PHASE REVERSE is the debut album of the homonymous trio from Athens, Greece which specializes in the field of Heavy Rock. The band exists since 2007 and before the release of their first album the band was focused on live shows. However, the album was originally released in 2009 but it was released in late 2011 as in the beginning there were distribution issues. In the press kit, which I read before listening to the album, the music style is described as "not quite Metal, not quite Rock, but the best of both" and later below that this record contains numerous of potential radio hits. Strange, but I'll get to this again later.

Album opener, "Cross to Bear", comes soaring with an air raid siren while followed by a bombastic riff. Instruments go down when vocals come in and things get heavy again in the chorus. Strange enough this is a pattern that keeps going on in other songs like "I got your back", "Eye to Eye" and "Tear down the Walls" to name a few. I honestly, think that this deducts from the tracks as it stops the power that the song has. "Death Rider", "Road Fever" and "Long Gone" thankfully do not follow this pattern and are much more enjoyable and solid. There are also some nice ballads namely "Crash N' Burn", "High Hopes" and the hidden track in "Long Gone". The record runs for 67 minutes and "Tear Down the Walls" is a song that was added after the initial release of the record. Finally, I believe that the old cover was much nicer than the new one, but that's again a matter of personal taste.

The prime effort of PHASE REVERSE is failing in specific points making a great record to sound not so great. Let me be more specific on that. The band has the balls to write great music and the capabilities. The record is full of great riffs, the musicianship is awesome, Tas's vocals have the perfect tint for that kind of music, the production is just killer but most of the compositions have that change of flow that is ruining the whole attempt. For instance "Cross to Bear" would be killer if it was a constant beater and not had that calm parts. I don't know if this intentional or this is the band's identity but somehow this doesn't strike well on me.

To conclude, I believe that a better distribution of tempo and unification in song structure and rhythm would give a much enjoyable result. To get back to the press kit I hope that this song structure was not intentional by the band to have a mainstream sound. I wouldn't write all that stuff if I didn't believe that this band has potential, which they made a great effort in recording this album and the next one will be better.