Revocation creates extreme music for extreme times. On New Gods, New Masters, their fifth record for Metal Blade, the quartet–spearheaded by founder/vocalist/guitarist Dave Davidson–delivers nine potent and portentous songs of brutal lyrical and musical significance.  

Produced by Davidson mixed and mastered by Jens Bogren (The Haunted, Spiritbox), tracks including “Cronenberged” (feat. Jonny Davy of Job for a Cowboy), “Sarcophagi of the Soul,” “Confines of Infinity” (feat. Travis Ryan of Cattle Decapitation) and “Dystopian Vermin” thematically explore AI and its impact on humanity. 

“I’ve been very fascinated with the development of Artificial Intelligence, and I’m deeply concerned where this could lead humanity,” says Davidson, “whether it’s the slow march towards a technological dystopia or the all-out annihilation of our species.” 

To wit, “Cronenberged” is about a science experiment gone wrong. Davidson is a massive Sci-Fi horror fan who loves the body horror genre that David Cronenberg helped create; the song is an homage to that. And, Davidson adds, “Shout out to Rick and Morty for inspiring the song title.”

The Boston-bred Davidson credits newest members Harry Lannon (rhythm guitar and backing vocals since 2023) and bassist Alex Weber with a renewed energy and intensity onstage. “It’s been a pleasure ripping with those guys alongside Ash (Pearson), who always crushes it behind the kit.” In terms of his playing, writing, and singing, “I’m always refining my craft and trying to get better,” he says.  

Davidson was excited to welcome a guitar guest—as well as impressive vocal features—on New Gods, New Masters. Revocation had late Black Dahlia Murder singer Trevor Strnad and Corpsegrinder of Cannibal Corpse guesting on Netherheaven, and Davidson recruited more talented peers for New Gods. “I’m honored to have such amazing guests on New Gods. On vocals we have Jonny Davy and Luc Lemay, two vocalists that I really admire who have their own unique sound,” says Davidson. “I remember texting with Jonny about guesting on “Cronenberged” asking him if we wanted to be the personification of a mutated abomination that escapes a testing facility. He was stoked to go as unhinged as possible and his vocals on that track sound truly inhuman.”  

A longtime fan of Gorguts’ Lemay, describing the Canadian singer’s vocals as “brutal but also tortured sounding at times. There’s a lot of emotion in his voice and that came through perfectly on the album closer ‘Buried Epoch.’” Slightly more unexpected is the contribution of jazz player Gilad Hekselman, who played with Pat Metheny at The Kennedy Center and won Rising Star in Downbeat Magazine, among numerous other accolades. He plays on “The All Seeing.” “Gilad is a buddy of mine and happens to be one of the best jazz guitarists in the world. His playing is awe-inspiring, and I’m truly honored to have him as the guest soloist on the outro of ‘The All Seeing.’” 

New Gods, New Masters marks the band’s 20th anniversary. Revocation debuted with 2008’s Empire of the Obscene and subsequently released seven critically acclaimed albums and toured over 25 countries, bringing their technically charged, high-energy extreme metal to North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific. New Gods follows up 2022’s Netherheaven, where Davidson’s lyrics took hard looks at Catholicism, hypocrisy, politics, the occult and demonic symbolism. Critics raved about Netherheaven, calling it “ Revocation’s best record in a decade” and praising the “darkest, heaviest songs of their career.” 

That album set a high bar, but an even sharper musical and lyrical focus was achieved on New Gods, New Masters, which is deftly captured in the album artwork by Paolo Girardi. “He did an incredible job of bringing the lyrical themes of a bleak techno-nightmare to life,” Davidson says. “The ‘New God’ being birthed from the abyss of teeth and wires was even better than what I envisioned. I absolutely love the color palette he used. He even included some easter eggs from our first demo and first full-length album cover, which adds even more depth and meaning to the artwork for me.” 

Titling the album New Gods, New Masters reflects his belief about humans’ need to worship various gods. “It seems as if that desire is encoded in our DNA. As science and our understanding of nature and the universe as a whole, increases, the religions of the old gods start to become obsolete,” believes Davidson. “However, I believe we’ve replaced our old gods with new ones, worshipping technology and creating a cult-like idolatry of innovators.”

