After a 12 year run, Floor Jansen and her former band, After Forever, decided to call it quits. Not really sure of the reason behind it but she is now back with her new metal project, ReVamp. I am truly a fan of female-fronted metal bands like Nightwish, Lacuna Coil, Epica, Within Temptation etc… but what I don’t understand is when you start over with a fresh new project why does it have to sound almost exactly like the one you just left? Unfortunately that’s what Floor did. She brought in a bunch of session musicians and made a darker, more gothic version of After Forever. Not that she can’t hold her own, she definitely has the pipes but there is no…oomph… for a lack of a better term.

There’s nothing really here that makes me want to listen to this album again. “Here is My Hell” is probably one of the hardest tracks on here with guest vocals from ex-Orphanage grunter, George Oosthoek accompanying her. “Head up High” is another solid effort with symphonic keyboard passages from keyboardist, Joost Broek, also formerly of After Forever. The third track, “Sweet Curse”, is a nice melodic track that is also a duet with Symphony X frontman, Russell Allen. The “In Sickness Till Death do Us Part” trilogy is where she completely lost me, I applaud her for trying something that she hasn’t done before but it just fell flat. Even with Bjorn of Soilwork helping her out on Part 2, it was unnecessarily long and it didn’t really go anywhere except for me forwarding to the next track.

“Kill Me with Silence” is one of the few different tracks that has a little bit of a different tempo with the guitar and drums just hovering in the background. It shows more of Floor’s vocal talent and is backed by a very powerful chorus. “Lost Myself” also ends the album very well with just a piano and Floor’s vocals. With nothing else around to disturb the vibe here you can really tell how talented she is as a singer.

The downside of ReVamp is repetitiveness. Though there are a few sporadic moments that show the band’s creativity it’s not enough to detract from the constant repetition. Although this is ReVamp’s debut, Floor herself has been doing this for some 12 or more years. I was hoping she would be able to keep adding newer elements to her music and push herself a little further in the creative department. While it didn’t really fulfill my musical tastes, fans of After Forever might want to check this out.

[Visit the band's website]

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