God IV – Revelation Review
This 22-track release is available completely free of charge! But fans may support if they wish. The progressive metallers have a unique twist with their instrumentation through their use of bass guitars. The number of tracks by God represent the 22 chapters of the Book of Revelation in the Holy Bible.
“The album takes you on a cinematic, thematic, progressive metal journey in many styles of metal from the opening chapter of Revelation, to the fall of Lucifer, the depths of Hell and the Abyss, the antichrist, to judgement and absolute death in the Lake of Fire – The Second Death, to the grandeur of the Messiah, His throne, the Book Of Life and the finality of Eternity itself.”
Revelation gently immerses the listener into the album. The tones and textures produce an ethereal effect with an optimistic feel. It certainly suits the title. There is a darker side to this track as it progresses. Diving into heavier instrumentation with some dissonant elements introduces a dramatically haunting sound. The contrast is very effective throughout the track. Lucifer incorporates an incredible descend into dissonance. The beginning of the track has a more optimistic sound making the descend into the dark even more theatrical. It’s the perfect aural representation of Lucifer’s fall. God use their instrumentation to represent the complicated themes throughout their tracks. The music is distinctly black and white, major or minor, it explores soaring delicate highs and demonic distorted lows. By using such a range of textures and tones across their instruments they manage to create clear contrasts in their sound without becoming repetitive. This is a tricky thing to achieve. Hell in particular has some utterly delicious guitar tones that really emphasize the track, whilst 144,000 features some fantastic soaring elements. The non-standard time signature of Tribulation, and not to mention the eerie atmosphere, throws a wall of sound in your face from the off.
False Prophet delivers an unexpected twinkling guitar, of course it wouldn’t last for long. The atmosphere suddenly turns into that of a horror film, with pounding guitars and percussion. The energy is incredibly high in the heavy instrumentation at this point and it makes a huge difference to the sound. Despite being one of the shorter tracks on the album, it makes a striking impact. Abyss does what it says on the tin. The dissonance, darkness and drama created by the instrumentation induces the atmosphere and emotions of the track’s title. The end of the track tails off with distortion and white noise imitating an endless eerie feeling. In striking contrast, Messiah delivers some wonderful soaring clean tones, as does Reign which follows on seamlessly. The strong momentum and rhythms in Lake Of Fire have a powerful effect. The low bass in the outro of the track sounds almost like a heartbeat, it’s a small detail that has a big impact on the track overall. The penultimate track, Eternity, features intricate technical riffs. The soundscape of this incorporates a wide range of tones, some that have been used across previous tracks. Amen concludes the album nicely. The contradicting djent rhythm tone and soaring clean lead works really well. It brings together the two opposing soundscapes that run, in various forms, throughout the album.
God take you on a journey through human emotion, religion and the fiery depths of hell in this album. There is so much going on in each track; they have managed to convert so many ideas into progressive metal form. It’s a dramatic album that deserves a good number of listens to fully appreciate everything they have done. God’s goal is to release 33 albums before the end… I can’t wait to see what they release next!
GOD IV – Revelation track listing:
- Revelation – 8:04
- Throne – 6:01
- Lucifer – 5:08
- Hell – 8:26
- Beast – 5:23
- Humanity’s Number – Six Hundred Threescore And Six – 5:27
- 7 – 7:00
- 144,000 – 4:16
- Tribulation – 4:59
- Repent – 6:18
- War – 4:15
- False Prophet – 3:43
- Antichrist – 4:32
- Abyss – 11:12
- Messiah – 4:19
- Reign – 5:07
- Judgement – 6:19
- Book Of Life – 5:09
- Lake Of Fire – The Second Death – 8:22
- New Heaven, New Earth, New Jerusalem – 2:50
- Eternity – 7:20
- Amen – 3:40
GOD online:
www.facebook.com/GODElRignaMPR
https://godelrigna.bandcamp.com/
GOD IV – Revelation is available via Bandcamp, CDBaby, Spotify and all other digital music providers. All GOD releases are offered free of charge for the life of the project, but fans may support the project through donations.
