Revenge - Collapse. Scum. Eradication. LP

Marble Vinyl.

I have always regarded my now 40 year old self as a music lover in general. I (used to) enjoy a pretty broad spectrum of genres and sounds, though I predominantly consider myself a black metal fan. 9 times out of 10, when it comes to actually picking out something to listen, it is something of the sort. The mix of aggression, anger, bitterness, melancholy, melody and many more that black metal offers in spades used to do the trick for me. And then lockdowns came, along with all their restrictions and measures; more often than not excessive and disproportionate, sometimes absurd and unreasonable, sometimes plain ridiculous. And with all that, the need for satisfying anything else apart from anger and aggression evaporated. No thirst for other feelings left to quench, only anger and hatred. War metal, or bestial black metal or whatever you wanna call it, was something that I occasionally enjoyed, but apart from a handful of albums, it never clicked. And suddenly lo and behold, the scales were removed from my eyes and a band that I never really considered anything special, became the torch bearer for my newfound mental state. Now, you'll get people saying that all Revenge albums/songs are the same etc. Do not listen to them, listen to the albums. They are really, REALLY different to each other; in terms of sound production, in terms of vocals, in terms of tempo changes (or lack thereof), in terms of songwriting. Remember that most heavy metal fans, consider all black metal songs and albums identical, there are even jokes about that, but we know that this could not be further from the truth. Anyway, I could pick any album to review, but I chose Scum.Collapse.Eradication because it sits right in the middle of the band's sound evolution. The production and mix is much clearer than that of the first three LPs, but still rawer than the polished (at least for Revenge standards) sound of the last two. Pete Helmkamp is gone, and the vocals alternate between the trademark high pitched aggressive screams and artificially low grows in a perfect balance. The songwriting starts to become more nuanced and you can easily tell one song from another. Carefully placed slow parts, breakdowns, and catchy sections start to pop more often. The album clocks at an ideal 35 minutes. Banner Degradation - Revenge's best song - is on this album. And of course the classic Revenge sound, though somewhat tamed, is ever-present; the hyperactively blasting drumming and the chaotic chord progression "riffing" drive every song into perfection. The problem is that now I cannot really enjoy any other kind of black metal or music in general. Everything sounds watered down and spineless after a few minutes. Every time I feel like listening to anything else, I find myself reaching back to the soul-soothing sounds of Mr. Read and Mr. Ross. Thank you lockdowns and Revenge for ruining music for me. Well played.
- Theearthaflame via Metal Archives