Review: Revocation – New Gods, New Masters

September 26, 2025

708

Technology, the Beast, the seventh crown.

Know that I am approaching this review as a dyed-in-the-wool Revocation fanboy. If you’ve come here for a deep analysis of this album that attempts to examine its pros and cons as empirically and objectively as possible, you’ve come to the wrong place; do we look like Angry Metal Guy to you? I’ll get the gist of it out at the top: I think this record fuckin’ rips, and it’s one of my favorites of the year so far. It’s called New Gods, New Masters, but I’ve got the same gods and masters as before in the form of Revocation.

If you heard any of the tracks the band put out leading up to release, then it should come as no surprise to you that this is Revocation’s ugliest, most ignorant album to date by a hefty margin. A preponderance of low-end riffing is the primary driver for this, replete with chromatic runs and unhinged, molten harmonies that will bring out the stankest of faces in the listener. They’re not afraid to get stompy with it, either; from “Dystopian Vermin” with its four-on-the-floor beats to the militant chugging of “Confines of Infinity” and everything in between, this album does not want for mosh fodder. This isn’t new territory for the band- look at “Godless” from their last album or the title track from The Outer Ones– but it’s cranked up to a degree here that separates New Gods, New Masters from its predecessors in overall tone if not necessarily in structure. You can look at it in the same way as Nevermore in how the music manages to feel simultaneously braindead and genius- the occasional hint of Loomis in the riffs (see “Data Corpse” in particular) doesn’t hurt, either.

That comparison can extend to the lyrics as well, taking some cues from the Warrel Dane playbook. While not a concept album, New Gods follows a similar pattern as Netherheaven and The Outer Ones with a thematic through line in music and subject matter. Rather than elder gods and Satanic cults, the focus this time around is on more real horrors of our own making: tech, specifically artificial intelligence and, in Davidson’s own words, the “cult-like idolatry of innovators.” There’s a little bit of goofiness, too, with the body horror of “Cronenberged” and the doomsaying of a malicious AI entity a la “Sentient 6” in “Confines of Infinity,” but you also get songs like “Sarcophagi of the Soul” touching on data aggregation and profiling by big tech. Even if you’re not listening to this for the lyrics, it’s refreshing to see a band I like taking this approach in light of recent missteps by other artists, not to unleash that can of worms again.

If there is any one point at which this album stumbles, it’s in the song structure. Each individual section of any given song is fantastic in a vacuum, but there’s a lack of cohesive transitions between ideas that was just present enough to bother me. This isn’t omnipresent across the album, but there were a few too many “riff fades out, new, mostly unrelated riff starts up” type of moments throughout its runtime for my own listening sensibilities. It’s certainly not a deal-breaker- just a bit annoying.

Overall, this is another good showing from Revocation. It doesn’t make any substantial changes to their formula- they’ve found their niche and they’re sticking to it- but the new ideas they explore within that formula are enough to keep it feeling fresh. There are some excellent guest spots as well: Travis Ryan of Cattle Decapitation and Johnny Davy of Job For A Cowboy both put on some of their ickiest growls, and Luc Lemay’s characteristically raw howls are perfect on “Buried Epoch.” Of particular note is jazz guitarist Gilad Hekselman’s appearance on “The All Seeing,” which is absurdly shreddy in a way you don’t often hear on metal albums, even from jazz aficionados like Davidson. As a complete package, this is another solid addition to the Revocation canon that has already earned itself a spot in my regular rotation.