It seems like such an eternity since I first got to meet and play with local stalwarts Revocation, they've now built up such an international respect though touring and eight studio albums that they're a household name, at least for any fan of contemporary death metal or deathcore. They also really fucking deserve it, because say what you will about any wavering quality from album to album, they maintain an intense level of studio canny, professionalism and musical proficiency that is never in doubt. I though the last two albums before Netherheaven, namely The Outer Ones and Great is Our Sin, were damned solid if not exceptional, and the opening handful of tracks off this new album do not disappoint. I'm not saying these are timelessly memorable tunes, mind you, I think that Revocation's true masterpiece might yet await us, but this is beyond workmanlike and at least the first piece, "Diabolica Majesty" is a scorcher.
And that's because, in addition to the modern death and thrash elements, I almost caught a whiff of melodic 90s death or black metal in this one that integrated very well with the chugging breakdowns of clinical melodies that the band are well known for. It's a fresh approach that really pays off once that mid-paced thrashing erupts and puts you back in familiar territory. Other highlights here were "Strange and Eternal" with some interesting breaks in between the furious barrage, and "Galleries of Morbid Artistry" with its moody escalation and some great melodies woven through the carnage of the chorus. It's almost like you took a few of the cooler Revocation albums prior to this and wound in a bit of Dissection or At the Gates and it feels fresh, whereas some of their earlier efforts could often get formulaic. You've still got plenty of technicality to gawk at, and shouldn't be disappointed if you've followed them up to now, but this album seems like it justifies itself a lot and offers in-roads to further progression or side-gression.
The band can still play the shit out of everything, with Ash & Brett forming a flawless rhythm section into which David Davidson can inject all of his ideas, which are considerable. The leads might not be the most immortal you've heard, but they're consistently catchy and atmospheric, and never show off to the detriment of the rest of their aggression. Vocally I've often thought there was something lacking, or rather the delivery was a bit stock for death metal or metalcore, but I actually found hid vocals on Netherheaven to be some of the strongest or heaviest he's done, not that there's a lot of variety in the intonation or meter of the lines, but it pretty well suits the intensity of the instruments. Recording is courtesy of Jens Bogren who has worked with a lot of European greats, like the recent At the Gates post-reunion records, and it's as slick and clear as you'd wish without becoming too poppy. Artwork is great, the prolific Paolo Girardi and frankly one of his more cohesive offerings of late, encapsulating the tightness and effectiveness of Revocation's style. I think this one sits right alongside The Outer Ones, even it it doesn't set a new standard, it's a fun enough listen.
Verdict: Win [7.75/10]
https://revocationband.com/
Showing posts with label revocation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label revocation. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 26, 2024
Revocation - Netherheaven (2022)
Monday, May 2, 2022
Revocation - The Outer Ones (2018)
There are times I've got to temper the pride I feel when a cool group of local guys goes on to international metal stardom with a critical ear, and I think I've done so pretty fairly throughout the Revocation catalog; but it's heartwarming to see acquaintances the world over pick up on the Boston band, and several more did with this 2018 effort The Outer Ones, their seventh full-length (not counting their time as Cryptic Warning), and for me the best once since 2009's Existence is Futile. This is the consummate death thrash band, combining the technical instincts of both into a proficient, efficient, punishing excursion into the realms of cosmic horror...always a great topic, although the cover art (their best yet) and lyrics probably highlight it more than the music itself.
You're getting intense, rapid fire riffing sequences that exult the group's worthiness to compete alongside acts really known for that like Obscura or Inferi, mixed with some concrete moshing thrash riffs which help keep them grounded for the pits at their tours and festivals. For me, though, it's the lead work and melodies here that shine, some of the best they've ever constructed, always elevating the songs to a level beyond the mundane, because while the guys can fire off a million riffs a minute, not a lot of them really stand out on their own. It's the flood of technique and incessant aggression that forms them into a patchwork that holds the attention, because you always feel the aural equivalent of 'blink and I might miss something'. But there are some decent rhythm guitars here or there, and I noticed that the more clinical and evil they get ("That Which Consumes All Things"), the better, and the more brick-like and Pantera, the worse off. But the latter doesn't happen enough to really bring down the whole effort, and there's enough variation across all these tunes that it'll soon fade from memory when you encounter the more musical, ambitious stuff.
