Review: Revocation - Deathless
By Eric Perzanowski, Staff Writer
[Metal Blade; 2014]
Rating: 8.5/10
Key Tracks: “Madness Opus,” “Deathless,” “A Debt Owed To The Grave”
It’s been a busy 14 months for Boston-based death/thrash metal band Revocation. In that time the band has released its self-titled album--which ended up being one of the best albums of 2013--embarked on several large tours, switched from Relapse to Metal Blade and has just released its fifth full-length, Deathless.
With many bands, if it was announced that a new album would be released within such a short time, I’d be suspicious the material’s quality would have dwindled. However, Revocation is a band with such a musical intelligence and creativity that this problem was not present.
The maturation and evolution of =Revocation’s sound can be heard with each release in its discography. On Deathless, there seems to be more of an emphasis on the death metal side of the band’s sound.
“A Debt Owed To The Grave” starts the album, and right off the bat the slight evolution of Revocation’s sound is heard. The opening riffs are almost instantly identifiable as a product of Revocation, but vocalist/guitarist David Davidson’s vocals sound lower and more reminiscent of a death growl than in previous material.
The title track comes off as a classic Revocation song, something that sounds like it could have been on 2011’s Chaos Of Forms. The chorus elevates “Deathless” to a level that makes it stand out as one of this album’s highlights. The vocals during the chorus have a cleaner delivery than a typical Revocation chorus; overall, it is very melodic.
Guitar solos are prevalent on this album; it’s an outrageous claim to make without doing the research, but I would pose that David Davidson could end up as the modern king of the metal guitar solo. The solos all seem to arrive in an organic manner and match the tempo or mood of the song. Many times, the solos will progress enough on their own to change the direction of the song.
The best part of the album is “Madness Opus.” It’s Deathless’ longest track and it takes a different approach than the rest of the album. It’s slower and relies more on groove than what we’re used to hearing from this band. Davidson heavily showcases his lower growls and his delivery complements the groovy instrumentals of the track, especially during the chorus.
The relatively small gap in between this release and the band’s previous release show the highly creative minds of the members of Revocation. As it has seemed to be the case with every prior Revocation album, Deathless shows improvement and development from the previous and showcases an even higher potential for the band’s next release.
