“Plan my escape through gateways I create.“
When it comes to evolving your sound, death metal bands have to walk a fine line. Change too much and fans will accuse them of selling out for more mainstream appeal. Continue to write the same style of albums for their whole career, and fans will eventually get bored. For every band in the genre that makes the wrong decision and loses popularity, there are acts like Revocation that find a way to evolve their sound in an exciting way that satisfies old fans, while also increasing their popularity tenfold. Starting in 2000, Revocation began their careers as a thrash metal-inspired melodic death metal band. Putting out engaging records such as 2009’s Existence Is Futile and 2014’s Deathless, which saw the band cultivate a sizable fanbase, Revocation sought to reinvent themselves a bit after 2016’s Great is Our Sin, rather than shedding their death metal side and focusing solely on thrash. They ultimately doubled down on their death metal sound with 2018’s The Outer Ones, which also saw them adding more tech death influence, resulting in Revocation becoming bigger than previously imagined. Inspired by this newfound popularity, the band would continue their foray into tech death with Netherhaven. With that, Revocation have returned with their latest cut, New Gods, New Masters, to see if they can continue with this momentum.
New Gods, New Masters sees Revocation continue to transform from a thrash-focused melodic death metal band into an exciting technical death act. Revocation takes a “best of both worlds” approach to their songwriting and frequently takes the riff sections that were omnipresent on Netherhaven and melds them with the speedier, techier bits that were forefront on The Outer Ones to show off how refined their sound has become.
Right off the bat, we are treated to an excellent example of the band’s more mature approach when it comes to technicality in the form of the titular track. Rather than focusing on pure speed throughout the song like many of the tracks on The Outer Ones or the mid-paced riff fest that dominated Netherhaven, “New Gods, New Masters” changes up the band’s established formula by having masterful switches from breakneck speed and savage hooks throughout the song’s runtime and manages to remain engaging in its entirety. Though the title track of the album is a mixture of both spectrums of the band’s sound, the album as a whole has a lot to offer fans. For those looking for a song that really shows Revocation‘s proficiency in writing engaging riffs, “Dystopian Vermin” will provide immense satisfaction, as it contains some of the bounciest string work that the band has ever written. Meanwhile, for those looking for a showcase of the speedy death metal side of Revocation, “Sarcophagi of the Soul” more than fills that void and is among the fastest compositions that the venerated death metal band has ever written.
Although Revocation is currently known as one of the most prolific modern technical death metal bands in the genre, they can also be one of the heaviest bands in death metal, period. Early-album track “Confines of Infinity” starts on a speedy note for the first minute in a half or so of its run time before shortly transitioning to a slow section of bludgeoningly heavy riffs that eventually gives way to brutal guest feature courtesy of Cattle Decapitation‘s Travis Ryan, who delivers a savage vocal performance that provides a level of heaviness that Revocation has rarely had in their discography. Those looking for a speedier example of heaviness will find the album closer, “Buried Epoch“, to their satisfaction, as after a brief mid-paced intro, the pace quickens and stays that way for the rest of the song, whilst even managing to include a feature from Luc Lemay of Gorguts.
When it comes to negatives while talking about New Gods, New Masters, there’s not a lot that listeners would take issue with. As a whole, the album for most of its songs intertwines both riffy sections and speedy death metal junctures for their run times. While none of the songs wear out their welcome or feel anything less than extremely satisfying, it would have been nice to get another song or two that focused on one side of the band or another, rather than taking a “greatest influential hits” approach.
New Gods, New Masters is another massively successful record in Revocation‘s ongoing evolution from a thrashy, melodic death metal band into one of the most engaging technical death metal acts the genre has ever seen. If New Gods, New Masters is any indication, Revocation will no doubt be one of the most recognized tech-death practitioners sooner than they may think.
9/10
New Gods, New Masters is out this Friday, September 26th, via Metal Blade Records, and you can preorder it here.