Empire of the Obscene

Mind blowing competency, no band on this planet can simultaneously sound like Meshuggah, Megadeth, Death (band) , Gojira in parts and still remind you of Dream Theater, near impossible. I seriously think these guys are at the cutting edge of a new genre called technical plagiarism. Mind you there is a huge effort involved here, they had to listen to 25 years of Dave Mustain solos, now that is a LOT, carefully handpick them and make sure that they do not forget to make the riffs a tad lazier but then I have a complaint that during this magnum ripping opus they forgot to change "Hangar 18" riffs but behold, the result is magnificent piece of music called "Fields Of Predations" which sounds so much better than rest of the record because riffs are still original.

Leads had gone through even more complicated screening process, this time its more versatile cross genre plagiarism. Andromeda, Dream Theater and rest of the progressive metal brigade seems to be their main targets here, If I start listing the bands with whom Revocation will have to share royalty then even the metal archives data base of progressive bands may not suffice. Again a thumbs up for the huge effort involved in searching and carefully recognizing repeatable pieces of creation. The Compositions follow a noticeable pattern too, first the lead plays, then screaming vocals, then riffs with drums, then again a lead, then riffs, then more screams, first six songs are formed by repeatedly looping this sequence. This is more or less what Dream Theater does but with original stuff and with better music. This is in a way understandable, these guys might have had a deadline to meet with the label. Probably they might have just run out of time while they were scanning the history of thrash and progressive metal for pieces of leads and riffs that they hardly got time to mix in a less noticeable way.

The above complaint of mine is some what taken care in the second half of the record where they have done some improvisation in piracy, the sequences in the compositions are more complicated to dissect. Here the focus of plagiarism are drums and bass, I should have guessed this when I heard the second song "Tail From the Crypt", the drums at the starting are right out of "Catch Thirtythree" but I have to admit amazing perfection there. The starting couple of songs in the second half are mostly influenced by drumming styles of Meshuggah and Gojira but slightly slower than them but in comparison to the first half of the record this is almost original stuff. Then there is a gap filler called "Stillness" which i forwarded enthusiastically to explore more creative forms of plagiarism. Unfortunately the fun here was getting over, even though songs still had the familiar feel it was getting increasingly tedious to find the patterns in ripping off because these guys were getting real professional at it. Thankfully the riffs were still out of Megadeth's text book, the slow strumming of rhythm guitar at the end of "Age Of Iniquity" was almost exactly like Dave Mustain.

"Empire Of the Obscene" is no misnomer, its a celebration of obscene marauded music, actually the record has no real music in it just pieces of borrowed sounds. It is beyond logic that how can such a creation of mediocrity get a label to publish. These guys might know how to play instruments because they chose some of the toughest bands for emulation, but mechanically repeating a sound is no brainier, its just a test of skill which is far from real creativity.

Revocation are one of the best technical metal bands you will ever hear, and this incredible debut makes you wonder just how the Hell these guys aren’t touring with other tech metal giants. It’s just that fantastic. Techincal metal is an overcrowded genre these days, mostly because of all the prententious, boring bands that only care about showing off their talent, yet here comes a band that really enjoy themselves (Heck, Davidson even shouts “GUITAR!” before playing one of this solos) and they aren’t even getting a slice of the damn cake – and mind you, that’s a huge cake!

Now, the first impression you get upon receiving the record is that awesome cover art. That stuff is made of legends, it looks awesome. Very detailed and extremely well crafted, if you had no knowledge of the band, you wouldn’t think they’re as unknown as they are. It looks like its the same artist who made covers for The Faceless and Spawn Of Possesion, and if you have seen any of their covers, you will know how great it looks.

Now, once you pop this fucker in, the riffs start hitting you. A lot. Oh dear God, the riffs. They’re everywhere, and they’re absolutely, motherfucking amazing. Every single one of them. I dare you to find a bad riff on this album. Revocation are one of the few bands who can actually challenge riff gods like Arghoslent or Holy Terror. You already have a handful of absolutely amazing riffs within the first five minutes. And it just keeps getting better. David Davidson keeps on writing better and better riffs as the songs progress. The two closing songs, ‘Age Of Iniquity’ and ‘Empire Of The Obscene’ definitely have the best main riffs this album has to offer. ‘Empire Of The Obscene’ actually sounds like Morbid Angel but way faster. It’s absolutely, footstompingly heavy. Thou shalt turn thy woofer down if you own one. All these catchy riffs make for some amazingly catchy songs. After a few playthroughs every single note of every single song sticks out, and I promise you, the guitar solos will also be glued to your mind. Never have I heard technical metal as catchy as this! Which brings me to the production. Everything is played with perfect clarity, every instrument stands out and you can hear everything at all times. The perfect consistency makes this a joy to listen to. This also makes for perfect bass clarity, as there is only one guitarist in the band. The production is absolutely flawless.

