Pekka This is the first promotional demo of the Finnish prog metal group Reversion. Containing just two tracks it's quite a nice mouthful for the purpose of making acquintance with their work, only if it was available anymore. Their later works contain a lot of almost clone-like Dream Theater passages, but these two tracks give them a bit more original face. You can still hear strong hints that the main songwriter Samuli Federley's favourite band begins with a D, and he's not completely unfamiliar with some heavier acts like Pantera, but you won't catch yourself trying to figure out where a certain melody or riff might be stolen from.

The first track Mindstorm features a technical crunching riff, a soaring chorus and a slower heavy interlude morphing into a unison riffage by guitar and keyboard followed by nice solos by both. The vocals are a bit out of tune and generally less convincing than on their later studio works. The second track Blueflame is a slower number with a very Panteresque main riff followed by a verse reminiscent of early Dream Theater in spirit, until the vocalist applies his rougher edge, which again lacks some of the power he has later had. The band slows things down for a mid section revisiting the main riff and add a keyboard solo on top before going back to the chorus and on to a shredding guitar solo. The vocals get very rough towards the end.

All the instrumentalists provide a solid performance, instrumental prowess being very much a forte of theirs. To this day I feel that while the band is technically excellent and tight as a unit, their material lacks some uniqueness that would make their music really theirs. Now it's more like a bunch of different influences thrown in a bucket, though very well executed. Both of these tracks would make it to their debut full length album where they're given a bit more polished treating, the production of this two tracker being very decent demo quality.

A good start despite some flaws.

(Review originally written for Progarchives on May 7, 2009)