As for the vocals, I've not always been a huge fan, and they're still a little generic, but there are a few varying degrees of guttural grunts and snarls here to at least mix that up too, and in terms of patterns and delivery they all sound effective over the music below. The main vocal is like a Chuck Schuldiner growl only more blunt, and I still can't imagine how much better they'd be with some more charisma and pain in them. That said, these are adequate enough for a lot of the audience that probably encounters this band among a bunch of lesser deathcore or brutal death acts and obviously aren't so picky. The music is also so polished in the mix that it does feel a bit too mechanical and soulless, a common symptom within this tech death niche. But I don't wanna seem too down on this, because when The Outer Ones shines, it really comes together into some exciting moments that make the heart quicken. It's not perfect, but it's really consistent with their other recent efforts like Great is Our Sin and Deathless, and if you miss bands like Atheist, Hellwitch or Cynic during their heavier phases, here are some successful successors.
Verdict: Win [7.75/10]
http://www.revocationband.com/
Friday, July 29, 2016
Revocation - Great Is Our Sin (2016)
Drummer Ash Pearson, formerly of 3 Inches of Blood, fits effortlessly into Phil Dubois-Coyne's recently vacated chair; and I'm not going to lie to you, as someone who found his prior band's output eye-rollingly mediocre and not remotely funny, I'd say Revocation is a huge step up. His solid and tempered battery of kicks and fills is pure fuel to the taut, semi-complex thrashing patterns dished out by Davidson and Dan Gargiulo, which often erupt into full-bore tremolo picked progressive death metal patterns in total 90s Death fashion. I'm not going to say that these riffs stick 100% of the time, and the album starts off on what is far from one of its stronger numbers, but at the very least I never felt less than compelled to continue exploring throughout, and tunes like "Theater of Horror" and "Communion" had plenty of earworms that I kept wanting to spin repeatedly. Brett Bamberger's bass lines are excellent, especially where they're given room to breathe in the bridges and other passages where the rhythm guitars serve more as a punchy applause for their low-end aerobics. They also pull off a pretty nice instrumental in "The Exaltation", which is simultaneously my favorite stuff on the entire record and their best attempt at this to date.
As for the vocals, which have always felt boilerplate and never interesting, I think either I've just gotten used to their bludgeoning post-Anselmo aesthetic or that Dave simply does a better job here than on most records. The cleans won't be for everyone, channeling some of that modernist rock radio angst people like Burton C. Bell and Devin Townsend first championed, but they are executed with enough taste here that they don't become a detriment to the volatility of structure. Another complaint I might offer is that, as modern and tight-fisted as the production here is, it rarely offers any sort of atmosphere or dynamic conducive to making this album immortal...as fun as I have listening through it, it's not one I'm likely to remember or revisit much by the end of the year. The "Altar of Sacrifice" cover sounds at once both more modern and aggressive and far less vicious and memorable than the original, and just seems like a too-safe icing on the cake, where I'd rather hear the band go after an old tech thrash number or something and make it their own. All told, though, Great is Our Sin is a pretty good record, edging out its predecessor Deathless just so slightly and far more of a tour de force than the middling eponymous disc or the solid, unremarkable Chaos of Forms.
Verdict: Win [7.75/10]
http://www.revocationband.com/
Monday, October 27, 2014
Revocation - Deathless (2014)
Revocation still walks a similar path to that they've inhabited since they were known as Cryptic Warning, a hybrid of the guitar god thrash/speed metal of yesteryear (Megadeth, Slayer, etc) with the emergent progressive death metal of the early 90s (Death, Cynic, Pestilence), all bristling with the momentum and 'gusto' picking sequences attributed to Swedish melodeath masters like At the Gates and Dark Tranquillity when they were making their waves. All of the guitars are carefully plotted to provide a wide variety of pacing, structure and dynamic, but you still get that creeping feeling that they just can't nail down any one identity, nor are they striving to do so. There were parts on this disc that reminded me heavily of Black Dahlia Murder's gradual increase in death-thrashing inertia to a few riffing segments which, blended with the cleaner vocal tone (as in the "Deathless" chorus itself, or "Labyrinth of Eyes") feel a lot like Blood Mountain-era Mastodon; while some of more agile picking progressions almost rival Protest the Hero in their elasticity. However, when you really trace it to the roots, these guys are most heavily influenced by those 80s giants like Mustaine; they just armor and flavor it in a number of the trending sounds since.
