Revocation – Netherheaven
Release Date: 9th September 2022
Label: Metal Blade Records
Bandcamp
Genre: Death Metal, Progressive Death Metal, Thrashing Death Metal.
FFO: Revocation
Review By: Eric Wilt
Revocation needs no introduction. For the last sixteen years, they’ve been churning out some of the best thrashing death metal the scene has ever seen and winding up on numerous “Album of the Year” lists pretty much anytime they release something new. Although the current line-up consists of main-man David Davidson on vocals and guitar, Brett Bamberger on bass, and Ash Pearson on drums, the one constant throughout Revocation’s storied career has been Davidson. As principal songwriter, Davidson has pushed Revocation’s sound further both technically and sonically on every new release, with 2018s The Outer Ones being the most crushing, as well as the most heavily death metal, album they had released up to that point. Before The Outer Ones, it was hard to say that Revocation leaned more towards one sound, thrash metal or death metal, but on The Outer Ones, Davidson and co. pushed heavily into the realm of punishing death metal, and, in my opinion, made the album of their career. According to Davidson, while creating their latest record, Netherheaven, the band were “definitely in more of a death metal mindset than on earlier albums in our catalog,” which should be music to the ears of anyone who, like me, prefers death metal Revocation.
Davidson wasn’t lying when he said they were in more of a death metal mindset when creating Netherheaven. Re-Crucified is the last song on the album, but probably the heaviest in terms of ferocity. Diabolical Majesty is another banger that will please fans of complex progressive death metal. Speaking of complex progressive death metal, Strange and Eternal begins with a gorgeous run of arpeggios that lead into a blistering passage of thrashing death metal that will sound familiar to fans of earlier Revocation. Galleries of Morbid Artistry features a heavy groove metal section at the beginning of the song and eventually makes its way to a calm passage played by three clean guitars that is followed by a smoking lead that plays the song out. And while there isn’t a solo on the album that isn’t smoking, Nihilistic Violence features a ripping lead that could’ve come from an old Death record.
Overall, Netherheaven is everything you could want from a Revocation album and more. You have your complex compositions and your progressive styling. You have your heavy riffing and your pristine solos. You have lots of death metal, with just a touch of the thrash metal of yore. And most of all, you have nine new bangers that make Netherheaven a worthy successor to The Outer Ones and further cements Revocation’s place in the upper echelon of the pantheon of death metal.
(4.5 / 5)
