Band:	Revocation
Album:	Revocation
Style:	Technical death metal, Thrash metal
Release date:	August 06, 2013
Guest review by:	deadone

01. The Hive
02. Scattering The Flock
03. Arch Fiend
04. Numbing Agents
05. Fracked
06. The Gift You Gave
07. Invidious
08. Spastic
09. Entombed By Wealth
10. A Visitation
11. Dyers Eve [Metallica cover] [bonus]

It's not a good sign when the best song on an album is the first one. And with their self-titled album, Revocation start off brilliantly with opener "The Hive" before sinking into the mire of mediocrity.

But hey what a great song it is. There's a real demented modern thrash vibe here full of violence and wild abandon. The chorus especially comes across as the musical equivalent of a seizure with spastic riffs accentuated by bizarre little harmonics and death metal vocals.

At this point you can turn the album off and put something else on, lest you enjoy disappointment. There are some decent little moments ala "Fracked","Scattering The Flock" or banjo laden "Invidious". Incidentally most of these are faster numbers. But too often the songs are rather boring mid-paced or slower melodic death songs that go nowhere and blur into each other. There is nothing wrong with variety in terms of tempos and vibe, but Revocation seem to be more at home thrashing it out than slowing down.

One can tell these guys can play their instruments well. There's some very nice guitar solos too. But too often the technicality appears to be for the sake of technicality as opposed to making the song more interesting or memorable. Even those better songs mentioned above have the odd pointless technical bits.

Flow is another issue. For example "Archfiend" is generally more melodic except its choruses abruptly shift to a more brutal tone. This doesn't help the vibe of the songs and results in a disjointed listening experience.

In the end this album is a frustrating affair. You can hear oodles of potential and flashes of brilliance. You get the feeling these guys could be huge if only they managed to get their song writing in order. Maybe it's time to ditch the technicality in favour of a more song orientated approach.