About ten years ago, when Ozzfest first kickstarted up, it seemed many nu metal bands came out of the workshop to grasp a chance to play the coveted festival at the time. Bands that hadn’t had much commercial success came to fruition due to the magnitude of Ozzfest’s weight and exposure. Images of darkened hair, JnCo jeans, spiked bracelets, gigantic chained wallets and privates recruited from the Hot Topic Army flocked to these shows to see some of their local heroes play their hearts out. As the late 90’s closed and music interests shifted, Ozzfest began to lose much of its popularity as well as its fan base. Key point: most of these former fans grew up and carried on with their lives. Rise, the debut album from Austin, Texas nu metal band ANew Revolution embodies everything about the Ozzfest-laden end of the century.

ANew Revolution is the combined efforts of ex-Unloco vocalist Joey Duenas and former Slaves On Dope members Frank “Frankie” Salvaggio and Rob Urbani. In the vein of their former bands, ANew Revolution continue their nu metal trend in the late 2000’s, however it feels dated and not as inspired as it could have been if released back in the 90s. The lead single “Done” opens with audio clips of rioters while the double guitar breaks in behind a building bass drum. Right off the bat, the biggest blunder on this album is the production. It’s a bit raw and unfocused as the drums a bit too punchy, the bass too high in the mix and the guitar tones a bit hot on the low end. Granted the guitars are in Drop C tuning, the sounds can be filtered out a bit more. Joey Duenas’ vocals sound like a cross between desperation and forced anger as he wanders his way through the song. It’s clear he’s a bit lost amidst the rest of the band.

The next few numbers, “N.M.E.,” “Generations,” and “Rise” feel the same exact way and they all even have the same music formula dubbed the “nu-metal formula.” The recipe follows:

Drop C tuning
Crunchy guitars
Angsty lyrics
Thick drums
One word song titles
Ridiculous usage of swear words (the chorus of “Rise” is a major example)
Pseudo-catchy chant-like choruses
Large growl scream at the end of verse
Clean guitar on the bridge
Small guitar solo
Extended scream over musical stop time
Letting the guitars ring out until they feed back at the end of the song.

The album continues with the slower, boorish “Saddest Song” which practically stalls in 1st gear the whole time. However not to be outdone, the next cut “California’s Burning” proves to be the only highlight on an album of musical stinkbombs. The guitars and overall attitude actually work here and is quite worthy of blaring loud and proud. The solos even are pretty hot and there’s no argument from this end regarding guitar solos. ANew Revolution then takes a stab at a New Order cover of “True Faith” which isn’t so bad, in fact, much like “California’s Burning,” the band begins to focus what talent it has and manages to create a pretty, if not really good cover.

As soon as the band begins to climb the musical mountain however, they tumble and fall back to earth once more with the ill-laden ballad “Let Go,” Duenas’ vocals sound a bit strained, but somewhat clear. “Let Go” however sounds more of a song fitting for a band on a higher caliber such as Puddle Of Mudd, as even for this band, this song takes such a drastic departure from the rest of the album.

By the end of the album, the band runs out of gas. What started as a heavy fest of angst descents into a level of sludgy post-grunge. There’s no calling or itch to replay this album once it’s done; the band’s replay factor simply doesn’t exist. The band trades the potential hooks in for temporary replacement song ingredients such as heaviness, angst and overall mediocrity. Even the album title “Rise” and album cover scream mediocrity.

Overall, ANew Revolution’s sound is nothing new and certainly doesn’t bring anything new to the table. Rise fails to do what it says to do: it fails to rise above everything else. If H.G. Wells’ theory of the time machine were real, and this album could be transported back to the X-Treme Mountain Dew saturated 90’s, then this would work. But, as the old saying goes, you can never go back home again.

Sound: D
Lyrics: D
Production: D
Vocals: C-
Overall: D

ANew Revolution - “Rise” 

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