Concert Review: REVOCATION, EXHUMED, and RIVERS OF NIHIL

The Shredder - October 7 - Boise, ID

Boston’s Revocation visited Boise on the first part of their global invasion tour this past Sunday night. They brought unworldly support to eviscerate The Shredder: goregrind masters Exhumed, along with Rivers of Nihil, and Yautja. If they’re stomping through your grounds, make damn sure you make it to the annihilation.

First to bat was Yautja. I went into their set completely ignorant of their music and felt remorseful for not checking out these fiendish Tennesseans prior. Every member had their own vocal parts. At times they would sync up vocal rhythms and blast beats. Overall every member of the band displayed their individual strengths in a cohesive and interesting way. I hope to hear more from these cats in the near future.

As regretful as I felt about not doing my homework on Yautja, I felt exponentially worse for not reexamining Rivers of Nihil’s newest effort Where Owls Know my Name. Every tune played from this record (which I recollected from the show while jamming it on the way home, battered but satisfied) was wonderfully surprising. Their energy was tremendous and the composition of their tunes all had the perfect amount of technical gusto.

Now, next was Exhumed. I can’t tell you how psyched I was to get to see these dudes. There’s nothing like moshing to one of your favorite bands and getting to bullshit with the ones who tore you limb from limb with malignant riffage. Not only was the set killer, their stage antics were brutally sweet! In all seriousness, it was a pleasure to chat with such cool guys and look forward to hopefully see them again in the near future! (You can catch my interview with frontman Matt Harvey soon! ) They played a couple tunes from their Death Revenge LP that came out last year. If you haven’t heard it, it’s a gorey concept album you do NOT want to miss out on. You can bet your sweet, rotting bippy you’ll be listening to it again!

And last but not least, Revocation. Holy Christ-mas, did these guys rip. From start to finish, the musician in me couldn’t turn away the magnificent musicianship I was witnessing. All the songs that I recognized gave me an adrenaline dump and the new tunes gave me goose pimples. I appreciate the fact they didn’t just try and write a technical mish mosh of riffs and skank beats with their new material (not to say their past material has been!). They cranked up a solid handful of tracks from the new record, The Outer Ones, including “Blood Atonement,” “Ex Nihilo,” “Of Unworldly Origin,” and the title track.

To see extreme forms of metal flourishing this way – all of these tremendous records being released are truly exciting and leave me hopeful to see that not only these newer bands, but older bands like Exhumed are pumping out quality material, and intend to create the music they want, and at the same time always delivering a finished product that people will remember.

I hope I convinced you! Go see this tour, dammit!

All photos © 2018 Katarzyna Cepek Photography

ExhumedRevocationRivers of NihilYautja
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