Revel In Flesh – The Hour of the Avenger

Band: Revel In Flesh
Title: The Hour of the Avenger
Label: War Anthem Records
Release date: 6 December 2019
Country: Germany
Format reviewed: High-Quality Digital Promo

“Final hour
Fading lights
Final thoughts
Your time has come
To die”

The new REVEL IN FLESH album is here. And it arrives just on time in the dying days, in the complete END of this decade. It arrives to devastate all the festive season and joyful holiday mood. Right!

Of course, I have soft spot for REVEL IN FLESH. First of all, let’s mention the quality albums of superb death metal the band released since 2012. With stubbornness, consistency and precision, paving their path for being among the top contemporary European death metal acts. The band never quit doing what they are doing. I must mention here my personal contact last year with Ralf who was so kind to send me one of the final left-outs of t-shirts of HEADS FOR THE DEAD. Yes, “Serpent’s Curse” is also among the best death metal albums and among the heaviest shit released most recently. And it is one of Blessed Altar Zine’s team most favorite records as well.

Since the very first second, “The Hour of the Avenger” grants exquisite death metal journey. Uncompromising, with superb riffs and melodies, with devastating tempo. This is how the death metal must sound on the edge of the new decade. Dynamic, dense, brutal, precise, technical. The unmistakable Ralf’s vocals kill everything – deep growls with hysterical shrieks. “Avenger” is exactly 44 minutes and 44 seconds of pure eargasm. I find the production on the new record a great one – the sound is clear, crisp, heavy, bold. No murkiness, nothing hidden under muddy swampy sounds. No thrills – just kill.

For the first time, the band recorded the drums and vocals in different studio locations while guitars and bass lines were still recorded at VAULT M. Studios – owned by the guitarist Maggesson. The final mix and the mastering process was managed by the legendary Dan Swanö (UNISOUND Studios) who is a close friend to REVEL IN FLESH.

In short about the tracks: The albums starts with the furious opener “The Hour of the Avenger” and continues in the same killing pace with “The Trial”. As a huge fan of HYPOCRISY, I was blown away and said to myself what the fuck is going on here. REVEL IN FLESH have grown tremendously and have left behind their teachers from the 90s! “Blood oath” is a slower and heavier track, rolling out like a huge machine down the road. I love “The Nihilistic Nothingness”, starting with bestial “Let’s fucking gooooo” by Ralf, continuing in a mid groovy death metal tempo (with a tiny bow to Edge of Sanity?). “Skyburial” is torturous track, exploring the death-doom area (with style), with some great lead works incorporated among the heavy sadness. “Deathblow” is just what it is named – savage death metal butchery. “Petvertin Speed Kill” even raises this butchery bar, delivering crushing headbanging tunes while “Wayfarer” is more into good old Bolt Thrower territory, especially the double bass parts of the track. “Skull Sacrifice” carries Swedish OSDM riff and tempo, but the absolute killer vocals and the haunting lead guitars hitting around add the complete nightmarish taste. “The Nightbreed” is a song again in mid-tempo. It honestly reminded me a lot about Paradise Lost “Shades of God”/”Icon” era, but of course, carrying the Revel in Flesh signature with deep growls and heavier crispier guitars. The album ends with an epic cover version of Motorhead’s “Rock Out”.

I can rant a lot about the death metal releases in 2019, and this will be covered in another article. However REVEL IN FLESH deserve high praise for their labor, and “Avenger” gloriously signs the final touches of the death metal library from this (almost gone) decade. “The Hour of the Avenger” is definitely among the top finest death metal records of 2019. It carries all great for the best European Death metal from the 90s, but it is so modern, so fresh and so intriguing. It is an important album! You just can’t go into the new decade without witnessing what REVEL IN FLESH has left us as legacy now. It is a great (European) Death fuking metal. This is an album which I’m going to play a lot in the future. Highly enjoyable, with no short life, shining out in the huge pile of new releases these days. The pupils are grown now and teach their teachers.

…the only short life is yours… 9.5/10 Count Vlad