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Critical darlings of technical thrash metal, Revocation return with their fourth full length in the form of a self titled album. Revocation picks up two years after the release of Chaos Of Forms, an album that seemingly divided the fan base of their breakthrough album Existence Is Futile. The band is well known to switch their musical style within songs and to play with the technical aplomb of some of heavy metal’s big boys.


So what does this album have to offer?

Speeding out of the gate is “The Hive,” which is chock full of thrash riffs and flashes of technicality. It is also notable for being one of the few tracks to have an audible bass, which is otherwise absent throughout the album’s 46 minutes. The song also showcases this album’s use of bombastic guitar solos, but in some cases they feel tacked on leaving the listener to wonder why the track is so long (“Arch Fiend”).

The band is well versed in heavy metal history and shows off a love of the band Cynic and their album Focus with a solo on “Scattering The Flock” as well as an ode to Voivod on “Numbing Agents.” Both bands are technical masters in death metal and thrash metal respectively, as well as both using progressive metal as a basis.

Perhaps the best song on the album is “Invidious” which is possibly the most cohesive song the band has ever written, complete with a banjo being used in the opening seconds. Fans of modern thrash metal in general will enjoy it as it reminds me a bit of the Rob Dukes fronted version of Exodus.

Featured within this song is a barn burner of a guitar solo and it doesn’t suffer from the odd tempo changes of several other guitar solos contained on the album. This is how a guitar solo should be done on a technically powerful album.

The rest of the album can drag at times and can suffer from the sections of “wank” that can divide a fan base. Don’t get me wrong, wank has a place in metal, but it should not be the focal point of the music.

Revocation remains strong on this album, but it is a bit more patchy than Existence and possibly a bit better than Chaos. Trimming some songs and the removal of some others would have done this album a bit better. Fans of the band’s past few efforts will enjoy it, but it's not the type of breakthrough release to take them to that so-called “next level.”.

(released August 6, 2013 on Relapse Records)

Disclosure: A review copy was provided by the publisher. For more information, please see our Ethics Policy.