Verscythe

VERSCYTHE (US) – A Time Will Come (2013) | Forgotten Scroll https://www.forgotten-scroll.net/the-gold-behind-the-scroll/verscythe-us-a-time-will-come-2013/?doing_wp_cron=1678768379.7706980705261230468750 - Forgotten Scroll

Now You Know: Verscythë - Dead Rhetoric http://deadrhetoric.com/features/now-you-know-verscythe/ - Dead rhetoric

Monday, October 14, 2013
Verscythe-A Time Will Come

Self-Released/Independent Recording
2013

Active since January of 2011, the 5-piece collective known as Verscythe offer up their debut and (so-far) sole release, "A Time Will Come", for the enjoyment of not only power metal purists worldwide, but also for those who love kick-ass, traditional heavy metal with all the fixings! That's correct folks, right-up front let's just roll the dice and call it like we see it! This 2-year old plus band mentions how they like Iron Maiden and Pink Floyd on their Facebook page, but all that anyone really needs to know about this New Bedford-based band is that, besides benefiting from having a hell of a cool lead singer in Justin St. Pierre, Verscythe are 100% about all things metal and 100% about being a professional band. Hailing from New Bedford, Massachusetts, and formed out of the ashes of fellow New Bedford act Kreagen (which released one, 3-track demo titled "Unspoken History" as well as one full-length album, "Evolution of Sorrow", in their short career), this group was brought to my attention by my friend Glenn who, besides also being a rather cool individual himself, is the U.S. rep for Minotauro Records (home of the Mox Nox re-issue among other things). But, while Glenn may have pointed the way for me it was actually lead singer Justin St. Pierre himself who sent me this 10-track album along with a nice note. Both items were appreciated, but that doesn't mean I'm easy by any stretch of the imagination. There are a couple of "bumps" along the way with this album, but we'll dissect that later on. Alongside bass player/former Kreagen Jack St. Pierre (who I would assume is Justin's brother), we find the twin guitars of Jeff Rull and Chris Reed (who, besides also being in Kreagen, was also briefly in the cult heavy metal act Briar Rose) and drums which are handled by Kevin Camille (Kreagen/Beyond the Embrace). For those keeping score at home, that all adds up to a ton of experience crammed tight into one young act. But, that does bring up one point that I promised to address. While they have (and still do) accomplish a hell of a lot for such a young band, at least as far as the overall age of Verscythe as a band, there was moments when I wasn't impressed. Granted it was only a few items, but I do feel it's worth mentioning for clarity sake. My apologies of course if the song holds special meaning, but "Wednesday's Rain" is just a tiring number. More Extreme then the band's usual Iron Maiden vibe, it seemed to be a real weak spot on an album that otherwise rocked hard. It's not just Iron Maiden love here, but bands like Judas Priest, (early) Queensrÿche and even more traditional heavy metal like W.A.S.P all fit into the sound of Verscythe. So, while that is plain killer, and really makes for the stuff that heavy metal wet dreams are made of, the deviation from that plane in the shape of a number like "Wednesday's Rain" brings the whole thing to a screeching halt! But, that's just one song out of an album jam packed with heavy metal gold. All it does is show that while a band like Verscythe is made for heavy metal fanatics, they are still only human like the rest of us. Of course there is always the chance that others might like such variety and I for one, with my often times odd musical tastes, would not fault anyone for that. I'm just presenting the whole picture so that I don't over-hype this album as being perfect (although it damn near is at other times!). In the end though I was highly impressed with this band's skill-level and their ability to craft metal tunes that remain in your head even after the album is all done. That is not an easy task. As this is the group's sole release so far there is little doubt that with each new album they will grow and only get better. With time comes experience and in the end I really do suspect that this band will prove capable of creating more killer metal. This is a good start and an album that easily proved itself worthy of recommendation! - Heavy Metal Time Machine

Verscythe - A Time Will Come
Picture
Self-Released, 2013
1. This Eternal War
2. A Time Will Come
3. Unfinished On Earth
4. Start The Revolution
5. Wednesday's Rain
6. Til The End Of Time
7. Through The Soul
8. The Opening Of Life
9. Land Of Shells
10. Dead Man's Hand


Verscythe are a relatively new twin-guitar attack in the heavy/power metal genre and are based out of the New Bedord, Massachusetts area featuring brothers Jack St. Pierre and Justin St. Pierre on bass and vocals respectively, the guitar work of Chris Reed and Jeff Rull and Kevin Camille on drums. This is their debut album and they released it on their own last summer (2013). I have just stumbled upon them recently.

The first two things that struck me were the production quality and the songwriting. For an indy/self-released project the production quality is very crystal clear and rivals that which is put out by major labels, it is just really put together well and very worthy of a listen just for that factor. The songwriting is also that of some really experienced musicians as well. I researched further and saw that most of the band had actually worked together for years prior to Verscythe in a band called Kreagen, which also put out an album in 2008.

Justin St. Pierre has a really strong voice here. His vocals range from the tender emotional balladry to a deeper and more sinister growl that has more than a bit of a Hetfield feel to it. It works very well with the music that Verscythe crafts. Generally the band is less power and more traditional but they fuse various elements from other genres as well. The ballad Wednesday's Rain is a combination of 80s MTV vibe with some more modern arrangements filtered in there. The vast majority of what they put out is a more mid tempo, quasi melodic power metal aural attack.

This Eternal War and Til The End Of Time are a couple examples of some of their more power metal level of music, though again they are more mid tempo and not the all out rager type. Justin keeps his vocals in check even as the band blazes on around him. Don't expect many Halfordian shrieks here, just very strong melodic vocals. Through The Soul is a very interesting song that just has to test Justin's endurance to the limit as there are long periods without rest for the vocals and then he does start to show his power during the second half of the song, really rather cool!

This is a really bad ass album that was a pleasure to stumble upon and I anxiously await to see any new music this five piece band puts out in the future, one of those very pleasant finds while sifting through all the refuse in metal these days!

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