Dissing Limp Bizkit for the revolution

Above The Noise

The Revolution Smile

Flawless/Geffen Records

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Above The Noise

The Revolution Smile

Flawless/Geffen Records

Recommended if you like: Foo Fighters, Fuel, Filter

You are the front man of new band with a new project that may or may not take off, and a tentative record deal is in the works with a small label. Then a big-name band asks you to join them. What would you do?

Tell them, “No thanks, I’ve got something of my own going on right now.”

That’s exactly what Shaun Lopez told Limp Bizkit when he was invited to jam with the band and fill the lead guitar opening.

The rejection so intrigued the backwards-hat-wearing business mogul who is Fred Durst that he asked Lopez to send him a demo. He then signed Lopez’s band – The Revolution Smile – rounded out by guitarist Tim McCord, drummer Jeremy White and bassist Octavio Gallardo – to Flawless Records.

Don’t jump to conclusions, though. Just because it’s Durst’s label doesn’t mean the band is Baby Bizkit. The label stayed out of the recording process and let the band be who they are and do what they felt needed to be done to make a successful album – good thing, too, because the plan worked.

Lopez made the switch from lead guitarist to front man after his previous band, the ’90s rock group Far, split. He sings with emotion and a sometimes raspy growl that has a similar sound to that of Foo Fighters front man Dave Grohl.

The Revolution Smile’s debut album, Above The Noise, is filled with a mixture of aggressive guitar riffs and heavy screams, as well as a lighter side. The tracks go from one extreme to the next, having a heavy and in-your-face track like “Bonethrower” open the album and immediately follow it with a “Times Like These,” Foo Fighters-like track in “Payday,” which is lighter and more harmonized.

They proceed to fill the album with tracks that oscillate between heavy and somewhat lighter, and end the album with “I Wish I,” a song with acoustic guitar work that is a far cry from anything that precedes it on the album.

The debut from The Revolution Smile is an emotional roller coaster-ride, written mostly in first person and is a refreshing release where every song has its own identity.

This Sacramento, Ca.-based band is happy that Lopez chose the answer he did when he was asked to come in and jam.