Vocals can usually make or break a band. Many bands have some pretty mediocre songs but fantastic vocals to make up for it (Cannibal Corpse), while some bands have amazing music and amazing songs with vocals that stink worse than rotting diarrhea out of a dead blue whales rectum whilst a large group of skunk are festering on said diarrhea(Lykathea Aflame, Hieronymous Bosch). Revocation occupy sort of a middle ground. David is not a bad vocalist by any means. His growls are pretty standard. What really makes him shine though, are his screams. His screams are fantastic, and they fit the music like a glove. He’s also pretty intelligible throughout the entire album. Death metal veterans shouldn’t even need to look up the lyrics. How David manages to perform these good vocals and play fantastic, technical guitar playing at the same time is beyond me. I know there are bands that have way more technical riffs by the vocalist. Necrophagist comes to mind. But unlike Necrophagist, Revocations album manages to be a fun, entertaining listen.

The drums and the bass don’t do anything really standout. The bass mostly has a mind of it’s own, creating a thorough background for when the guitar decides to do something wild. Again, there’s only 1 guitarist, and Revocation decided not to have overlays on most of their solos.
The drums are great. The drummer is very fast with the bass drums, and he plays some cool fills once in a while. But this is thrash metal, so of course you’re gonna get the polka beats, and you’re gonna get a lot of them. The drums, like everything else on this record, are pretty much perfect. They’re not supposed to do anything spectacular, that would ruin the mood and feel of the album if you ask me.

Overall, this album by Revocation is one of the best released this year in any genre, and for anyone who loves technical metal, it’ll probably top their end of year best lists. Me, being a huge progressive/technical fan, I know it’ll already top mine. The fantastic production, great vocals and intense songwriting leaves this band at the top of the heap. Don’t miss this album! You’re gonna regret it.

Standout tracks: Unattained, Fields Of Predation, Age Of Iniquity, Empire Of The Obscene
Obvious influences: Celtic Frost, Dark Angel, Morbid Angel, *very very fucking huge list of thrash bands*.

I had heard lots of good things about Revocation, killer death/thrash metal with a technical side and loads of fun solos/leads. This excited me, I'm a huge fan of Demolition Hammer, Sadus, Morbid Saint, Sepultura, The Crown etc... so I eagerly rushed to find Revocation's debut album Empire of the Obscene. I was quickly disappointed. Right from the get go you know you've been had, this isn't even close to those bands, as it heavily borrows a modern production mixed with an interesting if not messy combination of styles. Looking at the cover, I instantly though of Psycroptic and their similar logo, which after listening to the music seems to play somewhat of an influence in Revocation's sound, with loads of technical melodies and a heavy influence on the rhythmic technical drumming.

The rest of the music displayed throughout Revocation's debut is a bit lacking from what I previously hoped and expected the sound would be like. Accepting a modern production akin to that of a deathcore album or the groovefest of Exodus' latest material, Revocation have fooled me, and a few others it seems. Songs like Exhumed Identity and Fields of Predation are utter examples, of the terrible groove like semi-breakdown moments. Mixed with the chug like -core riffs scattered around, most notable in Tail from the Crypt, producing more of an aura of shit. The album's opener Unattained is actually a decent song, featuring a few thrash moments... but that's about it. I wouldn't call this a thrash album even in the fucking slightest, to do so would be an insult to those who created this genre. And to even call it a pure death metal album would have Chuck Schuldiner tossing around in his grave.

The worst part of this wretched mistake of an album is the vocals, which aren't more than tough guy vocals that make Rob Dukes look like a badass. Bree bree's are littered around, which shouldn't have surprised me after listening to the vocalist from the beginning. Lame low growls and slight variations between pitches made it even worse on me; this guy would fit well in your average Hot Topic band though! There is very little redeemable to be found on this album actually, but I regret to inform you there are a few moments of intensity that make for a decent listen. Alliance and Tyranny is an instrumental song reminiscent to Lamb of God's Ashes of the Wake title track, but a bit better and with plenty of melody. Though the production/modern sound bring it down some more; the only good thing related production-wise is the drum sound, which happens to be the only factor on this album adding to it's heaviness. Relying on a lot of technical playing and intensity, influenced by Psycroptic and other technical death metal outfits, Revocation's drummer is one of the few reasons holding this album up from utter worthlessness.

