Album Review: Pulo Revé - É

Album Review: Pulo Revé – É

Bands that try something new can often be polarising, but without innovative thinking, genres become stale and uninteresting. Five-piece act Pulo Revé certainly take risks with their debut album ‘É’, adding blues licks, spoken word, metal riffs and a lot of attitude to a backbone of post-hardcore, and though this can be confusing on first listen, the reward for persisting with it is an exciting record that breathes new life into the genre.

‘Introductory Blues’ sets the tone perfectly, as its fusion of multiple styles suitably prepares you for the following twelve tracks. Narrated vocals tumble over an acoustic intro that morphs into post-hardcore before aggressive vocals take the song to a melodic hardcore ending. Distorted riffs and vocals drip with attitude, as vocalist Oisín Fogarty Graveson’s prominent British accent delivers punch and grit against the angular riffs and crunching drum beats. In these moments, The Dillinger Escape Plan influences are obvious and as the album develops, more influences shine through.‘Crucial Fix’ is reminiscent of Bring Me the Horizon, with its catchy chorus and metal-tinged riffs, while the spoken-word aspects in ‘Of All the Bodies in All the World’ even brings hardcore act TRC to mind.

More traditional post-hardcore vibes appear toward the back end of the record, with chorus hooks and jagged rhythm changes that are reminiscent of At the Drive-In and letlive. It’s not all bluster and chaos though; ‘Pretty’ slows the atmosphere down with muted, heartfelt vocals against stripped-down guitar parts. This variation in tempo keeps the album interesting and shows that not only has attention been placed on the diversity of individual tracks, but on the composition of the album as a whole.

The number of styles that Pulo Revé have crammed into ’É’ should make this a clashing, confusing record, however the way the band commit to their innovative sound makes this an incredible achievement. The confidence of the vocals, the intricacies of the song-writing and the celebration of multiple influences within one coherent record gives Pulo Revé their own signature sound that should set them up as a major player in the post-hardcore genre. This would be an impressive feat for a seasoned band, but for debutants, this is even more impressive.

4.5/5

‘É’ by Pulo Revé is released on September 22nd.