Archaic Revival: Reviews

For a self release, this is a mightily ambitious project. The idea behind Archaic Revival is for the worlds of Classical and Metal to meet head on and for the results to be a Metal soundtrack to The Lord Of The Rings. So after that heady introduction, does it work. Sometimes yes and sometimes no, is the answer to that.

Addressing the Lord Of Rings Metal soundtrack situation first, I don't think this album conjures up such images at all, at least they don't in my twisted mind. For me, Summoning do a much better job and unfortunately, I don't think Archaic Revival are even singing from the same hymn sheet. That's not to say I don't like what they've produced here, but if you are going to sell this on the tales of LOTR, then it becomes an important factor, in my opinion. Yes, I think this album has a medieval feel to it and yes the vocals of Alexandria Clark do hark back to days gone by, but this isn't music that recreates images of sword and sorcery.

Before I move on to the main bulk of the positives about this album, I need to touch upon one other flaw. The vocals on here are too one dimensional. Alexandria tends to follow the melody lines of the music with very little variation. While she does have an ok voice, her style gets pretty stale after a short while. But, since the recording of Pagan Evolution, she has left the band, so I think that problem has been addressed already.

Ok, by now you may be thinking that this won't be a very positive review, well you couldn't be more wrong. When you take this album as a whole and the work that song writer Derek Cvengros has put into it, and on the budget I'm sure he never had, then you have to treat this album as a major success. Sure, it's not going to give Therion mainman Christofer Johnsson sleepless nights about someone stealing his crown, but it might do to in a year or so. The biggest strength on this album is the song writing and the whole structure of how the music is put together. As with Therion, Archaic Revival have a choir and an orchestra, albeit ones that have been created with the use of synthesisers, but they sound so realistic, that you cannot tell the difference. And this also applies to the drum sound as until I read about it, I hadn't even guessed that the drums weren't real. The quality of the musicianship throughout is exemplary and it's all been created by one person.

While I'm not 100% positive with my comments, I believe Archaic Revival are a band to keep an eye on. They now have a full band in place and if they can build upon what they, or should I say, what Derek has created here, then there's a good chance that major success will be achieved sooner, rather than later. To achieve that, I think that they need a label like Napalm Records or Nuclear Blast to give them the higher profile they need.

Simply put, this will surely turn the heads of those who are still unfamiliar with the genius behind, Archaic Revival - Derek Cvengros. From the very first moments of the opening track, "Rise of the Gods," does the ominous, heart racing vibe that one feels as the track begins to take shape, become very real -- very, very real, almost to the point that the listener becomes transported to another world.

It has been said time and again, that if the artist can bring across that feeling which he is trying to make part of the music, than that performer has done what few can do. And therein lies that which makes Pagan Evolution such an unbelievable find. What could (and should) become a must-listened to event to every true goth/symphonic metal purist, this is about as good as it can get. And the music, holy shit the music. Layers of complex symphonic orchestral strings and keyboard arrangements that both lay a delectable weave around metal guitar solos, huge riffs and chords, hard hitting drums and killer bass lines, (a listen to the bass line of "Son to the Fallen," will solidify that.) But here on Pagan Evolution it all works, and works extremely well.

With a blend of the progressive, gothic, operatic, classical, metal and symphonic (Dio, Ellis, 4Order, Oceanborn, Nightwish,) it is soft and acoustic, ("Unsung Hero,") stirring (Rise of the Gods,) bombastic ("Destiny's Crusade,") nasty but melodic ("Vendetta,") hard hitting ("Olympus,") downright metal ("Black Magick,") and starting as a soothing ballad but mid track growing into a grand, imposing and larger-than-life powerhouse is "Unjust Prophecy." And heard from one track to the next is the astonishing voice of the gorgeous Alexandria Clark; sounding like someone opened the heavens and flooded the studio with a voice that will dumbfound you. With a vocal range like Mother Earth's Sharon den Adel, Nightwish's Tarja Turunen or Theater of Tragedy's Liv Kristine Espenaes, Alexandria Clark's voice can only be described by one word -- angelic …

Said by many to be "Lord of the Rings" meets metal, Pagan Evolution's sound is mixed extremely well, the overall feel never comes across as overbearing or verbose, but throughout the music lays out perfectly - loud when it needs to be, and soft in others. The songwriting is multifaceted, but each part coming in and out of ear shot at exactly the right times, which in all gives Derek Cvengros, as the principal songwriter credence, that he did indeed spend hours over the musical score.

Hailing from Detroit, Mich., Archaic Revival founder Derek Cvengros began playing the guitar at the age of 14. But it was not until after his college education that the true love of Derek began to show through. Only after more than two years of brainstorming, recording, rehearsing, writing and wondering did this, his debut began to take shape, and the result is this CD which after a listen proves to have been monumental in its construction.

