For twenty-five years Revenge has been singularly focused on hitting listeners with as much brute force as possible, blurring the lines between black metal, death metal, and grind to get there. Mastermind James Read has collaborated with guitarist/bassist Vermin for much of this time, and while each album has brought tweaks to the production and way the riffs are strung together the core formula has remained the same. Album number seven, Violation.Strife.Abominate, is no exception as it retains the warlike cadence and noisy assault on the listener, but changes up some of the vocal patterns and rhythms compared to past efforts. It doesn’t quite reach the same heights as some of the band’s best, but there are clear song highlights and there’s something to be said for how damned consistent Revenge is.
If you’ve heard any of the band’s past material, it should be pretty evident what you’re in for upon pressing play and “Violation Unit (Balaclava Directive)” makes that very clear. Tracks like this feel like Revenge boiled down to their essence, as they have the slightest moment of tense build-ups before a sheer wall of guitar, bass, and drums pummel you in blitzkrieg fashion. There are some shifts into some slightly slower tempos, but they never last for longer in a minute and often lead into scorching guitar solos that feel like they’re on the verge of collapse. The controlled chaos and violence has always been a main part of Revenge’s appeal for those who can appreciate this level of extremity, and the main turn-off for those who often regard it as just noise. Compared to the rest of their discography there are subtle tweaks to tempos and the death vs. black metal elements, and I found that some of the tracks that gave just a little bit of breathing room in their transitions stood out more. “Flashpoint Heretic (Flame Thrown)” and “Shockwave Iconoclast” in particular are up there with some of the group’s best, as they assault in a very calculated way and pull things back at just the right moments. But the material is also hindered by its length, as Violation.Strife.Abominate is the band’s longest to date at around forty-three minutes. This proves to be just a bit too long for material like this, as some repetition does set in and moments come and go without completely setting in. It’s not a dealbreaker by any means, as everything still hits as hard as one could possibly want, but does dull the impact slightly compared to albums like Behold.Total.Rejection.
James Read’s vocals have been some of the most abrasive and inhuman sounding in all of metal, and they somehow seem even more unhinged on Violation.Strife.Abominate. The regular back and forth between the higher screams and extremely low growls always keeps you on edge, and on songs like “Strife Invocation” they sound downright rabid. On paper this may all sound pretty standard for Revenge, but the fact that the vocals are getting even crazier twenty-five years in says a lot and showcases that Read and company are putting just as much energy into new music as they did in the early days. It’s also worth mentioning that the production values are similar to the last two albums, providing just a bit more separation between instrumentals and vocals, and this makes the screams and growls pummel you even harder.
Revenge’s particular brand of extremity hits in ways that few bands can match up to, and this holds true seven albums in. It does run a bit long and doesn’t quite reach the heights of Infiltration.Downfall.Death or Behold.Total.Rejection, but there is still plenty here for those that have taken to the group’s unrelenting attack in the past. Crank the volume all the way up, and prepare for annihilation. Violation.Strife.Abominate is available from Season of Mist Underground Activists.
-Review by Chris Dahlberg