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!