And when I limit a judgment of the record strictly to the guitars, it works well in tunes like "The Blackest Reaches", "Scorched Earth Policy" and other numbers that stuck out to me even among a crowd of competence such as the rest of these. Phil Dubois-Coyne's drumming is a seamless fit to the almost mechanically shifting palette of riffs between more clinical, punctual thrashing and warmer, full-bodied chords in choruses like that of "The Blackest Reaches". Brett Bramberger's bass lines are usually just as adequate as the rhythm guitars, often deviating with some appreciable note choices, but I did find that they often got lost under the riff barrage to the point that I was only tangentially aware of their existence. But on the flip side, as much as I think David Davidson is an excellent musician and one of the most talented Massachusetts has ever birthed, I really just can't get into his vocals any more than before. He's assisted here by Gargulio, the other guitarist (progenitor of Artificial Brain, who you should also check out), but even in union the overbearing barks seem streamlined from that whole Pantera-through-metalcore lineage and lack any real charm, nastiness or atmosphere beyond pure testosterone...
The cleans are fine for some much-needed plot twists away from the growls and snarls, but even then they just sound like a lot of bands that have adopted the Mastodon style, ultimately indistinct. And that's really the hangup which prevents this from becoming a 'great' album, even if it's better than Chaos of Forms or Revocation or Empire of the Obscene. All the riffs and leads might not be equally ear catching, granted, but its the vocals smothering them all that just feel like a distraction and don't really take me further into the stories the band is trying to tell with its labyrinthine guitar-work. If you remember tech-thrash monoliths like No More Color, Deception Ignored, Endless War or even stuff Death was doing (Human, Individual Thought Patterns, etc), the vocals stood out just as much as anything else in the songs (not for their volume alone, as they do here)...they might have sounded weird, or flawed in many cases, but that just gave them more personality...the cadence and timbre of these barks just seem cut and pasted from a number of banal modern day groove, 'core or nu-thrash sounds, where even, and I hate to say it, a more brutal guttural might seem an improvement, or something unusual and attention-grabbing.
Fair is fair, though, and if this wasn't an issue for you on any of their prior body of work, then it is unlikely to dissuade you from this one, because though I nitpick, it's not like they're awful. The lyrics are acceptable, occasionally lame when they deviate from the horror/death metal tropes (like the self-referential stuff in the title track...'the blood of the insane boils in our veins'?...hardly), but I found the sheer songwriting and riff selection good enough here that I've gotten about a half-dozen listens through it, and will probably get just as many more, though it's not on the level of something like Vector's Black Future which burned itself into my imagination and has hung out there since. That said, Revocation are barking up a similar tree, unafraid to incorporate modern influences and that sense of melody and balance that a lot of their more brutal counterparts shy away from. And it's at least nice, that when you peel away those layers of paint, you know Davidson and Dubois-Coyne retain loyalty to that Golden Age of ideas and execution that so many other bands have either abandoned, or remain painfully unschooled in.
Verdict: Win [7.5/10] (witness the decibel ritual)
https://www.facebook.com/Revocation
Monday, August 26, 2013
Revocation - Empire of the Obscene (2008)
Anyway, Revocation's professionalism and ability certainly translated to this disc, and you can see why it garnered the label attention that ended in their signing with Relapse. They had chemistry on the stage, and also off. Empire of the Obscene is clean and pummeling, with that swarthy and voluminous purity we heard on the Summon the Spawn EP, only a fraction better. Deep, bowel churning kick drums and a great guitar tone that seemed to combine the mid 80s Bay Area/Master of Puppets aesthetic with something capable of ferrying the band's more modern tech/death metal influences. Buda's bass-lines were dense, leaden and cleanly carried forth in the mix, and even if I'm not the biggest fan of Dave's vocals, here they were at their most salacious and vicious, especially where he lays on the more guttural, gory edge to them. On the other hand, the record is a grab bag of riffs that at best represented the more clinical side of late 80s thrash ala Heathen's Victims of Deception or Sepultura's Arise, and at worst some pretty overt influence from melodic Swedish death metal bands like At the Gates, or on occasional a more brutal aspect of modern post-Suffocation USDM. Unfortunately, even at their most melodic and accessible, the songs here like "Fields of Predation" often feel driven more by superfluous displays of technique than raw emotion.
