Revocation – NO CLEAN SINGING

OBSCURA / REVOCATION / BEYOND CREATION / RIVERS OF NIHIL – LIVE AT THE CORPORATION, SHEFFIELD 24/10/16

Oct 272016

(Andy Synn turns in this review of the live performances by Obscura, Revocation, Beyond Creation, and Rivers of Nihil in Sheffield, England, on October 24, 2016 — along with videos of the performances.)

Our readers in the UK who play guitar or bass will probably have noticed something rather peculiar over the last couple of days. Riffs that they used to be able to play turning into a mangled, lumpen soup of glitches and errors… Fluid solos that they used to rip out with ease skittering away from stumbling fingers… even, in the most extreme cases, a complete inability to even lift their instrument anymore, as if they were no longer “worthy” to wield its power.

And I know why.

You see on Monday night I was there when Obscura, Revocation, Beyond Creation, and Rivers of Nihil selfishly used-up the entire country’s supply of notes and riffs, leading to a crisis of near biblical proportions amongst the string-slinging section of the UK metal community.

Thankfully, however, I’ve been informed that a fresh shipment is being piped in from the mainland, and so normal proceedings should be resumed by the weekend or thereabouts. Continue reading »

REVOCATION: “GREAT IS OUR SIN”

Album Reviews 3 Responses »

Jul 202016

(We present TheMadIsraeli’s review of the new album by Boston’s Revocation.)

Sometimes regression is evolution. While I haven’t kept up with the press surrounding this album, my friends who have tell me that this is supposed to be Revocation’s most progressive record. It certainly, in my estimation, isn’t that at all in the conventional sense you’d suspect. “Progressive” is also a word that’s been pretty butchered in the world of metal. When we live in a world where TesseracT is considered progressive, that shows how much water the label holds.

Revocation’s Great Is Our Sin is interesting, in that it indeed contains elements that might be considered progressive (extreme amounts of stylistic inclusion/blending and nuance brought about by that inclusion), but the music itself isn’t really what I’d call progressive. It’s fantastic technical, thrash-driven death metal that switches gears among just about every variation on the style, and Davidson’s guitar playing in and of itself is certainly progressive in ways that perhaps could only be explained to other musicians or the super-musically-inclined.

Revocation’s music, especially on this record that follows Deathless, which was also played it very straight, is largely devoid of any sort of meandering, exploration, or head-turning twists. It’s all pure, unrestrained brutality and darkness with eccentricities sprinkled throughout. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: VOLTURYON, DECREPIT MONOLITH, PSYCHOTIC PULSE, BLACK CROWN INITIATE, REVOCATION, NAILS, DEATH I AM, THE LUNA SEQUENCE, WITHERSCAPE

RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 9 Responses »

Jun 172016

(DGR takes over round-up duties today, featuring commentary and a wide array of recent song, video, and album streams. This would have been posted much earlier in the week if our editor weren’t so lame.)

If you’ve been reading the site recently you’ve no doubt noticed that quite a few of us shirked work and decided instead to go out to Maryland for the Maryland Deathfest shindig that the internet likes to talk so much about. However, the internet doesn’t take time off like we do and quite a bit of stuff came out during that period that despite our best efforts slipped right by us.

On top of that, since we’ve been playing catch-up for the last two weeks, a veritable pile of new music landed on top of us as well. And so I find myself opening my great maw wide in order to capture as much of it as possible — as well as using this as an opportunity to share some stuff that flew right past us long before we had MDF as an excuse for being terrible people.

Contained in this here news roundup is a veritable smorgasboard of new music, some of which came to us by the bands themselves and other times was discovered whilst I was spinning in circles on the internet. Either way, there’s a ton of stuff what floated down the river here — only to be captured by my net/boat/if only there was some sort of metaphor or object I could compare my news capturing ability to… ah well, maybe next time. Let’s get on with it. Continue reading »

NEW MUSIC FROM REVOCATION: “COMMUNION”

RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 6 Responses »

May 242016

I had intended to prepare a “Seen and Heard” round-up for today, and may still accomplish that, but I just listened to a new song from Revocation and decided to toss it at you without waiting until later — because it’s loads of fun.

The name of the song is “Communion”, and it comes from the band’s new album Great Is Our Sin, which will be released on July 22 by Metal Blade. Here’s a quote about the song from guitar whiz David Davidson:

“‘Communion‘ is the fastest song we’ve recorded to date and while it’s blistering in terms of speed there are also some proggy elements present to add contrast to the aggression.”

And he’s right. There’s even some funky bass work in this song along with lots of exuberant, head-spinning, technically impressive guitar work mixed into this invigorating thrash romp. Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2014’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS: PART 18

MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2014 4 Responses »

Jan 142015

Welcome to Part 18 in the continuing rollout of our list of 2014′s Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs. For more details about what this list is all about and how it was compiled, read the introductory post via this link. For the other songs we’ve previously named to the list, go here.

I failed to post another installment in the list yesterday, due to the annoying distractions of the job that, unlike this one, actually pays me for services rendered. However, I’m resuming the rollout today with two songs by bands who are among the best-known in the American extreme metal scene and who both released very strong albums in 2014. The cover art for both albums is also wonderful.