Bottom line is this -- play this, play it loud, allow it to completely overtake you, allow yourself to become immersed in the storyline, become part of the vocals, the strings, the incredible guitar work, and feel your heart begin to race as the opening drum line of the opening track, "Rise of the Gods," takes you away to a far off place.

Pagan Evolution -- what a brilliant, thoughtfully executed CD this is ...

Hardrock Haven rating: 9.5/10

Dark gothic/heavy metal debut with a symphonic presence and a lovely female vocalist that fits the music perfectly; great stuff.

When it comes to certain types of metal, such as power or symphonic, those of here in the states have a hard time finding a large quantity of home grown potential. Similar to buying electronics, we must look overseas to find quality product. That being the case, I was highly interested to hear of a new symphonic/ operatic metal act that popped up out of Michigan named Archaic Revival. The band, masterminded by guitarist/songwriter/composer Derek Cvengros, follows closely in the footsteps of acts such as Therion and Nightwish, and it is upon these influences that their debut album PAGAN EVOLUTION is built.

While, since the release of the album in Nov of 2007, Cvengros has managed to pull together an entire band, the studio personnel present on the release consists of just Cvengros, (who is credited with all of the music on the release) and vocalist Alexandria Clark. The album kicks off with a minute long intro entitled “Rise of the Gods” which transitions directly into the song “Son to the Fallen”. The track starts with an atmospheric keyboard and drum section that cuts out almost immediately allowing for a scorching metal riff to take its place. The song builds upon this riff as the pounding drum track enters, and layers upon layers of music begin to be placed atop. While the track is extremely diverse and multi-faceted, it never manages to lose the foundation of head banging tempo upon which it began, and proves to be one of the highlights of the album. Additional stand out tracks are the melodic ballad “Unsung Hero”, “Vendetta” which begins with a dark, pounding riff that is eerily reminiscent of “God of Thunder” by Kiss, and “Black Magick” which may be the closest thing to a straight forward metal track on the album (and includes eerie spoken word sections by Cvengros, which immediately brought to mind “Double Agent” by Rush).

Musically the album is highly impressive. Cvengros shows a true vision and craft in his songwriting, incorporating not only the expected trappings of the aforementioned Therion and Nightwish, but also influences of folk (Blackmore’s Night), metal (Metallica), and classical scoring a la Howard Shore. That being said, at times the album does fall somewhat flat melodically. Clark, who clearly has some sort of professional opera training, at times does not provide enough variance in tone and pitch within the songs, making some sections drone on a bit. Clark also falls into the pit trap of too often having the melody follow the music to a tee, which can also add a level of monotony to what are musically highly diverse and challenging tracks. It should be mentioned here that since the recording of this album Clark has been replaced with a new vocalist, Stefanie Stauffer, and this may rectify the minor quips that I have with, what is otherwise, a quality album within this genre of metal.

For a self-made, self-produced, debut, PAGAN EVOLUTION is quite lavish in its scope. Cvengros shows himself to be a songwriter of great potential, and given the proper supporting cast, has the ability to really make his mark within the metal community. For fans of this type of music, PAGAN EVOUTION is an album worth checking out. By doing so you may just be getting in on the proverbial ‘ground floor” of an artist and act that has the potential to really take off.

Archaic Revival are a American Symphonic metal band delivering their debut release in the form of a full blown album with “Pagan Evolution”. The band has a strong classical influence, creating the type of epic sounding metal you would expect if the soundtrack of Lord of the Rings was created by a metal band. Being a fan of epic music and metal (ah, and Lord of the Rings too off course), this should be right up my alley.

And it is. The music is highly symphonic with the use of strings and keyboards, but is still firmly metal, with Power metal riffs that fit in excellently with the rest of the music. All music is composed and played by one man, which is an impressive achievement. Mainly because he seems to be equally brilliant with all the instruments he plays.

The vocals are handled by Alex, who has an excellent soprano voice. The bombastic feel of the music is enhanced by the used of choirs. Who are mainly used to strengthen the melodies and not do not act as the lead in the refrains, which is the case with a lot of bands aspiring the classic meets metal blend.

The band excels in the bombastic songs, but is able to pull of an intimate feel too, which is displayed in the beautiful “Autumn Winds”, which is a Symphonic ballad, mainly driven by the keyboard melody, accompanied by a slow riff and Alex switching from whispered vocals to her normal soprano sound.

I was highly surprised that an independent debut release has a professional sound like this. This band sounds like it has at least a dozen albums under their belt. This album really blew me away and I hope to hear more from them in the future.