So, Revocation's debut album is lame. Plain and simple. I was expecting killer death/thrash metal in the vein of early Sepultura or The Crown but instead was duped into listening to this modern Lamb of God-like garbage. I don't see how this is so highly praised when it can so easily be replaced with your average deathcore album. Just go listen to Suffer These Wounds and tell me this passes as metal! C'mon guys, stop tricking us by wearing Atheist, Decrepit Birth and Dark Angel... I can see somewhat influence in all three of those bands but it's done in the absolute worst way, as if it didn't even matter.

I am the eternal skeptic when it comes to checking out new bands and I say this especially about the ones whose band synopses read “Old school thrash metal style + technical death metal”. Nine out of ten such bands are just rehashed bastardized versions of older bands, and it is these bands which are ultimately responsible for killing a dying genre. Fortunately, Revocation doesn’t fall under that category.

I came across the band on the last.fm website and while I simultaneously read the band synopsis and viewed the hilarious band pictures, I thought to myself, “They can’t be fuckin serious!” Well it turns out that they really are quite serious about their music. I streamed ‘Summon the spawn’ and it blew me away. I just had to get my hands on their debut album. So here I am writing a review, a day after getting hold of ‘Empires of the Obscene’.

Before I start off, you ought to know that the band incorporates various styles into their music. Though it isn’t an easy task amalgamating thrash, death and technical aspects of metal into a song all at once, I must say Revocation has pulled it off brilliantly. As you will hear on the entire album, David Davidson does a good job handling both vocal and guitar duties. The guy is truly gifted. His guitar wielding skills come to light in the form of fast catchy riffs and neat, hardly overdone, tasteful solos. The real backbone comes in the form of drummer Phil’s relentless yet precise skin-bashing. Anthony’s thick basslines and his backing vocals complete this three-piece band.

The album opens chaotically with ‘Unattained’ and soon by the 30 second mark, the song settles into a steady rhythm. This is pure fuckin’ thrash metal. David’s harsh raspy vocals cut through the song like a wet knife through butter. I couldn't have imagined better vocals in my head. However, as the song progresses, you’ll notice that the chorus is interspersed by these deathcore-ish grunts. I’m not a big fan of it. I’ll get to this bit later on in the review. Towards the end of ‘Unattained’, David whips out this highly technical 40 second guitar solo. It sits perfectly over the rhythm guitars and it should give the listener a taste of what’s in store for his/her ears. David’s characteristic guitar solos are clearly the hallmark of the album. He proves his talent time and again with each and every song. Take the third track for example, ‘Exhumed Identity’ starts off with a dreary mid-paced tempo, speeds up in thrash like fashion and then at 3:50, after a ten second interlude-like piece, it crescendoes into a rapturous guitar solo. The effective and timely use of double bass beats and drum-fills by Phil are more pronounced in this song. The next track, ‘Fields of Predation’ is more equipped with a good dose of technical guitar work as compared to the rest of the album. At this point I can well draw comparisons to the mighty Quo Vadis and not sound blasphemous.

‘Alliance with Tyranny’ is an instrumental characterized by melodic guitar riffs. It slows down drastically in the middle and what caught my attention was the guitar solo (yes, I can’t get enough of it) which brought back memories of listening to 70s rock bands. ‘Suffer these wounds’ is another killer track worth checking out. If you don’t get an aural orgasm by 3:40 then I don’t know what will. ‘Stillness’ is another instrumental, but this one is acoustic. As the song title suggests, it creates this sullen atmosphere which could induce a lull in you. Most metal bands throw in the redundant instrumental in their album, but this seemed well placed considering that the album is nearing closure. The last track, ‘Empire of the obscene’, is by far the heaviest and most aggressive song on the album. The vocals lean more towards deathmetal-esque growls/screeches and the song in general is akin to the sound made by a jack-hammer at work. A perfect ending to an album of varying contrasts.

