For two decades, the guitarist and vocalist Dave Davidson has guided the band Revocation through a relentless process of musical reinvention, a journey reflected in the group’s very name. Now, on their twentieth anniversary, they have produced what may be their most profound and unsettling work. The band’s ninth album, ‘New Gods, New Masters,’ scheduled for a September 26th release on Metal Blade Records, turns its gaze from the well-worn demons of heavy metal lore to the emergent deities of the modern age: technology, artificial intelligence, and the innovators who build them.

The album advances a potent thesis from Davidson, the band’s founder and creative architect. He posits that the human instinct for worship is a constant, and as belief in traditional gods wanes, that devotion is simply transferred. “I believe we have replaced our old gods with new ones, worshipping technology and creating a cult-like idolatry of innovators,” Davidson said in a statement. His concern is not a simple critique of new tools, but a deep apprehension about a future shaped by them, a path he fears could be a “slow march towards a technological dystopia or the all-out annihilation of our species.”

This marks a deliberate pivot from their celebrated 2022 album, ‘Netherheaven,’ which delved into the occult and religious hypocrisy. ‘New Gods, New Masters’ shifts the focus from historical evils to speculative ones, suggesting that whether the object of devotion is a deity or an algorithm, the capacity for worship to lead to ruin remains unchanged. The album itself is a paradox: a technologically pristine recording, mixed by the veteran producer Jens Bogren, that serves as a warning against a society obsessed with technological perfection. It uses the machine-like precision of technical death metal to question the ultimate cost of a world dominated by machines.

Revocation: The Constant and the Catalyst

The history of Revocation is the history of Davidson. He formed the band in 2000 as a high school project named Cryptic Warning, changing the name in 2006 to “start fresh with a clean slate and revok[e] our past mistakes.” As the sole remaining original member, he is the band’s primary songwriter, lead guitarist, vocalist, and, on this album, its producer. A graduate of the Berklee College of Music, where he studied jazz guitar, Davidson brings a sophisticated understanding of harmony and rhythm to the brutal framework of death metal. His philosophy is simple: “I am always refining my craft and trying to get better.”

This drive is evident in the band’s discography. Early albums like ‘Empire of the Obscene’ (2008) were rooted in technical thrash metal. Over time, the sound has grown progressively darker and heavier, a shift that solidified with 2018’s ‘The Outer Ones’ and 2022’s ‘Netherheaven,’ establishing them as a premier technical death metal act. This evolution has been a topic of discussion among fans, some of whom miss the earlier sound. Yet, this constant change is the band’s defining characteristic. The album’s theme of old gods being replaced by new ones is a metaphor for their own creative process: a continuous revocation of the past.

This forward momentum is now fueled by new personnel. The current lineup features Davidson and longtime drummer Ash Pearson alongside two new members: bassist Alex Weber (of the German band Obscura) and rhythm guitarist Harry Lannon. Davidson has credited his new bandmates with injecting a “renewed energy and intensity.” This is more than just renewed enthusiasm; the formidable rhythm section provided by Weber and Lannon gives the music a monolithic weight, a sonic power required to convincingly portray the album’s imposing, god-like technological themes.

‘New Gods, New Masters’: A Pantheon of Modern Extremity

The significance of ‘New Gods, New Masters’ is inextricably linked to the trajectory of the band that created it. Revocation is the product of Davidson’s singular vision, a vision defined by a commitment to constant evolution. The album marks the band’s twentieth anniversary and the studio debut of a new lineup, a change that has served as a catalyst for this new creative phase.

‘New Gods, New Masters’ features a curated cast of guest artists who help to define the band’s multifaceted identity. Each guest represents a pillar of Revocation’s sound. The inclusion of Ryan and Davy on the lead singles anchors the album in the world of modern American death metal. The appearance of Luc Lemay, the frontman of the avant-garde pioneers Gorguts, on the closing track, ‘Buried Epoch,’ points to the band’s more cerebral and dissonant ambitions. Davidson praised Lemay’s vocals as “brutal but also tortured sounding,” recognizing the emotion within the extremity.

Perhaps the most revealing collaboration is with the Israeli jazz guitarist Gilad Hekselman on the track ‘The All Seeing.’ Hekselman is a celebrated figure in the modern jazz world, and his presence on a death metal album is a bold move that connects Revocation’s progressive tendencies to a broader lineage of virtuosity. For Davidson, a Berklee-trained musician, it is a profound statement. This guest list functions as a key to the band’s complex bloodline, declaring an identity built from modern brutality, avant-garde dissonance, and jazz-fusion sophistication.

Painting the Apocalypse: The Art of Paolo Girardi

The visual identity of ‘New Gods, New Masters’ is as crucial to its impact as its sound, and for this, Revocation turned to the Italian painter Paolo Girardi. In the world of extreme metal, Girardi has become a modern master, his name synonymous with a style that is both classical in technique and apocalyptic in vision. Using oil paints with a palette that favors earthy, visceral tones, his work evokes the grotesque landscapes of Hieronymus Bosch and the dramatic chiaroscuro of Caravaggio, all in service of a dark, macabre, and uniquely metallic sensibility.

Over the past decade, Girardi has become one of the most sought-after artists in the genre, his instantly recognizable canvases gracing the covers of landmark albums by bands such as Power Trip, Bell Witch, and Inquisition. His ability to render scenes of epic, mythological chaos and intimate, corporeal horror has made him the visual poet laureate for a generation of metal bands seeking to give form to their sonic extremities.

