REVENANCE (USA/Ny): “Omen of Tragedy” Cd 2005 Permeated

1 - Educated Judiatry 2 - Five Shots 3 - Rhenecyclimone 4 - Omen of Tragedy 5 - Tatharcyst 6 - No Grteater Plan 7 - Zombie Death Horde 8 - Somebody Kill Something 9 - Regarding Nothing 10 - Passive Labor

I think today Permeated is Italy’s overally most consistent, high quality label. They’re genuinely mono-thematic in releasing only utterly Brutal American Brutal Death Metal but personally I love it when a label has coherence. You know what to expect from a Permeated release just like with Norma Evangelium Diaboli or Unmatched Brutality. The quality of their products is generally top level, and damn this Revenance Cd looks spendid (whasn’t there another Revenance in Italy btw?), this time Joel Sta (Pyaemia, Disavowed) really surpassed his previous works in experimenting on a different concept. The cover and inner artwork are a delicate framwork of multiple layers of purple, with elegant fonts and a weird, disturbing combination of elements like chidlren, industries etc. Not so sure about the concept becouse the lyrics have nothing to do with it, it is probably just an exercise in style.

While the presentation is of a level that can be compared to the best of Willowtip, It’s A Trap or Hydra Head releases, the sound quality is unluckily not the same level, a bit grubby to hear, but I adapted easily, as all the instrument are definite, at least. Revenenace look like kids in the picture, but the music they play is tight and with quite some meat, maybe the new generations’ access to infinite quantity of music has started to reap its rewards. The music is definitely Brutal Death Metal, totally 21th century, polished, with few blasts and a lot of mosh riffs, in the NY way (a bit far from Entorturement or old Skinless but basically it all started at that time). The vocals have a wide range, while luckily almost all the time a deep grunt. The slam is excellent, lead-heavy, never sounding like a fucking tarantella as it happened with the pioneers of this genre (“Destined for Defilement” anyone?). There is not much experimentation, as the album goes straight from the first to the last of the 30th actual minute of the Cd (15 minutes in the end are just countryside silence with wind and grasshoppers and stuff). While the band manifests his character mostly while crushing some slam riffs, I didn’t find many resemblances to Dying Fetus or The Red Chord as I was anticipated, both those bands have a far more straight violent direct approach, while this Cd tends a bit to fall unto itself.

And the assertion of hearing Hard Core influences in here is a fucking hoax, as whomever said it probably never heard the names Kinife Fight or Youth of Today… what the?

To sum it up this band is heavy and crushing, if a bit derivative, and I generally prefer the all-out utter brutality approach of bands like Enmity, Disgorge or Liturgy. It maybe needs to define his sound as either slam or fast becouse we’re in the middle ground now, and I generally don’t like to feel disoriented. But there’s space for improvement, lot of it.