Revocation, unafraid to upend musical and lyrical tropes with forward-thinking and sounding approach, with songs that excoriate society’s addiction to phones (‘Sarcophagi of the Soul”) and animal experiments that illuminate/replicate societal issues (“Dystopian Vermin”), Davidson’s science-backed observations all the more terrifying for their reality. 

If technological advances create worse problems alongside “solutions,” Revocation forge ahead, four guys plugged in, fighting existential threats with metal, “waiting to see what the next trial of the human experiment brings.”

Music grounds and uplifts the band members—and fans. “I’m proud that I’ve been able to evolve as a musician and songwriter with every release. I never want to stagnate, and I think we’ve achieved real growth with every album,” says Davidson. “I’m also extremely proud that I’ve been able to keep this band going after all these years; it’s crazy to think of how far we’ve since the beginning.”   

Lineup:

 Dave Davidson: Vocals, Guitar
Ash Pearson: Drums
Harry Lannon: Rhythm Guitar
Alex Weber: Bass

Very few bands survive for four decades. Even fewer are those that continue to reach new creative heights, long after legendary status has been achieved. Voïvod were never like other bands: even as the thrash metal scene exploded in the early ‘80s, the Jonquière, Québec crew stood apart, both as unique visionaries and as proud subverters of the metallic norm. From early prog[1]thrash classics like Killing Technology and Dimension Hatröss through to the psychedelic explorations of The Outer Limits, Voïvod have been standard-bearers for individuality and creative freedom for nearly 40 years.

Still one of the most fervently creative bands on the planet, Voïvod have created another kaleidoscopic sonic monster. The perfect antidote to just about everything, Synchro Anarchy has lit up 2022 with crazed, lysergic glee.

Isolation can often result in unique outcomes. Hailing from the tiny, frosty, untamed and detached Australian state that is Tasmania, Psycroptic have become an unparalleled act in an enigmatic world wide movement commonly known as death metal. Fifteen years have passed since their formation in 1999, the band having released five critically acclaimed studio albums, all which show an organic progression along a clandestine path from which they will never stray.

On the eve of their sixth full-length, though more technical and brutally intuitive than ever, the four-piece has not been afraid to get in touch with their softer side. Long known as the ‘Tasmanian devils’, they recently became the first band in the world to adopt their own Tasmanian Devil, whom they dubbed Psycro, in an attempt to help preserve the critically endangered carnivorous marsupial. Newer elements too can be expected when the new album is finally unleashed – more vocal variation, a heightened handle on instrumental melody, and an overwhelming sense that this act has truly mastered their craft.

Psycroptic have toured all corners of the globe with names that need no introduction to those in the know – Cannibal Corpse, Suicide Silence, Decapitated, The Faceless, Obituary, Carcass, Nile, The Black Dahlia Murder, Origin, Kataklysm, Aborted, Despised Icon, Suffocation, Veil of Maya, Cryptopsy, Misery Index, Vader, Born of Osiris, Hate Eternal… you get the picture right? They also recently guest hosted the ABC music video program Rage, an honour reserved for only the most class Australian acts. Metal legend Max Cavalera has also been sporting the band’s merch in recent promotional photos, bringing things full circle from the days when they were influenced by Sepultura in their youth. It’s safe to say that Psycroptic’s place in the history of heavy metal is solidified, and that everything that happens from here on in is simply a bonus…

California’s SKELETAL REMAINS are proud to present the successor to 2018’s much-lauded “Devouring Mortality”. On September 11, 2020, the band will release “The Entombment Of Chaos”, their fourth and most accomplished studio album to date. While sticking to their blend of classic death metal from the early 90’s, SKELETAL REMAINS turned influences from Death, Obituary, Morbid Angel etc. into a darker, more consistent opus this time around. “There are a few more songs on seven-string guitar than the last album, making it an overall heavier sounding record. We also wanted to incorporate more aggression and brutality to give the album that extreme edge it needed to top our last three releases. In addition to that, we brought in our good friend Charlie Koryn (Funebrarum, Ascended Dead) on drums to add his own pummeling sound into the mix giving us an end result we’re all extremely proud of.” Formed in 2011, SKELETAL REMAINS released two acclaimed albums on FDA Rekotz and honed their skills on the road, playing an impressive amount of gigs early on in their career. With “Devouring Mortality”, the band took the proverbial next step. Tours with the likes of Obituary, Hatebreed, Municipal Waste, Power Trip, The Black Dahlia Murder, and many more followed, resulting in a loyal following worldwide. Now, the next chapter begins: “We feel this is a huge step up from our previous releases and cannot wait to share it with all fans of Death Metal! We hope you all enjoy it as much as we do!”

