Gods of aggression and speed, Revocation has become known for their unrelenting riffs. Unleashing their forth studio album, this band are rapidly gaining a reputation among fans for their precision and consistency.
Revocation has always walked the balance between tonality and dissonance within their music, balancing the common and the avant garde in a delicate cacophony of chaos. Hints of this appear throughout the album, with songs like ‘Fracked’ and ‘The Gift You Gave’ showing moments of brilliance, although often these feel disjointed within the music, thrown in rather than crafted. There is no denying their skills as musicians technically, but throughout you sense that technical achievement has been prioritised over real substance and emotion in the songs.
The album has a relentless intensity that is constantly driving onwards but often feels like it’s been patched together, with odd sparks of misplaced influence rising and dropping out without being revisited or explored. Positioned by many under the genre title technical death metal, they definitely take more influence from thrash, lacking the heavy impact that comes with many bands within the genre. Although the band are obviously aiming towards a signature sound with this release by the end lack of variety makes the album drag a little.
Despite naming both the band and this album Revocation, meaning the reversal or breaking of an agreement, this album is very much a continuation of everything the band have been honing since their debut and reveals little progression from their previous releases.
5/10
Caitlin Smith