I'm not sure if they fattened up the album based on the pretense that they wanted more on there apart from the demo/EP tracks, but some of the choices here like the 5 minute instrumental "Alliance and Tyranny" are the sorts of songs I hear once and soon forget, a piece that might of well just been on an Angela Gassow-era Arch Enemy record. Better if Empire of the Obscene had been tightened to about 35-40 minutes of the most kickass material and left excursions like this one out of it. I get that it reveals more of Revocation's progressive rock/metal influences and their willingness to branch out, but it's a lot of wasted time after just one decent, melodic riff. The "Stillness" interlude, too, a gentle acoustic piece that goes nowhere apart from furthering the notion of versatility in the trio's arsenal. There are other songs like "Age of Iniquity" which have really boring thrash/death stop/start patterns among them which simply don't seem to play up to the group's obvious proficiencies, and I wish they had just cut the chaff in a lot of places here. I mean it says a lot to me that the Summon the Spawn material remains among the strongest here...and I was just expecting this to burn the house down and revolutionize modern technical metal. It does no such thing.
But at worst, Revocation are simply providing an exhibition of their chops and technical potential here with a pretty harmless set of riffs that occasionally grow more exciting than stock late 80s riffs sauced in 21st century production standards. Empire of the Obscene is by no means a 'bad' effort, and modern pundits would appreciate its level of balance and control. The lyrics are decent if topically scattershot, and for an album that was initially self-released, Pete Rutcho's production was pristine, polished to a modern pop/rock level, without losing the ability to wrench a neck out of its socket or punch you in the nethers. For whatever reason, though, each time I've gone back to listen to this over the last five years, it has become more and more expendable. The songwriting is far more bland than the sophomore Existence is Futile (still their best album), and it was pretty obvious they were just getting warmed up even when this first dropped. Sleek, competent death/thrash metal that will probably be more impressive to those who never experienced the 80s or 90s influences firsthand, but not terribly exciting or interesting compared to something like Vektor or Immaculate.
Verdict: Indifference [6.75/10]
https://www.facebook.com/Revocation
Saturday, August 10, 2013
Revocation - Summon the Spawn EP (2006)
That said, this sort of punchy, clinical death/thrash hybrid was all but unheard of here in the New England region, drawing evenly from 80s tech thrash, Suffocation-styled NYDM and Floridian bands like Cynic, Atheist and Hellwitch who all wrote, at some point, with a similar penchant for jerking riff construction and progressive metal ideas. Summon the Spawn runs the gamut of such ideas, from the workmanlike neck breaking psycho-thrash of "Summon the Spawn" itself to the blazing, beautiful lead melodies embedded in the closer, "Suffer These Wounds". The bass lines are fat and pluggy, the drums utterly clear as they snap, pop and thump along to the varied tempos, and the rhythm guitars almost constantly engaging themselves with something different than the last few measures. Revocation was packing plenty of variation into its songwriting, and still does, but in these earlier years there was no real sense that they were overexerting themselves. Their ideas made sense in correlation and they kept the songs tight rather than cluttered. That's not to say I find the riffs here even marginally as memorable or unique as their influences, but they work, and what's more, the band was able to pull this stuff off flawlessly on the stage...