The future of British metal lies in safe hands with CONJURER, who continue their journey as the country’s most exciting young metal band with their incredible new album Páthos (Nuclear Blast).

A triumphant return from CONJURER following their world-renowned 2018 debut Mire, Páthos is a band flexing their creative muscles, deepening their approach and thought, and expanding their sound.

Opener ‘It Dwells’ is the perfect introduction – earth-shatteringly heavy, unconventional, uniquely beautiful, and instantly recognisable as CONJURER. The track is centred on the contradictions of the emotion of ‘fear’ – that fear can be comfortable and constant, haunting and crushing. It builds to a point of breaking – the need to end fear battling against your will to go on. The repeated screams ‘I’ll have peace’ are an ambivalent declaration of defiance – give in, or fight, either way fear is gone.

Track two ‘Rot’ continues this theme – a lumbering monster of a song, it’s a conversation between a person’s sense of self and their anxieties. As the song progresses both perspectives unify – the ‘I’ becoming ‘we’, the two halves becoming one. It’s a tortured, battered listening experience, and a blistering reminder of why the young band have become so praised so quickly.

Páthos is not an album for the half-hearted or faint-hearted. Elements of Sumac, Gojira, old Mastodon and Sumac, the new record is a multi-layered beast – sludge, death, doom, black metal and hardcore influences clash and collide throughout, all masterfully finished by Will Putney’s exquisite production.

The fifty-minute runtime of Páthos is not without it’s moments of the sublime. Post-metal nods to CONJURER and PIJN’s acclaimed Curse These Metal Hands project are heard throughout, most notably in track three, ‘All You Will Remember’, and the mighty, philosophical closer ‘Cracks In The Pyre’.

An suitably open-ended climax, Páthos ends with an expansive look at loss and the afterlife. That a band can be at once so triumphantly beautiful and gut-punchingly heavy is testament to CONJURER’s quality, and a surefire sign of their future longevity at the top of Britain’s heavy music scene.

CONJURER’s debut full-length Mire (2018) was released to a storm of attention from across the metal world, garnering significant acclaim from Metal Hammer UK, Kerrang!, BBC R1, Visions Mag (DE), MetalSucks, Metal Injection, Loudwire and many more. Recipients of award nominations (Kerrang!, Heavy Music Awards, Metal Hammer’s Golden Gods) and countless albums of the year lists, Mire is a stunning listen, capturing the attitude of a young band who already know exactly who they are.

Hailed as one of the metal world’s most devastating, thrilling experiences, CONJURER are a band never content to rest. Following Mire’s release in 2018 the quartet soon toured Europe for the first time, appeared at multiple UK festivals, and support of doom titans Conan and Will Haven.

In the following years the band have toured the US twice, supporting Rivers of Nihil (stopping to record an Audiotree session along the way), and then Voivod, with Revocation. 2019 also saw CONJURER’s debut Download Festival appearance, thrilling a packed-out Dogtooth stage, and the release of the joyous collaborative project with Pijn, titled Curse These Metal Hands.

It was only at the end of 2019 that CONJURER closed out their triumphant Mire cycle, with a sold-out UK run – their debut headline tour. Using the COVID-19 pandemic to record and craft Páthos, CONJURER returned to the live setting performing at the Download Pilot 2021 and Bloodstock 2021 mainstages.

CONJURER are:

Brady Deeprose (guitars, vocals)
Dan Nightingale (guitars, vocals)
Conor Marshall (bass)
Jan Krause (drums)