Revocation to Reissue Debut Album Empire of the Obscene, Stream Opening Track “Summon the Spawn”

Album reissues can be a blatant money-grab by labels looking to capitalize on a band’s legacy, sure, but that’s not always the case: they can also provide newer fans with an opportunity to learn about a great band’s work before they got big. Sure, some amount of superfans are gonna go back and dig deep on their own, but the rest of us need the little nudge that the media attention around a reissue provides.

And that’s exactly how I feel about Metal Blade’s reissue of Revocation’s very first album, Empire of the Obscene. I got hip to Revocation just after Existence is Futile came out and immediately fell in love with it, and though I did go back and check out Empire I never really stuck with it. Metal’s Blade’s reissue provides an opportunity for me — and the thousands of other fans who came on board with Existence or the three records + one EP since — to go back and listen with fresh ears.

What better track to lead the reissue campaign with than “Summon the Spawn”? It’s remarkable how “Revocation-y” Revocation sound here; all the hallmarks of their sound are present, even if their sense of songwriting — undoubtedly a crucial part of Revocation’s eventual winning formula — isn’t quite so developed yet. Revocation were just a three-piece at this point, and 2/3rd of the lineup that wrote this album has since departed — bassist Anthony Buda left following the release of Chaos of Forms in 2011, and drummer Phil Dubois-Coyne jumped just last year — but I guess that underscores just how important Dave Davidson’s writing is to this band’s sound.

Here’s Davidson on the reissue effort:

Back in 2008 we self-released our debut record Empire of The Obscene only pressing 1,000 copies at the time, now thanks to the good folks at Metal Blade and the demand of our fans it will be available worldwide!” continues Davidson. “We are very excited to finally give this record a proper release and can’t wait for everyone to hear the newly remixed and remastered tunes courtesy of Pete Rutcho. We’re also including the elusive Summon The Spawn demo from 2006 as well as newly revamped cover art to make this release extra special.

Stream “Summon the Spawn” below via Decibel. The Empire of the Obscene reissues comes out November 13th on Metal Blade Records; pre-order here.