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

Excreting their malignant essence onto an unsuspecting Metal scene in 1998 with their confrontational debut full-length, “Gore Metal”, Exhumed have since become synonymous with the genre they helped brand. Their signature sound, a savage blend of snarling, grinding down-tuned guitars, alternately abrasively screeched and grotesquely gurgled vocals, and pummeling, straightforward drumming, have become universally recognized as the hallmarks of the style now called Gore Metal. Taking these elements several steps beyond their previous works, including the barbarically stripped-down, in-your-face approach of their sophomore effort, “Slaughtercult”, Exhumed have returned with their third full-length album, “Anatomy is Destiny”.

Brody Uttley: Guitar / Keyboards
Adam Biggs: Vocals / Bass
Jared Klein: Drums / Vocals
Andy Thomas: Rhythm Guitar / Vocals

Rivers of Nihil have never fit neatly into a box, but with 2018’s Where Owls Know My Name, they transcended all labels applied to them. Returning in 2021 with The Work, they forged further into new territory, once again upending any expectations fans had placed on them. And now, with a new series of singles recorded in early 2023 that will be released in the coming months and eventually appear together on an album, the band has once again shattered the ceiling of how far they are willing to go in search of new sonic terrain.

The Reading, Pennsylvania-based progressive death metalers spent 2021 and 2022 burning the candle at both ends with a frenzied tour schedule including headline runs of the U.S. and Europe, a jaunt on the European festival circuit and two runs in support of The Black Dahlia Murder and The Contortionist in North America. But once the latter tour wrapped up, they were short a band member.

For personal reasons, founding member and lead vocalist Jake Dieffenbach and the band went their separate ways. The split took place just three days after the recording of a live video and audio session for Audiotree‘s new ‘From Nothing‘ series, which was released on April 20, 2023. And while initially the band wasn’t sure how to approach the release with the departure of a founding member and lead singer – or whether to release it at all – they decided to move forward with it to honor Dieffenbach’s contributions to the group over the years and mark the beginning of a new chapter.

In March 2023, Rivers of Nihil wrapped up a recording session that saw the now four-piece band birth a considerable amount of new music featuring their previous bassist/backup vocalist Adam Biggs as the new lead vocalist/bassist. This recording session also marked the first appearance of new guitarist Andy Thomas (ex-Black Crown Initiate), whose vocals also play prominently in the music, as a member of Rivers of Nihil. These new singles are the first to showcase the band’s new lineup in full-on collaboration, and demonstrates that while this is a new, brave sound with tons of potential, it also carries the band’s classic energy.

“Staying away from the traditional constraints of a single genre label, Misanthropy fuses mind dissolving dissonant melodies, twisting hyper speed technicality, foundation-shattering low brutality, and hooks that will worm their way into your brain and take up permanent residence “