My usual adversity to the vocals did apply back then, but by then I hadn't had time to really get used to the reason I didn't enjoy them. They felt a little fresher, a little bloodier. There are moments here like in "Summon the Spawn" where the backing gurgles are decent, and in my opinion, would have been a better choice for most of their records, even if they would have created a starker contrast against the 'prettier' musical choices, and run the risk of seeming generic when streamlined against the pure tech death of the 21st century. But I definitely credit the production on this thing, recording at Damage Studios in Southbridge, MA (which the band would use again), because it's so perfectly level in capturing the 3-piece's energy and prowess, and honestly one of the better sounding releases in their backlog. The mix is polished and rich, and death metal pundits who loathe clean recordings will probably hate it, but for the purposes of this brand of scientific method performance it's the right fit, honoring where they came from and where they were headed.
If Summon the Spawn has problems, it's just that the songs aren't among their best, and unless you were hanging around the East Coast scene in the middle of the first decade of the 21st century, it doesn't have a lot of context. All three tracks were included with Empire of the Obscene (2008), and sound better there amongst their neighbors, so it's really more of a collector's item/cdr/demo thing (though their 'real demos' were as Cryptic Warning) and doesn't carry much value in hindsight.
Verdict: Indifference [6/10]
https://www.facebook.com/Revocation
Friday, August 9, 2013
Revocation - Teratogenesis EP (2012)
"The Grip Tightens" is one such case, an onslaught of melodic and catchy riffing which bridges the band's US thrash influences with their Swedish melodeath counterparts. One of the guitar progressions here pre-chorus is a bit generic and predictable, but once they hit the mood of that chorus it's even easy to forgive Davidson's barking, which to be fair is stronger and NASTIER sounding here than on several of their full-length efforts. They've even got a breakdown in there for all you At the Gates/Black Dahlia Murder fans, and as usual the lead sequence is extremely well dispensed. Another contender is "Maniacally Unleashed" a slightly tech thrashing beast in which the opening notes just pop into you like a scalpel, and then it picks up into an even more intense piece with blasting, wailing micro-solos and a great bridge. The riffs here are note-for-note superior to anything off their latest album (Revocation s/t), though I didn't love the vocals. I wasn't as convinced with the other tracks, but "Spurn the Outstretched Hand" and "Bound by Desire" were at least as solid as much of the material on Chaos of Forms; the latter bordering on a tech black/death hybrid with lots of blasting and tremolo melodies (but not exemplary for the style).
Production here is comparable to the records sandwiching it, pretty dry and effective without a lot of effects saucing up the guitars where unnecessary. This was also a nice place to introduce new bassist Bramberger, who does run rampant at a few opportunities, but often falls behind some of the rhythm guitars in "Spurt the Outstretched Hand" or "The Grip Tightens" to the degree that you forget he's even there. Drums are intense and admittedly, Dave's vocals are about half on fire and half their debilitating selves (so much less compelling than the music that they can seem obstructive). The few, cleaner, backing lines add a nice, numbing effect to the choruses without lapsing into shitty mallcore like Killswitch Engage. Lyrics remind me of Immolation or Suffocation, political in scope but packed with a few instances of death metal grandeur and gore, a bit hard to chew when you realize these are East Coasters who probably get breakfast at Dunkin' Donuts (or your local equivalent). But, hey, suspension of disbelief, right? Teratogenesis is pretty damn solid, and you cannot beat the price. Nothing amazing, but a great way to 'sample' the band, and if you like this you'll want to track down their sophomore Existence is Futile with haste.
Verdict: Win [7.25/10]
https://www.facebook.com/Revocation
Thursday, August 8, 2013
Revocation - Revocation (2013)
The result is their least impressive album to date, if not in terms of 'intense activity' then in sheer quality, with a slew of tunes flying frenetically towards the realm of forgettable. From the lazy title, to the negative space on the cover, to the music itself, it's painfully difficult to get excited. A handful of 'wow, that's neat' moments and then on with my day. The chief issue I'm having is with the vocals, a complaint I've lodged over the rest of their works which clearly is in no danger of being addressed. David Davidson is hands down one of the best guitar players in the Boston area, so tight and technically proficient that it makes others want to give up in shame; it's doubly impressive that he sings and plays simultaneously. But his barking is little more than a bland post-Anselmo metalcore bark with next to no variation or emotional resonance. Music this plotted and potentially devastating deserves a nastier inflection with some character, but every time he starts spitting out lyrics it's guaranteed to suffocate the riffing beneath. It was an issue with the prior works, but here, as the band reaches its most manic pacing, my lack of interest in this style of growl has 'come to a head'.
