Revenant - The Burning Ground - Reviews - Diabolical Conquest Webzine

Dave Jengo - Lead Guitar
Tim Scott - Bass
Will Corcoran - Drums
Henry Veggian - Lead Guitar & Vocals

This is really fucking awesome, and really fucking overdue. Anybody familiar with the Revenant legacy are already attuned to the off-kilter magnificence of this spectacularly overlooked outfit, who weld an unlikely alloy of rampaging, carnivorous, assertively American (Floridian?) death metal and razor-sharp technical thrash metal of the late ‘80s/early ‘90s variety (think Pestilence - 'Malleus Maleficarum' meets a less frantic Sadus). Somehow, all the material presented here is very “of its time”, easily framed within the greater context of the death/thrash that was contemporaneous with Revenant, but considering the fact that the very finest bands of that period (Gammacide, Devastation, Pestilence, Deicide, Nocturnus, Atheist, Sindrome) still sound timeless/forward-thinking today, none of the fare contained in this disc sounds dated at all.

In certain senses, parallels can be drawn to 'Altars Of Madness'/'Blessed Are The Sick' era Morbid Angel, Revenant exhibiting an affinity for grinding, swirling, impossibly hectic (but never chaotic/messy) passages as well as elaborate, ethereal, atmospheric episodes, merging them both with a fascinatingly twisted sense of melody. Despite the precision and virtuosity displayed throughout this compilation, there is a very unsettling nefariousness and primeval nastiness that provides an undercurrent for the proceedings. Songwriting is typically VERY unpredictable throughout, Henry Veggian leading you through flesh-gnawing, tumbling vintage Florida sections, mid-paced, slithering moments and the odd primordial sludge passage, the band utilizing a dizzying array of tempo shifts to craft a brand of extremity that absolutely necessitates focus and time to fully grasp all the nuances present. Indeed, all Revenant requires concentration- without it, much of the material presented will make scant sense, or at least will seem far less meaningful than a concerted listen would suggest. Certainly, the same could be said of 'Blessed Are The Sick' and 'Altars Of Madness'. This is NOT background music, this is music to throw on the headphones and relish.

For whatever reason, though the tracks are culled from a multitude of sessions, the mix and quality of the material are both uniformly great. The bass is omnipresent throughout the various mixes, the guitars are fearsomely jagged and vicious, the drums rich, organic and bold, lending that much more ferocity to the exceptionally prudent use of double bass, as well as accentuating the odd percussive flourishes that have defined Revenant throughout their career. If you already own 'Prophecies Of A Dying World', you will no doubt be firmly convinced of Revenant's enduring excellence, but if you consider yourself an enthusiast of challenging, yet unceasingly rewarding death metal (see: The Chasm, Immolation, Nocturnus, Fatal, Hellwitch), you will find solace in Revenant. Now if only they'd reissue 'Prophecies Of A Dying World' already…