Revocation “New Gods, New Masters”
The album opens with the title track. With a gurgling bass of Alex Weber and ringing guitar chugs, the riff machine of David Davidson & Harry Lannon just bring a heavy intensity. Then Davidson’s vocals kick in with his deep growls as the drumming of Ash Pearson delivers that thrash intensity. Complex in the arrangement, with bombastic and pummeling drums, transitioning into sweeping and soaring guitars near the halfway mark. It is truly progressive and epic in scale, while also delivering a thundering presence with the death/thrash underbelly delivering beneath the soaring lead guitar. A trademark of Revocation’s sound that I love is the band’s dynamic pacing and mixing up the track’s structure. A high-octane opening track that instantly starts the record out strong.
“Sarcophagi of The Soul” continues the aggressive and creative thrash-heavy sound. Double bass punches through the mix and add to the technical guitar playing of Davidson & Lannon. When the riff picks up before the halfway mark, and that gritty and nasty bass tone of Weber’s bass, just sound so heavy and stank-face inducing. Segueing into another awesome sounding but short guitar solo. As Pearson just flies all over the kit before the main riff comes back. With moments of melodic death metal, thrash metal guitar solos, and death metal drumming, the song is a perfect amalgamation of what Revocation brings with their sound.
“Confines of Infinity” is next and features Travis Ryan of Cattle Decapitation on guest vocals. The thundering guitar chugs that just reverberate in a pair of headphones instantly made me headbang along with every strum. The track has such brutality and a disgusting sound to it, reminding me of Aborted in it’s delivery and Davidson’s vocal performance at times. But I loved the slower, palm-muted riff during the verses. Showing you can be heavy in simplicity with the guitar playing. When Ryan comes in, the song just becomes unholy and ominous in its sound. Especially when the riff just gets more evil sounding and Ryan truly delivers his goblin shrieking highs, that transition into a pretty technical dueling guitars. “Dystopian Vermin” has a pretty nice bass lead starting the track before the band hits the ground running. Bringing classic thrash/crossover vibes in the riff and precision in the play style. Davidson’s vocals just have such disgust and anger behind it, all the while the riff just gets pumped up in its speed and volatileness. That breakdown at the halfway mark comes crashing in hard and the underlying riff under the guitar solos just kept me bobbing my head along like a bouncing ball effect. With the ending of the song just coming in with so much reverb, power and just sheer, unmitigated brutality.
I loved the proggy guitar opening of “Despiritualized”. With the bass and guitar gelling so well together. The clean guitars on the track sound beautifully mixed and divine, before the band drags you to hell with the drumming and guitar coming back hard and fast. The double-time, thrash energy picks up at the halfway mark thanks to Pearson’s drumming and he just steps on the gas during that section. Especially during the blasting section. Guitarist Gilad Hekselman guests on the instrumental track “The All Seeing”. True technical playing, dabbling in djent and progressive metal in the play style and production. As the riff just juggles from sheer, downtuned heaviness, to a whirlwind of thrash fretboard hopping, the band is precise and the rhythm section just keeping the all-around complex riff and pacing reigned in.
“Data Corpse” continues the same precision and play-style from the previous track, but is definitely more straightforward and more akin to death metal. Drums are just so fast and the riff matches the drums in the power and energy. With the chorus’ riff just an earworm of a riff, before slowing down to add a more brutal death metal aesthetic. I do like the song a lot, but I feel it just doesn’t have the same exact “oomph” as the other songs do so far on the album. Still a good song, but I feel like it’s missing something to truly make it complete.
Next is “Cronenberged” and features Jonny Davy of Job For A Cowboy. Straight 80’s thrash metal guitar riff right off the bat and double bass adding to the sheer power of the main riff. The solo right before the halfway mark and backing drums behind it is just *chef’s kiss* so good. Davy’s sniveling growls and the sheer death metal guitar sound on that part just sounds so disgustingly heavy. Incorporating moments of deathcore, combined with the technical/progressive death metal pacing, creates a slow, churning vortex of brutality as the song concludes. The album concludes with the final track “Buried Epoch” and features Gorguts’ Luc Lemay. The longest song on the album, I’m expecting the band to go out with a huge bang. As the riff comes in behind the driving rhythm section of Weber and Pearson, the main riff brings that sludgy, brutal death metal slowness that just instantly stank-faces you. Bringing a demonic flip-flopping of slowed-down, palm-muted deliciousness over an underlying driving double bass. And when Lemay’s vocals kick in, it just sounds so unnatural. Almost possessed in the production on his vocals, adding an echoey distortion and creating a truly evil sounding vocal delivery. The rest of the track is sheer chaos and the band just bringing everything they have for the final time as the album comes to a dramatic close.
New Gods, New Masters delivered the Revocation sound that I loved, especially on albums like their self-titled and Netherheaven. Songs like “Sarcophagi of The Soul” and “Confines of Infinity" just hit like a ton of bricks and were standout tracks for me. And “Cronenberged” is just a beast of a track that just decimates everything in its wake. Overall musically, the album was consistent with no skippable tracks. Even though I wasn’t a fan of “Data Corpse” compared to the rest of the album, it wasn’t skippable, just for me wasn’t at the same level as the other songs on the album. And at almost forty-five minutes runtime, this album was just on the cusp of being too long in my opinion, but Revocation delivered a solid release that will appease old fans and will bring in new fans with the band’s impressive musicianship with New Gods, New Masters.
SCORE: 4 / 5
You can purchase New Gods, New Masters on the Metal Blade Records’ Bandcamp or stream the album on the band’s Spotify when it releases September 26th. The band will embark on a month long North American headlining tour. Featuring support from Inferi, Judiciary and Vomit Forth. You can purchase tickets HERE.
