- Country: United States
- Style: Technical death metal / Thrash metal
- Label: Relapse Records
- Release date: 5 August 2013
Revocation’s fourth full-length, and the first full-length with bassist Brett Bamberger, is the band at their most compact: ten songs, no wasted space, and riffs that switch between thrash and technical death metal without ever sounding like a lesson.
“The Hive” opens with a knotted riff that somehow ends up catchy, and “Scattering the Flock” keeps the pace high. “Invidious” is the oddball, a stomping, almost rock ’n’ roll track that should not fit and does. “Spastic” is pure guitar showmanship, but even there the solos serve the arrangement rather than the other way around.
Not every track lands. The middle of the record sags slightly, and the bark on vocals is serviceable rather than memorable. But “A Visitation” closes things with the album’s most ambitious writing, and the overall standard is high enough that the album reached No. 4 on Billboard’s Heatseekers chart, decent going for a band this technical. Orion Landau’s cover is a good fit, too.
Best tracks:
The Hive
Invidious
Scattering the Flock
A Visitation
Author’s rating: 8.1/10
Gave it 5 stars
No member has given this album 5 stars yet. Join WeMetalheads and rate it.