It might not even be a matter of finding someone new, but just fix the grainy, dry production, snarl with a little more reverb. With more charisma. There's a reason I could remember many of Hetfield of Schmier's lines instantaneously, but can't recall Dave's raving five minutes later. At best you're going to get some layered gutturals and snarls (like in "Fracked") but these still seem like I could pick up a random metalcore/deathcore record of the past decade and possibly find better. They need to be at LEAST as good as Vektor's. Beyond that, some of the 'mathy' riffing definitely seems like the product of a creative osmosis as the band have toured with a number of high profile hardcore or metalcore acts. There's not necessarily anything wrong with that, or with Revocation attempting to grow itself in multiple directions, but it felt a little distracting when I'm engaged in some highly technical, surgical death/thrash riffing and then it suddenly sounds like Ben Weinman or Kurt Ballou has hijacked the song. To be fair, these moments are a minority, but I guess I was just more impressed when the band was writing a more straight-up mesh of 80s thrash and seminal tech death influences on Existence is Futile. The lead sequences on this album are without question its strongest, generally supported by appropriate and exciting rhythm guitar riffs that are better than most of the verses.
These gripes aside, Revocation is not a record without some moments of incendiary bliss. Rhythms guitars in verses are more involved and (occasionally) engaging than your average rethrash throwback, because they are drawing from a wider palette of influences. Melodic tremolo runs, grooves, dystopian structures that can recount anything from SYL to Darkane...these guys aren't just farting out tunes over a single week, a lot of effort goes into the placement and diversification, a wealth of ideas playful and punishing. But that doesn't make them great songwriters, because the myriad riffs just aren't consistent in quality. Every song on the album has SOMETHING good in there, but you have to weed through a lot of average, non-compelling progressions to arrive ("Entombed by Wealth", "A Visitation" or "The Gift You Gave" in which they go all Amon Amarth-sounding in the chorus being prime examples). The commitment to variation is laudable, and like past efforts they don't shy away from cleaner guitars or jazzy Cynic-like explorations, but it really does seem that the chaff could have been cut off the wheat here, and Revocation rendered down to about 30 minutes of excellence rather than 52 of meandering.
I already mentioned the pratfalls of the vocal production, but otherwise this record sounds up to speed with their last few, without a lot of sparkle outside of the leads. The rhythm guitars have a lot of punch to them, mandatory when they're hitting the mid-stride grooves or the djent-like hammering ("Spastic"). You can almost always make out the new bassist Brett Bamberg, whose bouncy Blacky-meets-DiGiorgio tone fills in for the departed Anthony Buda quite sufficiently. Phil is just as sick and effective as ever before, maybe not considered an 'A-lister' in extreme metal drumming but he can fucking play anything regardless. There's a bit of a digital machine gunning presence to the fills, but the kicks roll along like brickwork, and he can match each shift in tempo with ease. Ultimately, I think I'd just prefer a 'remix' of this same album with about 10-15 minutes of fat trimmed off, and better vocals. The combination of flashy guitar work over a fusion of styles thrashing, deathly, whatever-core and progressive will undoubtedly dazzle a generation of listeners reared on anything from Vektor to djent, but the songs aren't as distinct as Existence is Futile. Not a bad album, despite the issues I had, but Revocation will have to trawl harder for its inevitable(?) masterpiece.
Verdict: Indifference [6/10]
https://www.facebook.com/Revocation
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Revocation - Chaos of Forms (2011)
For one, I think I've just grown tired of the band's vocals. They were never their forte, but here they just seem like a tireless stream of metalcore-like shouts integrated with some blackened Chuck Schuldiner rasping and Kyle Thomas/Phil Anselmo attitude. Solid enough to support the band's thinner, punchier riffing, but just nowhere near as interesting as the music. Some leeway should be given as they sing and play simultaneously, but in a studio setting I'd expect to hear a little more character and imagination here. The other downside is that the influences often poke through the compositions a little too boldly, for instance you'll hear a riff here or there that sounds like it's in direct stylistic tribute (NOT a note-for-note violation) to Megadeth here, or Destruction there, or Exodus over there. This isn't news, really, since the last album had a similar foundation, but it seemed to mesh together better as a whole, where here, the individual elements stand out further from their environment.
