Only four months since their debut release, Pulo Revé are proving to be a force to be reckoned with. This September saw the release of their first full-length album which shows both progression, and that they’ve hit the ground running with their niche sound.
The album, simply titled ‘é’, opens with the track ‘Introductory Blues’ which uses a mixture of acoustic guitars, layered melodic vocals and an ambient build up to instantly grab your attention and eradicate any preconceptions you may have already had of the band.
Without holding back, the second song on the album ‘Looking Up, Or Around and In’ reverts right back to the sound they’re known for, with a spoken word style introduction followed by some ferocious breakdowns and melodic gang chants, a complete contrast to the opener.
There’s no letting up as each song on the album maintains a much faster tempo and has much heavier bass tones than the previous release. Although these songs are delivered with more sincerity and anger, ‘Ahead At 6:06’ still contains a well-crafted and catchy hook line leading into an equally catchy chorus.
‘Crucial Fix’ continues the venomous delivery and uses a lot of biblical and religious references in the lyrics. The song is closed out by an enormous, ambient crescendo, quickly followed by some almost tribal sounding bongo drums and bird sounds, further proving that Pulo Revé are willing to experiment and flirt with all and any musical styles and genres.
The aptly titled ‘Pretty’ slows down the overall tempo of the album. A reflective track dealing with the questioning of life and love, it has an eerie vocal track that is at times similar to that of Slipknot’s ‘Vermillion pt.2’.
For anyone who has listened to Pulo’s previous EP, tracks 6, 7, 9 & 10 will sound familiar as they are all present here on the album, yet they still sound as fresh as they did upon the first listen. The four songs from the previous EP are separated by ‘Above At 5:05’ which once again flutters back and forth between different genres throughout. Starting out fairly chaotic with plenty of breakdowns, the verses are a complete contrast and sound as though they’ve been pinched from a clean cut Indie band. Once again they abandon their own traditions and swap the clean sung choruses for aggressive gang chants before frontman Osh Fogarty-Graveson descends into what sounds like the gibberish of a tormented soul quarreling with his own inner demons.
It’s not always easy to keep an album interesting from start to finish without using any filler material, but Pulo Revé have proved that they can do just that. Even at the very end with songs ‘Another Blues’ and the album closer ‘Out’ they take this opportunity to really prove just how talented they are as musicians as well as how diverse they can be, as to not be pigeon holed under any one style. The last two songs on the album are made up of some dazzling instrumental parts, experimenting with various instruments such as bongos and tambourines as well as the use of layered and duel vocal tracks all leading into one massive crescendo.
It’s obvious that the St. Albans quintet have put a lot of work and emotion into this release and it’s all paid off. Breaking boundaries at every opportunity, Pulo Revé have once again proved to be a huge breath of fresh air into the scene.
JAMES DAVENPORT