Revocation return with a new album titled “Great Is Our Sin” and if you love that trademark signature sound that they forged early in their career with albums like “Empire Of The Obscene” and “Chaos In Forms”, then you might find a few surprises on this one. This isn’t going back completely in a sense but it does contain a lot of those elements that some of us absolutely loved.
The band waste no time with the opening track “Arbiters Of The Apocalypse” as it launches straight into a ferocious thrasher that belts you across the face hard. But before you think that this continues where “Deathless” left off, the song swings a sharp left and a glorious hooky rocker type riff lashes away that instantly takes you back to some of the earlier works of Revocation. It’s a quick little throwback in some ways but keep in mind that those classic influences never really go away as frontman Dave Davidson let’s his hard rock style shine through. Those elements are sporadically placed in just the right areas across the album and make for a great variety in the mix, something that was pretty evident on albums like “Chaos In Forms” and “Existence Is Futile”. “Communion” is a perfect example of this as well as it’s instrumentation forces it’s way on and Dave’s vocals taking a slight back seat to what’s going on here.
The album is chock full of hooks and memorable riffs, it’s those little moments that really make the songs stand out. “Theatre Of Horror” had double kicks galore of course but the hooky riff part early on slows it down and makes you soke it all in properly. The proggy “Crumbling Imperium” is a guitarists fantasy as it swirls a bag of riffs and melodies around and has no real center point, straying completely from conventional song structures but maintaining a sense of accessibility at the same time. Even some of the vocal lines have hooks, the chanty part in both “Monolithic Ignorance” and “Profanum Vulgus” sounds like a live show winner even if the latter is fairly offbeat and one of the more difficult songs to get into.
For something different and contrasting each other on both ends of the metal spectrum, “The Exaltation” is a trademark Revocation instrumental track which features none other than the legendary Marty Friedman who contributes a tasty guitar solo that fits perfectly here. If you love the instrumentals Revocation have done in the past, this one is sure to have you welcoming this melodic beast. On the other end of things, “Only The Spineless Survive” is a heavy groove based, death metal inspired track that could easily be found on a Cannibal Corpse record, a consistent song with shades of melody thrown in just to keep things a little interesting.
All the tracks here are it’s own identity, from the jazzy moods of “Copernican Heresy” to the more classic inspired album ender “Cleaving Giants Of Ice”. Revocation have created here a brilliant album that while borrows a lot of elements from their inspirations that were more evident on earlier albums, is also a step forward in their hybrid incarnations of various forms of music that is all blended into a concoction of pure heavy metal. It’s heavy, it’s hooky and it’s a real headbanger that is up there with some of their best work to date. Score another win for one of the best bands in the modern era of metal.
TRACKLIST
Arbiters of the Apocalypse
Theatre of Horror
Monolithic Ignorance
Crumbling Imperium
Communion
The Exaltation
Profanum Vulgus
Copernican Heresy
Only the Spineless Survive
Cleaving Giants of Ice
Buy the album through Nerve Gas.