Time Signature The gift you gave...

Genre: tech death-thrash

The death-thrash virtues in Revocation released their fourth album, eponymously titled "Revocation", earlier this fall. Revocation are renowned for their technically advanced style of deathl-thrash, and for being more multi-facetted than most of their death-thrash peers.

Not much has changed since their last release, but Revocation's style is in itself so original that it would be incorrect of accusing them of not being innovative on this album. If you know Revocation already, then you know what you are in for: technically well played and tightly composed death-thrash which more often than not ventures into progressive territory. Revocation successfully combine extreme aggression in the form of blasteats an death metal influences with melody in the form of melodic leads akin to those the Jeff Waters are so famous for. That is, you are treated to aggressive, but sophisticated death-thrash which should appeal to your inner beast and your intellect at the same time. There seems to be an influence from the likes of Atheist, Cynic and Carcass on this album, ut not to the extent that this takes over from the band's own creative input (there are cases where the influences are quite obvious, as in 'The Gift you Gave' which defintiely pays its dues to Cynic).

The production is cean-cut and well defined, which suits this type of technical musc very well, and the musicianship is impeccable. I particularly enjoy the compositions themselves and the melodic guitar solos.

Fans of tech/proch extreme metal should definitely check this album out.

UMUR "Revocation" is the eponymously titled 4th full-length studio album by US, Boston, Massachusetts based death/thrash metal act Revocation. The album was released through Relapse Records in August 2013. The regular edition of the album features 10 tracks while the deluxe edition features a bonus track, which is a cover of "Dyers Eve" by Metallica.

If you´re familiar with the technically well played death/thrash metal style of Revocation, the music on this album won´t be much of a surprise. It´s sharp, fast-paced, aggressive, energetic and technically well played death/thrash with a sneering rabid dog vocalist in front. Revocation are a bit different from most other death/thrash acts as they incorporate stylistic elements from other genres like blues, fusion (check out "Spastic") and occasionally even progressive metal, and also because there´s an uplifting feel about their music even though the band retain aggression throughout.

The musicianship is excellent. The rythm section is tight, the vocals are delivered with fierce conviction and the riffs are powerful and raw. One great asset to the band´s sound that deserves a mention are the many melodic guitar solos. I´m often reminded of Jeff Waters (Annihilator) because of the fast-paced blues based and melodic soloing.

The sound production is also professional, clear and powerful, so all in all "Revocation" is yet another great album release by Revocation. I´ll still allow myself to be slightly disappointed though as I felt the band really hit something special with their "Teratogenesis (2012)" EP and while "Revocation" overall certainly is a high quality death/thrash release, I don´t really feel that the band have developed their sound much. So while a 4 star (80%) rating certainly is deserved, I do feel this album is a bit too "safe" or "by the numbers" if you will.