Review: Underwhelmed – Reveal

I often experience moments when listening to a band and enjoying them, but I have a problem with their name.  The name of a band should reflect the sound and emotion of the music, and be relatable to the band playing it.  Never have I been more curious of a name than I have been of New York based rockers Underwhelmed, whose music is anything but what the name suggests.  Listening to their full length debut Reveal is an absolute treat that rarely leaves the listener wanting more.

From the album’s beginning, the bombastic rocker, “Freak (Like Me),” Underwhelmed drags you in and never lets go.  The track succeeds with a foolproof hook and a solid mixture of vocal styles to create an anthemic hard rocker, perfect for kicking off an album like Reveal. In fact, it’s no surprise that, “Freak (Like Me)”, is the first single and signature song of this quintet, as it’s impossible to traverse the track even once without singing along by its end.  Underwhelmed only continues to impress with the follow-up dubbed “Angel.”  Wrapped up with sweet pre-chorus melody and an emotional, relatable, chorus, it’s hard not to immediately fall in love with “Angel.”  While frontman Chris Amplo disguised his prowess slightly in the previous track with electronic tones and vocal harmonies, “Angel”,  is the first time he flexes his pipes and shows off the influences of more prominent hard rock bands.  With a voice that sounds like Staind meets Theory of a Deadman, there are plenty of times when you’ll get the feeling that this vocalist packs punch.

Two other standout tracks close out the album, leaving a satisfied taste in the listener’s mouth as the disc stops spinning.  “Washed Away”, is a fine song that could use a bit of an emotional punch throughout the first two minutes of the song, but has good lyrical content throughout and gives the chorus an extra punch at the end by stripping away all the instrumentation briefly.  When Amplo sings his words alone followed by the big crash of returning riffs and cymbal hits, “Washed Away”, will have made its mark on you.  As if that weren’t enough, the repetitive yet powerful, “Reachin”, will have you reaching for the repeat button.  A slow build-up that really draws out those Staind comparisons leads into a thunderous chorus that you’ll never tire off thanks to the pure adrenaline packed into every note.  The guitar tracks laid down by Paul Boyle and Mike Armstrong are particularly noticeable in this song, stringing together a great sounding main riff and a killer solo.  This fine track concludes the end of the studio tracks on Reveal, which is a shame considering it was only the ninth on the disc.  Reveal closes with a live recording of “Silhouette”, which is a song that wasn’t on the album in studio form, but is hard to base an opinion on because of the quality.

It’s really a shame that Underwhelmed’s first try is only really nine tracks, as each of those tracks has a lot of merit.  It’s a great experience that’s over way too quickly and could have used a few more songs to fill out the album, and studio recording of “Silhouette” would not have gone without gratitude.  When it is all said and done though, Underwhelmed is a fun band to listen to, and puts together plenty of solid, cohesive material.  Plenty of the songs on this strong debut will stick  in your head for weeks, even though there aren’t even that many.  There’s no doubt that Underwhelmed has put out a solid debut, and has the potential to break out on rock radio any day now.

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