An essential aspect of horror is its ability to serve as a funhouse mirror at the ills of society or at the very least, the things that terrify a given author. Vocalist/guitarist Dave Davidson is arguably tech metal’s resident poet laurate or at least among its most literate representatives, as shown recently in how well he captures the terror of the rise and power held by the Christian Right on Netherheaven. Poe and Lovecraft are often reference points for his horrors, and I’d add Clive Barker to the mix, as Revocation’s lyrics take the listener to a place where the dread turns insurmountable yet achingly human in focus. He’s turned his bloody eye toward AI on the band’s latest batch of sci-fi horror: New Gods, New Masters, out September 26th via Metal Blade Records.
Their ninth album musically plays with the notions of AI, using all of their past styles and sounds as a reference point. However, whereas AI utilizes theft and shitty recreation, Revocation use that sneaky element of human creation: innovation. Merging the playfulness of Deathless, the progressive darkness of The Outer Ones, and the nimble songwriting of their early days (and that Scion A/V EP!), New Gods, New Masters finds Revocation rewriting the code on how to make complex music sound impossibly fun. Where to go next is never easy, especially on your ninth album, but that challenge is one Davidon relishes:
“I always want to do something we haven’t done before. I never want to lose sight of that creative spark that got me into this style of music in the first place. As the band grows, it is a fun exercise to try and write in a way that I think will translate well in a live setting. There’s a lot of crushingly heavy parts on this album that I think will get people moving and banging their heads. The tech and prog elements will always be there, but there’s some riffs on this one that are sure to activate the pit.”
This record in particular sounds like it’s in conversation with both Revocation’s past work and the records that made them want to be musicians in the first place. Does Davidson feel like his ability to write and think about what he wants has grown over the years, or is that just a byproduct of experience and growth?
“I think one feeds the other. It’s a continuous process for me where the more songs I write, the better I become as a song writer. There’s a thoughtfulness that comes with the analyzation of my work post-recording, but there’s also an intuition that develops from the process every writing cycle. There’s also a freedom that comes with having an extensive back catalogue because at this point, I’ve been able to write using so many different forms. We’ve got songs that are more traditional in structure, songs that are longer epic journeys, and songs that clock in under three minutes. Having such a wide palette to draw from with just song form alone gives me a lot to work with.”
So how does that play into New Gods, New Machines’ themes? I won’t spoil all of the various references throughout – though one title could not lay that bearer if it tried – but suffice it to say, Davidson has a whole server’s worth of thoughts on the challenges with AI, both the terror of the machines and the horror of the humans trying to leverage them for less than stellar ends:
“The record certainly has a sci-fi theme, specifically how sci-fi is becoming reality. AI is growing at an exponential rate, and it poses many existential threats to our species. Every government in the world is in an arms race to get to the most advanced AI possible to achieve dominance, which means many of the guardrails and safety nets are being disregarded. I think if we do not approach this new technology with utmost caution, it has a real chance of leading to the end of the world as we know it. Whether it’s a general despiritualized nihilism that ends up being the dominant sentiment in society due to the replacement of human purpose in the world, or the all-out annihilation of our species by a rogue AI agent. One that is not aligned with our goals and sees humans as a threat to its own existence. Of course, I had to have a little fun with the lyrics and imagery on the record, mainly for my own sanity since the picture I was painting for this album was pretty bleak to say the least. A song like ‘Cronenberged’ for example is my ode to sci-fi body horror if you couldn’t tell by the title [laughs]. I really got to embrace my sci-fi horror obsession on that one and went all in on the over-the-top imagery.”
“While each song is meant to exist as its own vignette of the techno-dystopia,” he adds. “I’m envisioning, I did have some themes that pop up throughout the lyrics, namely The All Seeing which is the personification of an awakened AI turned vengeful god and the Gemini Parasite, a weapon created by the All Seeing to wipe out the human race. I never specifically described either in my lyrics because I wanted to leave it up to the reader’s imagination. However, now that I’m starting to work with artists on t-shirt designs for our upcoming tours, I’m able to see different interpretations of these antagonists coming to life in real time. Having these concepts present in different songs created a thematic thread that helped tie these different vignettes together into something that felt more unified, something that I’ve been actively trying to achieve with every album we’ve released since Great Is Our Sin.”
New Gods, New Masters is out Friday, and you can preorder it from Metal Blade Records. Follow Revocation on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter for future updates.
Photo Credit: Alex Morgan
