Since their 2006 inception, Revocation have firmly established themselves as one of the most vibrant forces in progressive death/thrash metal. Consistently innovative in a technically demanding and boundary-pushing genre, Revocation ’s latest release “The Outer Ones” sees the band pursuing Lovecraftian sci-fi/horror themes to deliver their boldest, most aggressive and most complex album so far. The band return to Australia this February alongside death metal masters Cattle Decapitation so we talked to frontman Dave Davidson about the tour, the latest album, influences and more.
Andrew: It’s been a few years since the last time we chatted, a few albums, a few tours down under. So it seems like Revocation is in a really good place at the moment.
Dave: Yeah we’re looking forward to coming back!
Andrew: Yeah it’s going to be a good tour as well with Cattle Decapitation, do you guys know each other or have you done tours together in the past?
Dave: Yeah we’ve toured with each other a few times so it’s going to be great to get back on the road with those guys.
Andrew: Awesome so coming back to Australia, you’ve been here a few times now and I remember the first time you came here was about 5 or 6 years ago or something like that right?
Dave: Yeah at this point I think it’s been at least that long.
Andrew: Yeah and each time you come back it does seem like more and more people discover you guys or get into you guys, do you find your fanbase is starting to grow on each visit?
Dave: Oh yeah for sure! I remember when we first came there we got a good response even the first time around and it’s only grown since then.
Andrew: Revocation has been a band that I’ve been following for a number of years so it’s good to see you guys are doing pretty well in Australia. So what can fans expect? What are you guys bringing down this time?
Dave: Well we’re definitely going to be playing some new material off of “The Outer Ones” which we’re very excited about supporting the new record and we’ll be throwing in some fan favorites as well as some older songs.
Andrew: Yeah so the latest album “The Outer Ones” came out a couple of years ago so how has that been going over the last 2 years?
Dave: It’s been great, it’s been a real whirlwind. I feel like our fanbase has grown, we’ve solidified the fans that are already there and we’ve opened it up to some new fans as well, the response has been truly excellent.
Andrew: Yeah I mean you guys are pretty consistent as far as putting out albums and sort of going in different directions and keeping that evolution going forward I suppose. With this album in particular with the sort of sci-fi theme to it, what was the end goal to it when you first wrote it?
Dave: I don’t know if there was like an end goal per say, we kind of just start writing music and it evolves naturally over the period that we’re writing it and it’s not fully revealed to us until we’re in the sort of final stages of recording. But we knew it was definitely leaning more towards the death metal side of our sound and I guess we just fully embraced that as we went through it.
Andrew: I know the album before that “Great Is Our Sin” I distinctly remember there was quite a few elements from the earlier albums, like little hard rock elements that started to sneak back into your work a little bit.
Dave: I don’t think there was much of a hard rock element in “Great Is Our Sin” to be honest with you so I don’t know. That’s the cool thing about music though because people hear different things I guess, for me we definitely lean a lot in the progressive realm on “Great Is Our Sin”. Like there was a little bit more singing maybe than previous records but it’s hard to say as we live in it day to day, we’re so in it that it’s kind of hard to stand back from it I guess when we’re writing. But it’s cool that people hear different elements of our music, I think it’s just a natural progression of our sound as we’re going through it. It’s hard to say where those influences come from sometimes, you listen to so much different music or you’re working on different things in your down time and the hope is they creep in, in a natural way that doesn’t sound forced at all.
Andrew: Yeah definitely and it does sound very natural and that’s what I dig about it. Speaking of influences and stuff, as far as modern music and today’s bands, is there much that you listen to at all? What’s gathering your interest these days?
Dave: There’s always some cool bands coming out every year. I like that Suffering Hour record that came out a couple of years ago, that was really cool, they put out an EP recently. Moss Upon The Skull put out a great record about a year ago, just riffed out. The new Die Choking record was really cool, lots of cool stuff, the new Blood Incantation was cool.
Andrew: Yeah there’s so much good stuff out there so I guess when you hear comments like music is dead and all this kind of stuff and then you find all these great bands out there, I guess you gotta dig a little harder to find them.
