Look at any year end Top 10 list of metal albums (including this very writer’s), and you should see one constant on those lists- and it’s not Metallica & Lou Reed’s horribly executed “Lulu” album. One album [...]]]>

Revocation open for Children of Bodom in an east side show at Harpo's on Tuesday.

Look at any year end Top 10 list of metal albums (including this very writer’s), and you should see one constant on those lists- and it’s not Metallica & Lou Reed’s horribly executed “Lulu” album. One album that is on the vast majority of those lists is the third album by the Boston extreme metal band Revocation, “Chaos Of Forms”. The album is a nearly 50 minute sonic lesson in all things technical death metal that is showing that the guys in Revocation are quickly becoming one of the underground metal world’s fastest rising groups.

With “Chaos of Forms”, Revocation delivers their usual brand of metal, but for the first time, they added unusual (for the metal world) instrumentation for the album, enlisting a horn section for one of the tracks. Given the diverse education that guitarist Dave Davidson received at the prestigious Berklee School of Music in Boston, it’s no surprise to see the band branching out and adding new elements to their metal.

After taking a bit of time off around the holiday to recharge their battery, the guys are about to get back on the road as they open for Finnish thrash stars Children of Bodom on a tour that lasts through the beginning of March. Before their tour was underway, I had a chance to Davidson and bassist Anthony Buda to discuss the new album and how they feel the band is progressing in the metal food chain.

Here’s my interview with Dave and Anthony from Revocation:

AM: Are you guys surprised at all the accolades for “Chaos Of Forms” at the end of last year?
DD: I mean, it’s always nice to see your band on those lists and for people to say those things and definitely an honor. When you look at magazines like Guitar World, and see your album getting praise- it’s shocking but an ever bigger honor.

AB: It’s nice to know that people are appreciating what you’re doing. I feel things like this help show the constant evolution of the band, but at the same time, you don’t get too full of yourself over it at the same time.

AM: How did the recording experience for “Chaos of Forms” vary from previous albums?
DD: It was different in a sense that it was the first time we stopped and started a bunch of times while recording. We had to do this because we kept getting asked to be on tours and did tours with Despised Icon and Darkest Hour and kept coming back to the album. But with all these stops and starts, it gave us more time to develop the songs- so it actually worked out fine.

AB: For us, this was the first time we were full integrated as a full time band, touring and recording. For me, it was finding that balancing between how we sound live and trying to make the album sound closer to how we sound live.

AM: In what way lyrically and musically do you see this album being different from past albums?
AB: As a metal band, you want to have fun when doing your music and bring forth that attitude, but at the same time- you want to make people think and not be overly directly. It’s better to let people internalize the things they are hearing and let people make interpret the music in their own way. It makes for an experience with more substance and depth.

DD: I think not being super direct keeps things interesting. A song like “Cretin” on paper is about this demented circus freak. But if you look deeper into the song, it’s an allegory for bullies and the torment with that, or the agony of what someone deals with a physical handicap. A song like “Conjuring the Cataclysm” talks about necromancers and zombies and things, but it just as easily discusses our band in the metal world and the subculture into itself.

AM: Is there a song in the live set that you feel challenges fans the most these days?
AB: Definitely “The Watchers”. It’s unlike we’ve done before because of the fact we have a horn section and organ section in the song that gets the most surprising reaction from fans and has been receiving pretty positive responses so far.

AM: How does your education at the Berklee School of Music influence that diversity in the music?
DD: With those songs like “The Watchers”, I think it was just the product of my environment going to school there and studying with many different people from different backgrounds. Plenty of people there just hide in one musical corner and don’t want to come outside of that zone. I focused in on all sorts of music, a smorgasbord that opened my eyes up and learned more improv stuff- which you can see on the intro to “Cataclysm”.

AB: As someone that worked with Dave before he went to Berklee, I’m here to say he’s always been the same guy and is a great player, but this knowledge makes him that much better. He knows what it takes to make a song sound good, but can still get the best technical aspect out of the song too.

AM: The band recently expanded to a quartet- where did the band find Dan Gargiulo, the band’s new guitarist and how does he fit into the grand scheme of the band?
DD: Dan’s a great player and totally came in and wowed us. We had known him through a friend of a friend and he played in a few other bands in the area. He worked out well because we didn’t have to show him how to play every song- he picked up the entire set list just by his ear and knew the songs within a couple of days.

AM: With all the touring the band does- do you feel the band is starting to get the recognition most band’s seek?
DD: It’s been a long hard road and at the shows, I think people are starting to recognize us more and more and more people are hanging out with us, so I think it’s working (laughs). Touring is key to heavy metal music, so is the word of mouth and it’s exciting to play to other crowds.

