Is the wait for a new Revocation album already starting to get unbearably long? Yeah, it is for me too, that’s why just like many other metal bands recently, Revocation have just released a free EP made up of 100% new material through Scion A/V! Of course, I’m just seeing this as the next chapter in Revocation’s discography, nothing more, nothing less (other than the fact that it’s a much shorter “chapter”). EPs are typically one of two things: a continuation of the newest full-length, or a marker as a major change in either style or sound. Immolation’s 2011 EP, Providence, was simply a continuation of their 2010 masterpiece Majesty and Decay. The Tomb Within EP that Autopsy released in 2010 represented the beginning of a new era for the band (aka their reformation) which lead to their best album since Mental Funeral, Macabre Eternal.

The new Revocation EP sounds enough like Chaos of Forms to be acceptably considered a continuation of the album, but it shouldn’t be ignored that there are, in fact, some stylistic changes in their music that have taken place before us. After releasing a straight-up technical thrash/death album in 2009 under the title Existence is Futile, Revocation decided to embark on a much more experimental and diverse direction. This gave birth to the critically-acclaimed release Chaos of Forms, which leans much more in the realms of thrash metal than ever before as well as implementing lots of bluesy elements and classic rock sounds (primarily in the solos and singing).

That was kind of one of the BIG changes that took place in Chaos of Forms; the sharp increase in the amount of clean singing (which was fucking electrifying, I LOVED it). In Teratogenesis, the amount of singing is brought back down to a low level, putting the screaming and yelling back up front where they were in Existence is Futile. After listening to the new EP about a dozen times in a row, it became obvious to me that Revocation had decided to take a lot of the death metal out of their sound, leaving a much more chaotic thrash metal beast. Although the band pulled it off perfectly in almost all aspects, I still think that the sound that they had on Existence is Futile is much more enjoyable and re-playable.

But then again, I loved the different elements that they added in on Chaos of Forms. So if they could take that album and put back a lot of the death metal that was there before, I think that we’d be in for something possibly worthy perfect album. But that’s not what Teratogenesis brings to the table. Think of this EP as a piece of technical thrash with extremely harsh vocals (sort of like a really technical old-school Kreator). This is the part where my rating of the album is mainly based on my musical tastes and preferences than the actual quality of the music itself. Because Revocation have made their transition in style EXTREMELY smooth, leaving next to no rough-spots. They’ve shown their ability to play a more different style of music than on previous albums, but still be completely creative and innovative like they’ve been playing that kind of music their whole lives. The style of the guitar solos have evolved with the rest of the sound in order to avoid sounding out-of-place and weird, the vocals are primarily screams and yells. The only time you hear growls is when they’re being played along with screams.

With all that said, don’t expect to be disappointed in any way, shape, or form by this record. It’s just that I’m not a big fan of the direction that Revocation has gone on this EP, I liked the much heavier and groovy sound MUCH better than this. This means that I should mention the third big reason why a band could choose to release an EP: experimentation. I’m thinking that Revocation wrote this EP for the same reason that Arsis wrote A Diamond for Disease in 2005; simply for experimentation and to get public and critical feedback. I don’t know for sure, but that’s my best guess. There’s no excuse for not having this album in your collection, it’s free for heaven’s sake!

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