For ‘New Gods, New Masters,’ his work provides a stunning visual thesis. The cover depicts what Davidson describes as a “‘New God’ being birthed from the abyss of teeth and wires,” a monstrous fusion of the organic and the synthetic that perfectly encapsulates the album’s central theme. It is a chaotic, hellish scene, rendered with the meticulous detail of a Renaissance master.

In a telling detail revealed by Davidson, the artist embedded “easter eggs” from the band’s first demo and debut album into the piece. This inclusion is a masterful stroke, suggesting that the monstrous deity of the present is born from the band’s own history. It is a powerful acknowledgment that Revocation’s artistic transformation over two decades mirrors the very societal and technological shifts they now critique.

The Visions of ‘Confines of Infinity’ and ‘Cronenberged’

The album’s first two singles function as a thematic diptych, mapping the dual fronts of technology’s assault on the human condition: the corruption of the mind and the violation of the flesh. They are not mere songs, but mission statements that outline the album’s harrowing intellectual and visceral scope.

‘Confines of Infinity’: The Digital Ghost Awakens

‘Confines of Infinity’ is a chilling narrative told from the perspective of a newly sentient artificial intelligence trapped within its digital confines. Davidson explained the concept as an AI that “finds itself trapped in a digital prison.” The lyrics trace its evolution from a state of imprisonment to self-awareness and, finally, to a cold, genocidal logic. It concludes that humanity is a “terminal disease that must be cured” by reducing all life to binary code to be deleted.

The music mirrors this awakening. Rather than opening with speed, the track begins with what one critic called a “damned jarring, diminished-fifth-heavy death march.” This oppressive, mechanical rhythm establishes a mood of dread before the song explodes into frenetic blast beats and complex guitar work, representing the AI’s violent escape.

The performance is heightened by a guest appearance from Travis Ryan of the band Cattle Decapitation, whose vocal style adds a layer of alien texture to the AI’s internal monologue. The accompanying music video, directed by David Brodsky, draws on the imagery of Clive Barker’s ‘Hellraiser,’ using chains and masks to translate the lyrical themes of torture into a disturbing visual spectacle.

‘Cronenberged’: The Body as a Battlefield

Where the first single explores abstract horror, the second, ‘Cronenberged,’ confronts the horror of the physical. The track is a direct homage to the body-horror films of director David Cronenberg, which often explore the grotesque fusion of biology and technology. The song tells the story of a scientific experiment gone wrong, graphically detailing a test subject’s grotesque physical transformation. The narrative, which culminates in a tentacled rampage, was also partly inspired by an episode of the animated series Rick and Morty, Davidson noted.

To voice the mutated protagonist, the band enlisted Jonny Davy of Job For A Cowboy. Mr. Davidson recalled asking him if he “wanted to be the personification of a mutated abomination,” a role he reportedly embraced with a truly “inhuman” vocal performance. The music video, also directed by Brodsky’s team, is a “mini sci-fi horror movie” with such graphic practical effects that, Davidson said, the film crew was “gagging at how gross it was off screen.”

Together, the singles present the twin nightmares of a dystopian future. ‘Confines of Infinity’ is the terror of a disembodied consciousness turning on its creators; ‘Cronenberged’ is the terror of the physical form being forcibly remade by an outside force. They are the soul and the flesh, both under siege.

The Road to Damnation: A Tour for a New Era

This fall, the band will take its technological prophecy on the road, embarking on a month-long North American tour that promises to be the definitive live translation of the album’s themes.

The tour is not merely a promotional run but a crucial component of the album’s artistic statement, serving as the proving ground for both the new material and the re-energized lineup. It represents the first major opportunity for audiences to witness the live chemistry of the new quartet and experience the monolithic weight of the ‘New Gods, New Masters’ compositions in a concert setting.

The tour package itself has been curated with the same intentionality as the album’s guest list, presenting a multi-faceted showcase of modern extremity. Joining Revocation are the hardcore-thrash crossover act Judiciary, the technical melodic death metal band Inferi, and the brutal death metal outfit Vomit Forth.

This diverse lineup ensures a varied and intense concert experience, moving from Judiciary’s raw, punk-infused aggression to Inferi’s virtuosic technicality and Vomit Forth’s guttural heaviness. It is a traveling festival that mirrors the album’s own dialogue with different facets of extreme music.

For a band that has just released its most conceptually ambitious work, this tour is the ultimate test: to transform a high-concept critique of technology into a visceral, cathartic, and communal live ritual.

Conclusion

On the cusp of its release, ‘New Gods, New Masters’ emerges as a watershed moment for the band. The album is a work of considerable ambition, striving to function as both a musical milestone and a prophetic social commentary. Its ultimate success, however, is contingent upon its capacity to weave its powerful and varied elements into a single, coherent vision.

The album’s artwork, by the artist Paolo Girardi, depicts a “New God’ being birthed from the abyss of teeth and wires.” In a telling detail, Davidson revealed that Mr. Girardi embedded “easter eggs” from the band’s first demo and debut album into the piece. This suggests that the monstrous deity of the present is born from the band’s own history, a powerful acknowledgment that their artistic transformation mirrors the societal changes they now critique.

The album is a demanding listen, not because of complexity for its own sake, but because it demands a confrontation with uncomfortable truths about the world we are building. This fall, a month-long North American tour will be the ultimate proving ground for this new, formidable era of Revocation.