It is always admirable to see a band try to blend together heaviness and melody as it’s a great concept on every level, but it can be pretty damn hard to pull off in a balanced way. It’s infectious when it’s done well but greatly underwhelming in its weakest moments, and it’s always fun to see a band pull it off. I wasn’t expecting to see it done great justice before diving into Reverent Tales’ latest album but that’s exactly what they gave us.

Rarely does melody carry an album all on its own, and that’s no different here. Reverent Tales could’ve easily put all their faith into their riffs and done their best to make their material focus on a few catchy chords to “enhance” the listening experience in order to simulate their music standing out. But, they refuse to fall for such a pitfall and the whole of “Visceral” is an aptly named album that gives us a damn good insight into what this band is capable of. Especially for a debut, this Portuguese band has done a splendid job. Outside some weird effects on the vocals that threw me off a good bit, there wasn’t anything that “Visceral” brought to the table that I couldn’t help but look at and say that it was put together and that Reverent Tales already clearly knows what they’re doing with their metal. They’ve created something that we’ve definitely heard before from many other acts, but there’s no denying here that “Visceral” is exceptional in its quality and execution as Reverent Tales pulls no punches throughout it and really give it their all on a level where it’s oozing out of every possible note.

This is definitely the best foot forward that Reverent Tales could’ve given themselves with this album, and the potential for exponential growth for an even wilder album is extremely high. “Visceral” is far from anything to sneer at or look down upon in any way, but I can’t help but feel this is just the start of what this band can really do.

LISTEN to “Visceral” via Spotify here.

LIKE Reverent Tales on Facebook here.