Retroview: Revenant

A couple months ago the Sarg forgot about neon t-shirts, scene haircuts, and emo crunk long enough to give a stirring tribute to New Jersey Death Metal legends Ripping Corpse. Today, I'd like to focus your attention on another equally underappreciated Garden State Death Metal band--Revenant. Revenant was formed back in 1986 in beautiful Bergenfield, New Jersey. They released three cassette demos and a 7" single throughout the late 80s (I've never heard any of them, but they're probably awesome. If you have mp3s of them, you should send them to me) and actually played their first show with Metal Inquisition favorites Mucky Pup! Just Like their Jersey bros in Ripping Corpse, Revenant released their only full length album in 1991 and they've never received the praise and respect they deserve.

Remember back when bands looked this awesome?

Prophecies of a Dying World--is one of the best death metal albums ever released, period! None of that overproduced, super technical, hyperfast modern death metal bullshit. Revenant is 100% old school death metal. Thick, thrashy riffs, jackhammer drumming, and nasty as fuck vocals. The production is perfect--heavy, but still clear enough to make out every cymbal hit. Think early Death, but heavier and more epic. The songs tend to be on the longer side for death metal with the shortest song coming in at just under 5 minutes and the longest one approaching the 8 minute mark. This would spell certain doom for most death metal bands, but Revenant never runs out of steam or ideas. They just continue to bring it with riff after awesome riff amounting to almost an hour long pummeling. If you're a fan of Ripping Corpse, old Immolation, and the like you'll lose your shit when you hear this album. I promise.

I bet this show was sick!

Unfortunately like Ripping Corpse, cover art was not Revenant's strong suit. Though it's not nearly as bad as the cover of Dreaming With the Dead, it's still pretty lame. I understand that Revenant was trying to convey an image of the titular dying world, but a photograph of a barren landscape with orange clouds and a pile of branches in the foreground just doesn't do this album justice. If you're going to go with a landscape you might as well use a Georgia O'Keeffe.

A foolproof way to piss off your neighbors!

Shortly after the release of Prophecies of a Dying World, Revenant parted ways with Nuclear Blast Records. They went on to release another 7" single as well as another demo, and in 1995 they completed their final recording--the Overman EP, which wasn't released until 2002. So as shitty bands like Cannibal Corpse and At the Gates rose to prominence in the death metal scene Revenant faded into obscurity. There's no justice in this word, just Metal Inquisition.

While touring Europe in support of Prophecies of a Dying World, Revenant shot a video for "The Unearthly." It was premiered on Headbanger's Ball in the spring of '92 and featured on the first Death...Is Just the Beginning compilation.

And here's a bonus live video of Revenant performing their hit song "The Unearthly."

Retroview: Ripping Corpse / Dim Mak

In case it wasn't obvious from my gushing about bands like Forced Entry and Believer, I have a real soft spot for technical thrash that's progressive without being prog. There is perhaps no better example of that style than New Jersey's finest, Ripping Corpse (and their sister band Dim Mak).



Ripping Corpse - "Dreaming With The Dead" (1991)
I am going to skip the demos because (as I recall) the songs are all on this album. I'm sure some "I ONLY LIKE THE DEMO!!" idiot will correct me on that, and of course tell me that the demos are better than the full length. Well, that's what the comments are for.



In any case, this is a masterpiece of offbeat, unique thrash. The thing that really sets Ripping Corpse apart is the way that they always seem to accent the parts you don't expect. So if you were trying to dance to it, you would always end up on the wrong foot. Maybe one of you tards can tell me the musical term for this, it could just be syncopation. For example, the second riff in the song above, "Anti-god," is all herky jerky and fucked up like there are extra beats here and there. "Chugging Pus" is another really good example of those strange accents. Shaune Kelley also has a very unique style of lead that reminds me a lot of James Murphy, only I think this predates anything James Murphy did?

The only weak spot is the cover, which is rather unfortunate. I appreciate the fact that it doesn't have an oil painting of a monster or an evil politician (with toxic waste behind him, naturally), but to me it's just an indicator of Scott Ruth being a big weirdo. I'm imagining him trying to articulate some bizarre, pseudo-metaphysical concept to the poor shmuck who had to paint the cover, who is only halfway listening and already doodling up this image of a vaguely Central American temple with some guy sitting in the middle of the floor. It makes about as much sense as the bloody saw on the cover of "Human Waste" hacking away at a single femur bone (see "Great moments in art history: Suffocation").

8/10 bloody axes



Dim Mak - "Enter The Dragon" (1999)
This will probably be controversial, but I think this Dim Mak record is what Ripping Corpse meant to be. It continues with the weird, meandering leads, off-kilter accents, and barking vocals, but adds much, much more polished drumming courtesy of Mr. Brandon Thomas and generally more interesting, complex songwriting. Sadly I can't find any of their studio songs on YouTube, so you'll have to settle for this live stuff. The quality isn't the best, but you can definitely hear the drums really well which will tell you a lot about why this record is so awesome. You should definitely download it to give it a chance with nice production. The only possible negative is that this band clearly inspired infamous merchants of Jersey shore slamming groove Waking the Cadaver, who pretty much directly ripped off the winding leads of Shaune Kelley.

Most of the lyrics are about Bruce Lee movies and other martial arts-related stuff like courage, "royal ass whippings," and dragons. Um yeah... that's a little too close to anime tentacle-rape snuff porn territory for me, but whatever. I think there's something in the water down there in the Jersey shore area that breeds nerds- just ask Kevin Smith. I went to the Woodbridge Mall once and it was full of weirdos trading Pokemon in the food court so I left in a hurry.

9/10 bloody axes



Dim Mak - "Intercepting Fist" (2002)
This record pretty much picks up where "Enter the Dragon" left off, only it's a little more stripped down and fast. Personally I like the first album better because the riffs are a little meatier, the drumming is a little more nuanced, and the songs groove better, but they're both excellent. There's not much else to say about this other than the absolutely dreadful cover art.

8/10 bloody axes


Dim Mak - "Knives of Ice" (2006)
Every one of these retroviews seems to end the same way: I say that their last album isn't that good, but I forgive them for it because the other ones are so good. Well, this is no exception. The big thing here is that Origin's John Longstreth plays drums on this, and he is one of the most boring drummers on the face of the earth. Obviously he can play fast as shit, but that's not what Dim Mak is about. They are about groove, and that's something Mr. Longstreth has a hard time with.

6/10 bloody axes