Those quips aside, though, Revocation understands how to write a goddamn riff, and Chaos of Forms is loaded with them. I enjoy the album's more mathematical constructs, like "Dissolution Ritual" and "Conjuring the Cataclysm" with their progressive, almost fusion segues. They can do surges of melodic death escalation like "No Funeral" which should have the Soilwork crowd lined up for t-shirts in no time, and then tear into tech death/thrash with the title track or "The Watchers" which will impress the more hardcore brutal sect that follow the modern Californian scene. Precision and polish are two areas in which these Bay State bludgeons excel, and there's nothing 'old school' or exceedingly redundant about what they write, even if they derive from a hundred or so precedents.
Tense and talented, the future still seems limitless for this band, and they deliver on the stage just as bloody a nose as they do in the studio. Even if half the riffs don't stick, they've obviously spent a good deal of time composing the thousand or so that comprise the album, and I found myself revisiting quite a few of them. They would benefit enormously from a more charismatic and vicious vocalist, like those that defined their 80s thrash influences. These feel a little too forced and formulaic in terms of tough guy emotion. Yet I appreciate that, despite all their virtuosity, they never indulge themselves too much to the detriment of their songwriting. Is Chaos of Forms deserving of its surrounding storm of high praise and hype from prominent press outlets? Is this the next 'savior' of metal music? Signs point to no fucking way. However, even if individual strands of composition breed familiarity, Revocation is at least a band striving for 'something', and that's more than I can say for the countless, faceless clones who seek nothing but the secure shadows of their forebears.
Verdict: Win [7/10]
http://www.myspace.com/revocation
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Revocation - Existence is Futile (2009)
Existence is Futile is their Relapse debut and crushes its predecessor Empire of the Obscene (which I found a little bland). The album sounds intense, the guitars have the perfect punch to them and yet the fluidity of all the band's dense riffing is obvious. Stylistically the band ranged from complex thrash and groove, to a more straight laced tech death metal. "Enter the Hall" is a good thrashing instrumental to open the album, shredding included. "Pestilence Reigns" is frantic and punishing but laden in accessible grooves and driving rhythms. "Dethonomics" is a titan of winding riffs, and the title track plasters you with a barrage of deep thrashing and some slower, pensive pummeling. Yet, none of these are among my favorites, because the second half of the album truly picks up steam. "The Brain Scramblers", "Dismantle the Dictator" and "Leviathan Awaits" are all amazing tracks which number among the best death metal released this year, and "The Tragedy of Modern Ages" is a great seven minutes to close out the album.
Chaotic Dystopia. A nucleus malign.
Blasting waves of discord, warping bounds of space and time.
Seething, grasping primal leech seeping throughout existence,
saps univcersal energy to shapeless, fearsome, fell:
A permanent apocalypse, beyond endless wastes, infinite vacant spaces must be crossed.
Not a lot of complaints with this album! I did feel the latter half was stronger in scope, but the earlier tracks still feature some great riffs. I'm not the biggest fan of Dave Davidson's vocals, but they sound loud and aggressive on this album and add a grotesque layer of percussion to the already bludgeoning instruments. All three of these gentlemen have an excellent grasp of composition; despite their technical merits they never shred excessively or add too many riffs into the mix. There are slight progressive touches to tracks like "The Tragedy of Modern Ages" that always score upon delivery.
Massachusetts has had some huge success in the past decade with metalcore bands like All That Remains, Killswitch Engage, Shadows Fall, etc, so I'm crossing my fingers that Existence is Futile grants this band the attention that has eluded it for years, since Revocation actually deserves it. Their sound will appeal to both riff hounding thrashers and death metal fans.
Verdict: Win [8.5/10] (my fearful thoughts drowned out by the deafening artillery)
http://www.myspace.com/revocation
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