JOB FOR A COWBOY

Andy Synn review JFAC’s new album Sun Eater for us, and I thought he hit the nail on the head:

The struggle for credibility and acceptance by the Death Metal elite has been a long and arduous one for Job For A Cowboy. Their Deathcore roots and that name certainly tend to prompt a rather knee-jerk reaction from a certain section of the Death Metal community, despite the fact that the band’s purposeful progression from internet darlings to legitimate contenders has been an absolute joy to behold. Continue reading »

REVOCATION: “DEATHLESS”

Album Reviews 4 Responses »

Oct 062014

(In this post TheMadIsraeli reviews the forthcoming new album by Boston’s Revocation.)

Sometimes I think the best thing a band in Revocation’s position can do, with as many releases into their career as they are now, is to take a musical step back, in the interest of maintaining the essence of what the band are about. Their previous self-titled album was good, but I and others felt that the music was stagnating a bit. Oddly, this wasn’t because the band were getting too comfortable. Instead, I think the S/T suffered from attempts to include more progressive elements, sections, and song structures in the music, which detracted from the adrenaline and the intensity, while the core death/thrash sections felt a bit phoned in at times. I can see where Revocation may have wanted to integrate more “out there” moments into their music, but I think maybe even Revocation themselves realized that they needed to get back in touch with what made them stand out in the first place.

In a lot of ways, Deathless feels like a back-to-basics record, at least within Revocation’s own sonic domain. It finds the band more in the straight-up riff-driven death/thrash quality of their debut, Empire of the Obscene, and the album that catapulted them to notoriety, Existence Is Futile. The result is Revocation’s best record since Chaos of Forms. The idea of moving in a more pure, riff-driven direction with more maturity was a really smart move, and it proves that Revocation are in fact still 100% in touch with the intensity and the knack for inducing adrenaline rush that they were founded on.

“Deathless” is 100%, back-to-front, Revocation-patented thrash-driven death metal at its best. David Davidson, as per usual, makes this record, and this band as a whole. His signature thrash/death/fusion riffing style is definitely in top form here, but those fusion-y elements of his style also feel dialed back in order to bring the thrash and death metal elements to the forefront. It’s an interesting choice, considering it’s one of the things that “makes” him as a guitarist, but it also gives those moments when they come around an even greater impact. Continue reading »

OVERFLOWING STREAMS (PART 2)

RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 4 Responses »

Sep 212014

I haven’t had much blog time available since last Thursday because of job-related travel and activities, so I’ve fallen behind in posting about new songs and videos that I think you might enjoy. To catch up, I’m including a giant fuckload of them in this two-part post. And in a rare display of brevity, I’m letting the music speak for itself.

I’ve also salted this post with a smattering of older music that I discovered only recently. Part 1 of this large collection can be found here. Beginning with that post and continuing through this one, the music is presented in alphabetical order by band name.

THE HAUNTED

New video: “Eye of the Storm”
Album: Exit Wounds
Label: Century Media
Band location: Sweden

https://www.facebook.com/hauntedofficial Continue reading »

REVOCATION STREAMS THE TITLE TRACK FROM “DEATHLESS”

RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 9 Responses »

Aug 132014

Revocation’s new album Deathless will be in stores on October 14 via Metal Blade (and on slightly earlier dates in Europe). Minutes ago the label began streaming the album’s title track on YouTube, and with a little net snooping I also found an image of the album’s cover art, created by painter and tattoo artist Tom Strom — which I like a lot.

I’m enjoying the song, too. It’s downright ferocious — fast, feral, and of course filled with blistering fretwork, but it bludgeons as well as it strips skin and the melody sticks. Also, those throaty clean vocals you’re going to hear work quite nicely. Check it out after the jump.

Metal Blade is accepting pre-orders for the album here. Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2013’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS: PART 21

MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2013 4 Responses »

Feb 062014

Welcome to Part 20 of our list of the year’s most infectious extreme metal songs. For more details about what this list is all about and how it was compiled, read the introductory post via this link. To see the selections that preceded the three songs I’m announcing today, click here.

I guess it’s about time we thrashed the bejesus out of da place. I’ll hold the verbiage to a minimum.

REVOCATION

The album: Revocation The song: “Invidious”

Dat banjo. Doze solos. Dat bass drop. More words here and here. Continue reading »

VIDEOGRAPHY: KATAKLYSM (“ELEVATE”) AND REVOCATION (“FRACKED”)

RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 2 Responses »

Oct 172013

In this post we bring you two excellent new videos that premiered this morning.

KATAKLYSM

The new video from Canada’s Kataklysm is for a new song — “Elevate” — that will appear on this veteran band’s latest album, Waiting For the End To Come. The song is somewhat surprising, in that it’s a bit of a departure from what might be considered the band’s typical style. It still thunders and howls, but as my colleague Andy Synn put it, it’s a lot more spacious and has a big central melody. There were even moments near the song’s end when I was thinking “melodic black metal”. I haven’t listened to the song more than twice yet, but so far it is solidifying my impression that Kataklysm are coming back strong and that Waiting could be one of their best albums in a long time.

The video itself is also excellent. Its jerky-jerky motion and dramatic atmosphere suit the music, and it’s really well-made and interesting to watch. Also, zombies. You can’t go wrong with zombies. Continue reading »

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