In my opinion, the album is almost perfect but for a minor gripe that I have with deathcore-like vocals. These were employed in the opening track ‘Unattained’ and it was a slight mood-dampener for me because pig-squeals aren’t my thing. You’ll hear the squeals again in ‘None shall be spared…’. Though it’s hardly a point to ponder upon, it does tend to draw your attention away from the awesomeness of the record. The band could have done away with those bits, but then again that’s just my opinion.

Overall, the album slays. The beauty of the record lies in its variety while striking a balance between technical-thrash, melody and death metal. The band does indeed take its music seriously or else it wouldn’t sound this good.

Ever since I heard the Summon The Spawn demo, I knew this band was going places. This debut full-length is really going to take this band to high places.

First off, the artwork for this album is absolutely killer! Par Olofsson is a master at his craft indeed. It makes the anticipation of this album stronger. Great job, Par!

David Davidson is definitely one of the best guitarists in New England. His riffs on this album slay so much. You can tell what his influences are and he's not afraid to flaunt them in our collective faces. I hope this review doesn't become fellating but you have to hear the riffs in these songs. Another thing I like about David is his vocals. They're not like the conventional screaming Metalcore vocals you'd almost expect from this generation of Metal bands and it's a breath of fresh air. The low-end vocals could be better though. They don't quite mesh well and they need to actually sound like Death Metal vocals and not inhales.

The drums are pretty standard but they keep the creativeness and they don't take anything away from the rest of the song. I kind of wish there were a bit more blast beats because some of the riffs could have bolstered by an explosive beat since there isn't a rhythm guitarist in the band to beef up the guitar work.

Overall, I really believe this band deserves all the praise they get for being a Thrash/Death Metal band in world largely dominated by gravely mediocre Metalcore and the Emo culture. Keep a look out for this band in the market. They will surely not disappoint.

Highlight songs:

Unattained
Suffer These Wounds
Empire of The Obscene

Best song title:

None Shall Be Spared (All Shall Be Speared)

With growls, distorted guitars chords, pounding drums, Revocation explodes into your ears with their incredible debut album, Empire Of The Obscene. The riffs that follow this sudden introduction are fast and furious, the vocals inhuman, the drums completely unrelenting. This Boston based technical thrash/death metal band has honed their skills for years and it shows. They've succeeded in mixing old thrash sensibilities, new brutality standards and excellent riff writing into a sound that is both unique and traditional.

Back in the late 80s and early 90s, thrash bands would write albums filled with different headbanging riffs and shredding solos. Bands like Dark Angel and Demolition Hammer come to mind as masters of this. This influence is strong in Revocation for they spew out riffs that today's big name bands wish they could dream about. David Davidson is the man behind these infectiously ruthless guitar lines, utilizing a variety of playing styles ranging from fast tremolo lines to fast palm muting, to groovy yet still highly technical licks. One of the huge components to old school thrash is the guitar solo, and Davidson does not disappoint. His skill on the guitar is remarkable, but without being pretentious, just as a good thrash solo should be.

Revocation's rhythm and low end are exceptional at their instruments. Anthony Buda supportive bass work brings body and enhances the guitar riffs. Sometimes, Buda comes out from the low end to add his two cents to the compositions. Phil Dubois-Coyne's drumming is extraordinary and varied. He is reserved while being incredibly accurate. He employs double bass drums in places where it fits, as well technical fills and crashes, while reducing his playing to simple beats and rhythms.

With the aesthetic of yesteryear, they add huge quantities of new century relentlessness. Revocation is a death metal band after all. The vocals are brutal and powerful. Davidson does much of the main vocal work with his thrashy style of death growl, while trading off occasionally with Buda who provides some guttural muscle.

For a band of their brutality and skill, Revocation's metal is infectious. Most technical bands are so focused on showing off their talent that they loose any sense of songwriting and composition, and they become bland and pompous. This isn't Revocation's problem. The riffs are incredibly catchy and they're well incorporated into the music. There's a bit of a progressive quality to sections of songs where they throw in clean jazzy breakdowns that explode back into brutality, as well as some bluesy old fashioned rock and roll guitar solos. Another aspect that sets them apart from other serious bands is that you can tell that they enjoy the music they play. In one song, Davidson goes as far as to yell "Guitar!" before exploding into a fast and furious solo.

For a three piece band, Revocation is a super strong wall of incredible sounds. Empire Of The Obscene is a brutal and beautiful beginning for this talented band.