In their relatively short existence, Germany’s Revel in Flesh have returned with their third album in 3 years. Revel in Flesh play a brutal form of old school death metal rooted in the late 80’s Swedish death metal scene, as well as Bolt Thrower-ish moments of rumbling and teutonic heaviness. Deathevokation from 2012 and Manifested Darkness from last year were some of my favorite albums at the time. With Death Kult Legions we see Revel in Flesh venture outside their comfort zone a little bit, as they add some epic and doomier moments on this terrific release.

“In the Name of the Flesh” erupts after a short intro into some punishing blast beats. Now while I always felt the band had a great guitar tone, this release sees the buzzsaw guitar sound not only taking center stage, but also one of the best guitar sounds, on any death metal release, for 2014. Nihilist/Entombed definitely come to mind when listening to this. Guitars and vocals sound ferocious on this track, but also on the entire album.

Haubersson’s low vocals are astoundingly brutal and his shriekier/higher pitches are excellent and not overly done. No monotony with his style, nice variations. He also enunciates his words quite well, so you can make out his vocals. “When Glory Turns to Ruin” is up next and is a slower paced track, with extreme heaviness. Now I mentioned Bolt Thrower earlier as one of Revel’s influences and I think they may have been listening to a lot of Bolt Thrower’s War Master album. The rumbling tank like heaviness, the guitar tone from that album, appear as influences on this track and album. “Black Oath Impurity” comes back into blasting territory with the band really tearing apart the listener. “Frozen Majesty” shows Revel in Flesh branching out with creating a more epic tune. Song has some nice synths for the intro and show cases the band expanding their brutal heavy sound a bit more. Beautiful song.

“Cryptcrawler” is another personal favorite of mine with a punishing rumbling heaviness that had me uprooting trees and throwing them across my neighborhood like it was nobody’s business. The 3:20 mark has a killer catchy guitar riff and Ralf has some incredible varying vocal styles on this track. Some awesome doominess and and epic ending closes out one of Revel’s best songs ever.

The album ends with a Manilla Road cover, of all things, “Necropolis”. Keeping true to the original, in terms of pacing, but with the buzzsaw riffage.

I tell you… as much as I worship Revel in Flesh’s past efforts, Death Kult Legions is their finest hour. The album cover is outstanding, the production of Dan Swano, is elite and so is the album. Really, this is one of the best albums for 2014. Buy or Die!

[Visit the band's website]

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