On Monday night of this week, NCS co-founder Alexis and I visited Studio Seven in Seattle. Our principal reason for going was to see Revocation again (my third time, her fourth), who were appearing in support of of the headline act, Forbidden. We really can’t get enough of these dudes — their live performance is an electrifying experience. The set just whizzed by, and we both remarked afterward how much we looked forward to the day when we could see Revocation at the top of the bill, with more time in which to turn our heads inside-out.
In addition to being tremendously talented musicians — especially guitarist extraordinaire David Davidson — Revocation have been creating music that is genuinely original. Their blend of thrash and death metal just doesn’t sound quite like anything else, and with each new release, they take more steps ahead in establishing their own unique identity. We’re tremendously excited around here for their next album, Chaos of Forms, which is scheduled for an August 12 release on Relapse Records.
On Monday night, Revocation played two new songs from the forthcoming album. One of them, “Cradle Robber”, has been streaming in full recently (here, for example). The second one I’d heard only as an excerpt in this compilation of samples assembled from iTunes. It’s called “Conjuring the Cataclysm”, and it’s my new favorite Revocation song, in part because it’s so different from the band’s usual style. I found a fan-filmed video of the band performing the song on the current tour, and you can see that after the jump.
Also after the jump is a high-quality fan video of Poland’s Vader performing a new song called “Come and See My Sacrifice” on June 12 in The Netherlands. It will appear on Vader’s next album, Welcome to the Morbid Reich, which is projected for release late this year. If you’re a Vader fan (and really, who isn’t?), then you need to see this.
First up, here’s “Conjuring the Cataclysm” by Revocation. The song is slower than Revocation’s typical output. David Davidson delivers a blizzard of tremolo chords, punctuated with an unexpected cool-jazz instrumental break, but the low end of the song shrouds it in an aura of darkness. The audio quality on this video is poor, but it gives you a flavor for what the band is doing on this song. There are few albums scheduled for release in the latter half of this year that I’m anticipating more highly than Chaos of Forms. I think it will turn a lot of heads.
VADER
In the realm of death / thrash, Vader is one of the kingpins. They entered Hertz Studio in Bialystok, Poland in March to begin recording their new album, Welcome To The Morbid Reich, and the mixing and mastering was scheduled to happen in May. The album will contain 12 songs, with working song titles such as “Lords Of Thorns”, “I Am Who Feast Upon Your Souls”, “Only Hell Knows”, “Return To The Morbid Reich” and “I Had A Dream”. It all sounds predictably evil, except that “I Had A Dream” track. Maybe that will be a broadway showtune. What do you think?
Here’s that new song “Come and See My Sacrifice”, as performed live on June 12 in Leiden (and thanks to “letthedeathmetalflow” for uploading this baby). Time to headbang:
UPDATE!
Well, we now have the release date for Vader’s new album — August 12. It will be released by Nuclear Blast. And we’ve also now got the artwork for the album cover, which is really good! Here you go:
18 Responses to “NEW TUNES: REVOCATION AND VADER”
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why is the crowd so lame on the vader vid? dont they know they are watching FUCKING VADER!
And the revocation crows is about as big as Suicidal Angels was when they played norway. Gotta suck to be on stage when the crowd is tiny and lame, so i thrashed extra hard for em.
Maybe the Vader crowd was simply in awe. 🙂
Revocation played that show in Dallas pictured in the video on a Monday night. I saw them one week later. At least in Seattle, it’s hard as hell for just about anyone to draw a big crowd on a Monday night, and I’m guessing the same is true in most places. It was really a shame. Revocation still lets it all hang out when they play, no matter how many people are in the audience, but I missed the crowd energy I’ve experienced at other Revocation shows.
Yeah, you gotta respect a band that gives its best, no matter what.
I helped with security at a gig, last year i think, where the high and mighty band delayed going on stage for something like 3 hours, just cause the place wasn’t entirely jam packed. It was over capacity, but that didn’t matter to those fucking primadonnas.
I’ve heard stories of some “big name” bands pulling that kind of shit (though not true metal bands). Really bizarre. Do they not realize the effect that has on fans who paid good money to see them? Complete loss of touch with reality.
Bands who refuse to play when they are quite capable of playing need to be bound and spanked by a fat man in a Lady Gaga suit.
Harsh.
But appropriate!
Also, I think Ms. Gaga would appreciate being involved in the metal community.
She is SO metal, after all.
(I don’t mean that totally sarcastically, since I’m sure she really does like metal, but it’s still an asinine thing to brag about for a pop…star…thing…person…whatever.)
Yeah, her professed attraction to metal makes her seem so much more . . .out there . . . “edgy” . . . anarchic. I’m totally convinced that she’s cool now.
Oh, good! Now go consume! It’s good for her….I mean, our economy!
WHY DOES VADER HAVE TO BE SO FUCKING AWESOME ALL THE TIME!?
In all seriousness, this sounds like it’s in the style of “The Beast” and “Revelations”. I’m excited for this.
Yeah, me too man. When this song started, I thought it just sounded okay, but by the time it ended I had a big fuckin smile on my face.
Holy shiz, Vader is my FATHER!
You come from good stock then.
Does anyone know who did the artwork? You knew that I was going to ask that Islander, don’t pretend that I didn’t. The artwork looks pretty unique, kind of like it was drawn with colored pencils… at least those columns look that way to me…
Also, letthedeathmetalflow rules, I learned about that guy from the Infidel.
I did know you would ask about the art — you’re into this stuff like I am, and I should have included it in my update, because it’s really very cool. It’s by Zbigniew Bielak (DESTRÖYER 666, WATAIN). The columns do look like pencil drawings, but there are some digital effects in it too. I really dig the color scheme, too.
Okay, I admit it, I’ve never really listened to Vader. But this song is pretty sweet, so I might use the new album as a jumping on point. The solo around the 3:00 mark was insane. In a good way. But not like tech death insane–more like someone threw forks in a blender insane. I like that.
I went to see Vader( and other bands such as Entombed, Onslaught, Krisiun) play live this saturday, and they fucking killed, its almost been a week since then, and im still recovering from the headbanging frenzy, it was great.
Wow! What a line-up. You’re a lucky dude.