20 years in the metal industry is no small feat. Sure, we have bands that are currently hitting their 50+ milestone; however, today’s metal scene is a much different landscape than it was in the heyday of the 80 to early 90s. There are no A&R guys handing out $100,000 signing bonuses and massive contracts. The clubs are now a couple hundred people, if you’re lucky, on a Tuesday night – some of which I’m fairly certain are only there because a friend dragged them there or they just wanted to see what all the hype was about “being in the scene”. Revocation is currently touring across Canada and the United States on their 20 Years of Torment tour with Defeated Sanity, Fuming Mouth and Weeping. I was able to snag access for their 9th stop on the tour at Dickens Pub in Calgary, Alberta.
My first experience with Revocation, outside of having them blasting in my earbuds with their 2025 release, New Gods, New Masters, was at Loud As Hell in 2025 where they headlined the final night of the festival, my first year in attendance. A headlining act of this magnitude was the main reason I chose to attend. Just like this past Saturday, their show at Loud As Hell was a hellish mix of gut wrenching vocals, melodic and grinding instrumental sections, and a backing from bass and drums that I could feel in my spine even though I was standing at the back of the field.
Before I get too far ahead of myself and continue to use my words to drool all over Revocation’s set, let’s back up to the openers for the night. 3 bands, 2 of which I’ve never heard or heard of prior to the show announcement and one that I’ve been a fan of since the release of their 2024 album.
Weeping, a death metal Powerviolence band out of New Jersey, broke the ice along with a few spines in their opening set. Edging into Napalm Death-like territory with their short songs, most hitting just over the minute to minute and a half mark, their sound was that of what I envision my death rattle to sound like when I finally pass on. I’ve shot a number of shows at Dickens now and this was the first time the crowd behind the barricade actually moved the rail while I was shooting. This is raw energy on a whole other level and the crowd was there for every second of it. Most opening acts are met with a subdued crowd. Weeping’s sound, from the visceral vocals to the suffocating distortion on the guitars, had those that arrived early either in the pit or on the rail, hair, heads and hands in constant movement.
Next up was Massachusetts’ death metal act Fuming Mouth. Not quite the 20 year history of our headliners for the night with 13 years as a band, but it’s a solid 13 years based on what I heard this night and the albums I’ve been digging into since the show. While there was the odd track that had the pit going like a Kansas farmer’s field in the middle of a tornado, most of this set was the kind of music where everyone in the place resembled a horde of head nodding zombies. Conversations stopped as the crowd fixated on the sound coming from the stage. Beats that forced necks to bend. Filthy groove-laden guitars. Bass and beats that cracked sternums.
With over 30 years in the industry nearly everyone into death metal has heard of the next act. Defeated Sanity are a technical brutal death metal act with origins in Germany, but more recently the United States. To say that I wasn’t fanboying a little when these guys hit the stage would be an understatement. Wait, do you or can you fanboy a brutal tech death act? I guess you can, but maybe just shouldn’t. It’s a good thing the opening acts were the combination of speed and heavy they were, not warming up before the level of action that Defeated Sanity brought to the pit would have resulted in too many injuries. I’m certain there were some people paying the price for the brutality in the pit during this set on Sunday. Many are probably still feeling the aches and pains now, 3 days later. This set went from bone-liquefyingly heavy to Pompeii level volcanic and back again. Not only from song to song but in the middle of some songs. There were sections where guitars were swampy, sucking you down into the mud and then a bass line would reach out and clap your ears. The vocals hit like a drop from a 20-story building, landing directly on your chest and crushing your ribcage.
Starting the set in birthday hats and poppers, Revocation came out ready to party for their 20th Anniversary show. The 12-song setlist was an absolute masterclass in technicality, but above all, it was just undeniably fun. They gave the room a chronological beating, pulling one track from every single album spanning from 2008’s Empire of the Obscene all the way to 2025’s New Gods, New Masters, which generously got a three-song spotlight. It wasn’t a highly energetic set in terms of stage movement, but that seems to be the running trend with technical death metal shows; the mind-bending music is the catalyst for the adrenaline, not the band doing wind sprints across the boards. That said, they didn’t isolate themselves in the complexity of their riffs. Other than the drummer—whom I managed to share a little eye contact with during my time in the photo pit (see inline image)—each member of the band was highly interactive with the audience. The whole vibe felt incredibly intimate, almost like we were all just hanging out watching a friend’s band play a gig at a local spot. But while the band kept the acrobatics to their fretboards, the crowd more than made up for it. The floor was a constant wave of circle pits, moshing, thrashing, and shoving, though all executed in the most respectable, pick-your-brother-up manner, of course.
Ultimately, Revocation’s 20 Years of Torment tour is a brutal, beautiful reminder of why we continue to pack into these sweaty clubs to support the metal scene. From Weeping’s spine-snapping powerviolence and Fuming Mouth’s filthy grooves, right through to Defeated Sanity’s bone-liquefying brutality and Revocation’s undisputed tech-death supremacy, the entire package delivered exactly what a night of extreme metal should be. It’s a relentless, four-band wrecking ball. If you have the chance to catch this tour as it continues tearing through North America, do whatever it takes to get in the door. Just make sure you stretch before braving that pit.