Dave: Yeah I mean you’re not really going to find a ton of super boundary pushing stuff in mainstream music often times, it’s more like finding a sound that people are going to be hip to or whatever. It’s music for the masses to kind of enjoy but in any kind of style of music that’s not meant for mass consumption, I think there’s always going to be people that are really pushing the envelope and just gotta know where to find it. Whether it’s in the metal realm or the classical realm or jazz, there’s so many forward thinking genres of music, hip hop as well. Every single genre has tons of underground stuff of artists that are kind of pushing the boundaries so it’s just like anything, you gotta know where to look and you gotta want to look, you gotta be hungry for it, you gotta care.
Andrew: I know you have a jazz background and been classically trained but how did you actually get into music in the first place? Was there a particular band when growing up that pushed you into playing guitar?
Dave: Yeah Aerosmith.
Andrew: Oh wow ok! They are an interesting band at the moment, I guess you may have heard about what’s going on there?
Dave: Over Joey Kramer?
Andrew: Yeah.
Dave: Yeah I just read about that today. I’m not super familiar with the whole thing, I just saw the article in passing, I guess there was some kind of drama going on there. But yeah they’re an amazing band and super influential on me and they were the reason I started playing guitar.
Andrew: I hear some of that influence in some of your earlier stuff but I guess for those just now latching on to Revocation they might be surprised to hear they are an influence. As far as the heavier side of things, who led you into playing more progressive metal type stuff?
Dave: Early on like Pantera and Metallica were the bands I was getting into for the heavier stuff and then I just kinda started going further and further into the underground like I was just talking about. So whether it was thrash or death metal or black metal or prog, I was just so hungry for it back in the day looking up bands. I remember I found Exhorder online randomly because I was searching for Pantera stuff and I think someone had mislabelled an Exhorder song as Pantera song online and I downloaded and it kind of sounded like Pantera but I could tell it was a different band. Just kind of did my research there and found a whole bunch of bands, same thing with the death metal scene and with death and thrash there’s sub-genres of sub-genres. There’s Swedish death metal, there’s melodic death metal, there’s technical death metal, blackened death metal, death thrash. All these different blends of bands and I was just so hungry for it that I just kind of ate it all up.
Andrew: Yeah it’s crazy how many sub-genres there are these days and with Revocation I hear thrash has been put on as a label with you guys but I always thought you guys were more of a progressive metal band as it’s more of a hybrid sort of music really.
Dave: Yeah when we came out we weren’t like a traditional sort of sounding death metal band and right when we started the thrash thing was all the rave, the whole thrash resurgence of 80’s thrash was really popular at the time so I think a lot of people lumped us in with that and we’re certainly influenced by thrash and by death metal and progressive music. I would probably call us a progressive death metal band if I had to label us, there’s so many different elements to our sound. I think that’s what makes us unique is we’re not afraid to blend things together, I like being that kind of melting pot band. But as far as like a 3 word genre, progressive death metal seems to fit.
Andrew: Yeah definitely. So last year was the 10 year anniversary of the “Existence Is Futile” album which is still one of my favorite albums of all time. Like the first album “Empire Of The Obscene” did you end up doing anything for it?
Dave: Yeah it came out on vinyl a while ago.
Andrew: Oh ok so that album is obviously quite different to what you’re doing now obviously, any thoughts on that album now 10 years later?
Dave: It’s cool to see where we came from, the evolution and I look back on those times fondly. We were just starting out, it was our first album out on Relapse.
Andrew: Yeah that’s right and now I hear you guys had just resigned with Metal Blade.
Dave: Yes we did, we resigned a few months back. We fulfilled our contract with 3 albums and now we’ve got 3 more to go!
Andrew: Nice! So do you have any last words for the Aussie fans before you come down to Australia?
Dave: Thanks so much for the interview and we can’t wait!
Cattle Decapitation and Revocation Tour Dates
Thursday 13th February – The Brightside Brisbane
Friday 14th February – The Factory Theatre, Sydney
Saturday 15th February – Cambridge Hotel, Newcastle
Sunday 16th February – The Basement Canberra
Wednesday 19th February – Max Watt’s Melbourne
Thursday 20th February -Pelly Bar, Frankston
Friday 21st February – Enigma Bar, Adelaide
Saturday 22nd February – Amplifier Bar, Perth
TICKETS ON SALE: Friday 25th October 9am local time
https://tickets.destroyalllines.com
