Revocation creates extreme music for extreme times. On New Gods, New Masters, their fifth album for Metal Blade, the quartet, spearheaded by founder, vocalist & guitarist Dave Davidson, delivers nine potent and portentous songs of brutal lyrical and musical significance.
Produced by Davidson mixed and mastered by Jens Bogren (The Haunted, Spiritbox), tracks including “Cronenberged” (feat. Jonny Davy of Job for a Cowboy), “Sarcophagi of the Soul,” “Confines of Infinity” (feat. Travis Ryan of Cattle Decapitation) and “Dystopian Vermin” thematically explore AI and its impact on humanity.
Titling the album New Gods, New Masters reflects his belief about humans’ need to worship various gods. “It seems as if that desire is encoded in our DNA. As science and our understanding of nature and the universe as a whole increase, the religions of the old gods start to become obsolete,” believes Davidson. “However, I believe we’ve replaced our old gods with new ones, worshipping technology and creating a cult-like idolatry of innovators.”
The album’s lead single is titled “Cronenberg”. To wit, “Cronenberged” is about a science experiment gone wrong. Davidson is a massive Sci-Fi horror fan who loves the body horror genre that David Cronenberg helped create; the song is an homage to that. And, Davidson adds, “Shout out to Rick and Morty for inspiring the song title.” Check out the video below.
Pre-order the album at: Nightshift (USA) | Kings Road (Europe) | Eyesore Merch (UK)
“I’ve been very fascinated with the development of Artificial Intelligence, and I’m deeply concerned where this could lead humanity,” says Davidson, “whether it’s the slow march towards a technological dystopia or the all-out annihilation of our species.”
New Gods, New Masters marks the band’s 20th anniversary. Revocation debuted with 2008’s Empire of the Obscene and subsequently released seven critically acclaimed albums and toured over 25 countries, bringing their technically charged, high-energy extreme metal to North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific. New Gods follows up 2022’s Netherheaven, where Davidson‘s lyrics took hard looks at Catholicism, hypocrisy, politics, the occult, and demonic symbolism. Critics raved about Netherheaven, calling it “Revocation‘s best record in a decade” and praising the “darkest, heaviest songs of their career.”
That album set a high bar, but an even sharper musical and lyrical focus was achieved on New Gods, New Masters, which is deftly captured in the album artwork by Paolo Girardi. “He did an incredible job of bringing the lyrical themes of a bleak techno-nightmare to life,” Davidson says. “The ‘New God’ being birthed from the abyss of teeth and wires was even better than what I envisioned. I love the color palette he used. He even included some easter eggs from our first demo and first full-length album cover, which adds even more depth and meaning to the artwork for me.”
Titling the album New Gods, New Masters reflects his belief about humans’ need to worship various gods. “It seems as if that desire is encoded in our DNA. As science and our understanding of nature and the universe as a whole increase, the religions of the old gods start to become obsolete,” believes Davidson. “However, I believe we’ve replaced our old gods with new ones, worshipping technology and creating a cult-like idolatry of innovators.”
Music grounds and uplifts the band members-and fans. “I’m proud that I’ve been able to evolve as a musician and songwriter with every release. I never want to stagnate, and I think we’ve achieved real growth with every album,” says Davidson. “I’m also extremely proud that I’ve been able to keep this band going after all these years; it’s crazy to think of how far we’ve since the beginning.”