AB: We very focused on playing with a lot of different types of bands, because it helps fans get out of their own little subgenre and world and exposes them to us, and at the same time, helps us to see what those fans are like as well. It may not directly be their type of music, but they usually get and respect what we’re doing.

Revocation open for Children of Bodom at Harpo’s on Tuesday, January 31^st. Tickets are $20 and are available at www.ticketmaster.com. Additional tour dates and band info can be found at http://www.relapse.com/label/artist/revocation.html.

Burton Bell is having quite the 2010 so far. Not only has the reunion with Fear Factory founder Dino Cazares yielded a stellar return-to-form album (Mechanize), but Burton is gearing up to release another [...]]]>

City of Fire's debut is out in late August- until then, Fear Factory hits Harpo's on July 21st.

Burton Bell is having quite the 2010 so far. Not only has the reunion with Fear Factory founder Dino Cazares yielded a stellar return-to-form album (Mechanize), but Burton is gearing up to release another project called City of Fire. City of Fire was the brainchild of current Fear Factory member Bryon Stroud, who joined forces with Bell for this new project during a break in Vancouver a couple years ago.

City of Fire promises to be a bit different than Fear Factory, as well as the material Burton has done with his Ascension of the Watchers project. This in all makes Bell a very busy, sought after man these days.

I had a chance to catch up with Bell before a Fear Factory show while fighting crowd noise at a Detroit Tigers game (damn fans couldn’t shut up for 15 minutes), but everything went fine. We discussed how he manages to keep all the projects in order and how the City of Fire project varies from his other bands. Here’s my interview with Burton Bell:

MCB: How did the City of Fire project first come about?
BB: All of it happened pretty quickly. When Byron (Stroud) joined Fear Factory, we shared the same managers and we got to hang out a lot. We were into the same sort of music and always seemed to have a good time when playing together, so we decided to start this up. We invited a friend of ours, (guitarist) Terry Murray and Byron sent me some demos he had been working on. I liked the hard rock groove and grungy sound the songs we had. The energy was good and we went from there.

MCB: What are the major differences in your mind between City of Fire, Fear Factory and Ascension of the Watchers?
BB: They are all definitely different, my voice is the only thing that is the constant throughout the three different groups. With Fear Factory, it keeps that industrial sound, that heavy and aggressive style to it. With Ascension of the Watchers, it is my labor of love. It’s far more introspective, spiritual and probably has my most personal lyrics and material on it. With City of Fire, it comes from more of a hard rock, 70s’ish type of groove on it. It has a vibe that’s far different than the other bands and gets a lot into losing someone, lost love- far more universal themes that everyone can relate to. It brings the sex back into rock and roll (laughs).

MCB: How much different will the finished City of Fire album sound versus the early songs that are on places like You Tube?
BB: When we worked on those early demos, some were in 2008, some in 2009- and they were still very raw. The riffs have been refined and polished a bit more. There was some definite tweaking of my vocals and the lyrics. But once it’s out August 24^th, you’ll see just how different the finished product is versus the demos from back then.

MCB: With all of these bands going on, how do you keep them all in line?
BB: You have to balance it properly and you always have to have a schedule and keep everything separate. But over time, I realized that just having one band just doesn’t cut it anymore. You have to have different outlets for your music, and I think the three projects I’m doing definitely satisfy my needs. You look at guys like Corey Taylor, Josh Homme, Dave Grohl- people like that also have the need to explore their creativity through multiple ways.

MCB: For the Ascension of the Watchers album, how did you initially hook up with Al Jourgenson (of Ministry fame)?
BB: Back in 2007, I had heard through someone that Al was planning on recording the last Ministry album. I was completely surprised, but I knew I had to get on that record and be a part of it. So, they put us in touch and I ended up doing a song called “End Of Days” and worked on a song with Tommy Victor as well. While I was doing the first Ascension album, I got to work with Al again and I wanted to work and learn as much from him as I could.

MCB: When will we see City of Fire out on the road?
BB: We are doing to pull double duty for Fear Factory on a few shows on this tour. But we have a fall tour planned with Soulfly and plan on doing some dates overseas later in the year. Right now, we’re doing the Fear Factory tour and expect a good time, lots of classic and new tracks. We really put a lot of effort into Mechanize and we’re ready to show people.

Fear Factory plays Harpo’s on Wednesday, July 21^st. Tickets are $17 and are available at www.etix.com. Additional Fear Factory band info and tour dates can be found at www.fearfactorymusic.com. City Of Fire’s self titled debut is due out August 24^th on Candelight Records. For additional band info, check out www.cityoffire.com for more details.