With all the bands that emerged during the new wave of Metal and Hard Rock bands in the early 2000s, few have survived as long as Saliva. Planting their roots in the late ‘90s, Saliva’s distinctive brand of Metal hit broader audiences hard with the release of Every Six Seconds in 2001. An album that some would argue is one of the most underrated in the world of Alternative Metal from the 2000s, it laid a strong foundation for Saliva moving forward, who struck it big in 2002 with the number-one single “Always.” A track featured on the Back into Your System album found more people awakened to who and what Saliva was.
Over the past two decades, a lot has happened in the world. To start with, most of the bands who had flairs of success during this period have been defunct for years, but not Saliva… because they keep going even in the face of adversity. Summarizing the wild story of the band briefly, original Vocalist Josey Scott departed back in 2011, ushering in a new era with Bobby Amaru as the voice of Saliva. Perhaps the biggest change was that several key members bowed out from the band in the years to follow, including Drummer Paul Crosby, in 2022. Rolling with the punches, months prior to the release of their eleventh album Revelation, the tragedy struck in March of 2023 when original Guitarist Wayne Swinny died from a brain hemorrhage at fifty-nine years old.
You would think this would have been the final blow to Saliva, right? Think again because Amaru, at that point the band’s vocalist for thirteen years and four studio albums, took the lead and decided Saliva would continue in memory of Swinny. Doing this, Amaru, former Shinedown Bassist Brad Stewart, Drummer Sammi Jo Bishop, and newly recruited Guitarists Josh Kulack and Sebastian LaBar took to the road in support of Revelation in the fall of 2023 into 2024. It was exciting for fans because, truthfully, Revelation is an extremely strong set of songs.
This leads us to the big question—how long will Saliva continue? Well, there does not seem to be any end in sight because Amaru is inspired to keep the fire burning. The evidence is in the forthcoming new album Revelation: Retold. Taking many by surprise, it arrived on January 31, 2025, through Judge and Jury Records, but the first indication that something was in the works was a new single called “Time Bomb” that landed back in November 2024. Purely electric, the track has a vintage Saliva energy you may liken to 2001’s “Click Click Boom.” With that being said, it is indeed one absence of any original band members. Something that might feel a bit odd to some fans fear not, because it is everything you could hope for and more with a killer guest spot from Peyton Parrish.
Giving you this taste, the remainder of Revelation: Retold offers fourteen more songs… some of which you know, some you do not. Simplifying it, this album features three brand new songs (including “Time Bomb”), plus everything that was on the 2023’s Revelation. The difference, however, is that you also get a newly re-recorded edition of “High One Me,” where Amaru teams with talented Singer Lauren Babic, and “Horizon” with a guest spot from Candlebox’s Kevin Martin. Very cool, these two reworked songs do not replace the originals but add a new wrinkle into the sound and give a different perspective that is well worth the time.
Beyond this, the other brand new songs here are “Crowd Goes Wild” and “Devils World,” which each are on different ends of the spectrum. Breaking them down, “Crowd Goes Wild” is an upbeat, party-pumping Saliva classic made for arenas, while “Devil World” is a more mellow Rock song with a Blues feel as Amaru tells a gut-wrenching story of navigating life. Each is a very good selection; another piece of information worth noting is that the late Swinny was part of the songwriting for “Crowd Goes Wild.” As it stands, without any knowledge of what else in the Saliva achieves, this could be the last Swinny co-written song of there we may ever hear.
Overall, Revelation: Retold is a nice revisit to one of Saliva’s strongest albums in over a decade, with some very special extras. You could argue that it is a great segue into a new era for the band while showing fans that the legend of the past will be preserved. That is why Cryptic Rock gives Revelation: Retold 4.5 out of 5 stars.
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