Revocation - Chaos Of Forms (Relapse)

Ripping, shredding and tearing their way through opening track 'Cretin', Revocation set out their stall from the word go – primo eighties thrash riffage shot through with the barbed-wire taut brutality of modern-day Deathcore, a pinch of edge-of-sanity craziness, a soupcon of Black Metal intensity and a heaping helping of droolworthy guitar heroism – and refuse to let up until all around have been ripped, shredded, torn and thrashed into oblivion. A commendable attitude, and one that will get them far in the world of metal.

Clearly technically gifted, Revocation separate themselves from the tech-death pack by using their technicality to colour their music, as opposed to ruling it. There are very few absurdly complicated tapping riffs in complex time signatures on Chaos Of Forms, instead Revocation tend to build their songs around razor-edged dynamite thrash riffs flavoured with a bite of shred. The hurtling, jerky discord pile-up and alien harmonising of 'Fractal Entity' – essentially a short instrumental lead in to the title track – is in a minority here. Breakneck technically-informed lunatic thrash rules the day for the most part.
Vocally, this is less straight-up death grunting and more a hybrid between the snarl of the lighter end of death metal and a rabid hardcore bark, fitting the instrumental sound perfectly.

The guitar heroics on display take Revocation down some very interesting side-paths, such as the sudden drop into slap-bass and wah-wah funk mixed with twin harmonies on 'Harlot', the deviation from the Voivod-esque main riff of 'Dissolution Ritual' into a pitch-perfect solo-lead jazz-fusion section, the moment during closer 'Reprogrammed' when what sounds like the factory lurch of prime-Fear Factory is suddenly overlaid with a wonderful guitar solo so artful that it could have come straight from the axe of the godlike Ron Jarzombek himself, and the near-stadium rock intro to 'Conjuring The Cataclysm'.

These boys are not afraid to just throw it all into the pot, safe in the knowledge that whatever they play will always be bookended by ripping thrash, no matter how far out they wander.

Chaos Of Forms is an adrenaline-fulled white knuckle ride, a thrash rollercoaster, spiked with technicality and enough colour to make even the most jaded metalhead sit up and pay attention. Restlessly shifting, it motors ahead at full-throttle throwing out flashy moves and the occasional curveball but never once becoming self-indulgent or showing-off just for the sake of it, a lesson that many in the same field could do well to heed.