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RevocationNetherheaven

✦✦✦✧ I’m going to slightly buck the inevitable deluge of fawning press on this album: it’s great by modern metal standards, but solidly in the middle third of Revocation’s own catalog, at best. That is to say, you’re going to want to listen to this at least once, even if it’s not an instant classic.

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RevocationThe Outer Ones

✦✦✧✧ On one level, this is every bit what you’d expect from a Revocation album: unabashed virtuosity in the most fun metal ways imaginable. On another level, the album laudably goes for a wide assortment of musical genres (rethrash, death metal, grind), but does not particularly stick this landings very well.

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River BlackRiver Black

✦✦✧✧ This mostly-Burnt-By-The-Sun not-a-supergroup (also featuring ex-members of Municipal Waste and Revocation) is some nasty business. It’s first and foremost a tour of various kinds of aggression and swagger (evocative at times of Norma Jean, Entombed, and Sepultura at their punkiest). This, the band’s eponymous debut, is a weighty chunk of red meat without any filler.

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RevocationGreat Is Our Sin

✦✦✦✧ Another blistering slab of thrash from these modern masters. No one track stands out here as a career definer (as opposed to the band’s eponymous 2013 masterpiece), but what you do get here is trademark Revocation doing what they do best, with a subtle leaning toward more emotional variety. But don’t let that stop you from listening with a gleefully slack jaw.

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RevocationDeathless

★★★★ Holy fuck. I was all set to give this album two stars as I started to listen to it, but then I gave it a fresh re-listen. It has all the fury of the band’s eponymous predecessor, and the sound is unmistakably Revocation, and at the same time the album sounds like a whole other band altogether.

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RevocationRevocation

★★★★ Everything I want from a modern thrash album. Intricate, bloodthirsty, and peppered with excellent and interesting lead guitarwork. Special shout-outs to a very competent Metallica cover, as well as the instrumental Spastic (an instant contender for Metal Moment Of The Year).