Revocation - Chaos of Forms

Holy. Shit.

When's the last time an album made you say that while you're hearing it? I can't remember, myself. I remember loving albums, or thinking riffs were great, or just grooving off something, but actually saying, out loud, "holy shit?"

Chaos of Forms is fucking awesome. Easily on track for my album of the year. And it's not even sludge, or doom, or stoner, or ambient. (And as you know, the Hornmeister loves his de-tuned down tempo sounds.)

It's heavy, it's fast, it constantly changes (and I mean constantly), but never feels forced or show-offy (okay, occasionally, but it's still cool, and it still changes before you get bored).

Revocation is thrash/death/prog/math/ power/ etc. metal. The nearest band comparisons I can make are all old-school west coast metal bands (though Revocation are from Boston): Forced Entry, Toxik (minus the operatic vocals), Last Crack and Sadus. If these names mean anything to you, they'll give you some idea of what Chaos of Forms sounds like.

Full disclosure: I didn't like their previous record, Existence Is Futile: too proggy, too show-offy.

I guess their deal with the devil went through.

Souls well spent, fellas. Souls well spent.

They kept their proggy aspects, while at the same time making these tunes as hooky as a Hellraiser remake starring the major Peter Pan characters.

Tracks in particular:

"No Funeral" makes me happy: it's Candlemass' "Into the Unfathomed Tower" with vocals. There's ridiculous shredding going on, but nearly every minute of it is hummable and loaded with hooks.

"The Watchers" has both a horn (ha!) section and an organ section, and may be one of a handful of times those things actually work (however briefly) on an extreme metal album (and this from someone who loves jazz and has played it for years).

Every musician is STUPID good: the drums are tight and as athletic as Mia Hamm and Jack Johnson's illicit love child, the guitars are consistently spewing finger-mangling riffs.... wow.

Frankly, I don't know what the fuck happened between this album and the previous... but if this evolution continues at this rate through subsequent albums... they'll be founding religions around future Revocation releases.

Chaos of Forms is really that good.

--Horn