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.

Lyrics: C
Sound: B-
Instrumentation: B
Vocals: B-
Overall: C

Check Out:
“More”
“The Ultimate Fling”

Categories: Album Reviews, News
Tags: Poets Of The Fall