come off boorish and long.
Poets Of The Fall on one hand resemble what was great about the early 90’s, but at the same time include elements of the late 90’s that can be a bit forgettable. Overall Revolution Roulette is worth a listen or two, but there are a few throwaways than can be omitted. To say the least, when the band is on, they’re great. However, much like the 90’s, Poets Of The Fall have a much inconsistent sound.
Rating: 
Check Out:
“More”
“The Ultimate Fling”
I bought this album on the day of its release and was, I’ll have to admit, disappointed. It’s grown on me since then, and I’ve come to really like a few of the songs, but the others I just don’t think I’ll ever particularly adore.
It’s a good album, all things considered, but sadly doesn’t hold a candle to their previous two efforts. Let’s hope things pick up again for the fourth album =D
That’s great James that you feel that way. Unfortunately after many more listens, I still feel the same way about it as I did the first time I listened to it last year. There are some winner tunes and the others not so hot.
Regarding the realistic impression, this is pretty realistic. Yes, they have a strong 90’s feel to them and it’s very apparent and yes they are very hit or miss. It’s not nonsense, it’s just opinion. Take it or leave it either way.
Wow, this is a terrible review. Poets of the fall sound absolutely nothing like the bands that you mentioned, and their music has nothing to do with the 90s. I guess you were just trying to create a narrative, but I’m afraid that one misses the mark spectacularly.
You don’t have to give a good review of the album, but at least try to give a realistic impression of what it is that you are reviewing. If someone told me they were thinking of a band that combined Marilyn Manson, Better Than Ezra, Seven Mary Three, Nirvana and Motley Crue, and that this band had a strong 90s nostalgia factor, there is no way in hell that I would guess the band was Poets of the Fall. It’s just nonsense.
I think this is a fantastic album, and as is the case for the other two POTF albums there are no throwaways, they are all well-written songs. 5/5
I actually disagree as well…on a lot of points. I don’t think Poets of the Fall are channeling the same bands you’re mentioning in your review (MM, Nirvana and BTE? Really? Heck no, way off in terms of comparison. If anything, this being their third album, I think they channel a lot of influences from bands in the 80s like U2, anthemic and melodic stadium rock really, not just on this album, but their former ones as well) and their stylistic is almost always meaning heavy compared to most bands. Their lyrics are usually very good, but on points of this album they get a bit cheesy (Miss Impossible, one of the songs you said to be the best on this, I found to be one of the worst culprits, but I don’t take it all that seriously and I still like it).
The thing about this album that was different form their former albums was that they went a bit heavier with certain songs (i.e. Psychosis, and from what I found quite a few veteran POTF fans hated it, there were a lot who loved it though, myself included). Clevermind was one of the strongest songs on the album for me. It’s more in the vein of their lyric intensive, melodic songs (I’d refer to “Shallow” and “Everything Fades” from their album Signs of Life for comparison).
“Passion Colors Everything” was one of my favorite songs from the album as well, and it’s kind of sad that you don’t mention it in your review, but then again, it might not be the type of song you prefer. I thought the band took some creative liberties with this album that they didn’t with their former albums, but sometimes it worked, other times it didn’t. Still, I’d give it more than three stars. It’s a good effort from them if you’re familiar with their material.
Another poorly qualified reviewer…
Not as per with their other two albums…but i really love the song Passion colors everything…the rest are just passable….i had a lot of expectaion though which was not quite fulfilled sorry to say…they still rule nevertheless and would remain one of my favourites.
That’s totally cool KMSABIN, we write on here to provoke opinions, never to harbor them. Thanks for sharing your side of the album!
Totally disagree. Their lyrics almost ALWAYS deserve at least a B+, personally I usually give them an A! The msuic changes up so theirs variety and you dont get bored just listening to the heavier songs. I LOVE their more ballad type songs and I dont find them boring at all but thought provoking and soothing.