Revocation – Chaos of Forms

Over the last few years there has been resurgence in the thrash metal genre, probably as a response to the booming scene of American metalcore bands, with countless bands that follow a strictly old school aesthetic releasing albums one after the other. But while most of them sound quite passionate and convincing, and perform quite technically, they do not manage to sound that original. Revocation is an exception though, as they manage to combine many other influences in their music besides thrash metal while still maintaining that raw and gritty old school feel, which makes them probably the most interesting modern thrash metal band. And in their third album “Chaos of Forms” Revocation best display their unique style.

Revocation plays a mixture of Bay Area thrash metal and technical/progressive death metal, while occasionally incorporating other influences as well. This may sound all too weird, but it actually works pretty well. Tracks like “Cretin”, “Cradle Robber” and “Harlot” effectively combine Atheist like technical riffs over blastbeats and double bass with Megadeth like staccato riffs, gang choruses and rockish solos, while tracks like “No Funeral” and “Beloved Horrifier” are straight up thrash metal songs with less chaotic structure. The more progressive songs of the album like “Dissolution Ritual” and the title track feature jazzy passages reminiscent of Cynic along with fast technical death metal riffs and bluesy licks. These tracks represent Revocation’s sound at best, but their style goes beyond that sometimes. For example, “Conjuring the Cataclysm” features an acoustic intro, black metal style riffing and melodic backing vocals, “Fractal Entity” is a short instrumental with Gorguts like dissonant riffs, “Reprogrammed” shows some Meshuggah influence and “The Watchers”, which is the real oddity here, features Deep Purple like keyboards(!) and a horn section (!!). With all of these different styles mixed together, someone would assume that the whole thing would come out as total mess, band the band manages to mix all of these influences tastefully and without sounding forced, and each passage of the songs flows smoothly into one another. Also each member handles his instrument with much skill and precision, and their performance is very tight. Finally, the sound of the album is crystal clear, the guitars are crunchy and heavy, the vocals are vicious yet not over the top, the drums are perfectly heard and not too loud, and even the bass stands out a bit.

So overall this is a very solid and varied album that will please fans of both thrash and technical death metal, though purists may be turned off by the combination of these two genres and the albums ultra polished digital production. Also casual listeners maybe turned off by the more progressive and complicated songs of the album, especially the aforementioned “The Watchers”, which would sound overdone and downright weird. But these things could also work to the bands advantage, as fans of really complicated music will definitely love such unusual compositions. Anyway, this album has enough pros to outweigh any cons and “Chaos of Forms” was truly something fresh and interesting. With this release Revocation really show that they have a personal sound that distinguishes them from their peers, and proves that they are one the most promising bands of the modern thrash metal movement.