The intro to this one caught me off guard as it sounds to refined for these guys but they lash back with "Debauchery" which reminds me more of their classic sound. The low are a gurgle lower than Morbid Angel, the solos are almost as chaotic but not as flashy as Trey.The raw cavernous sound that I think of those guys influencing the current crop of so called occult death metal bands with is not present. They get the privilege of hitting so hard on the first song that it's sheer heaviness alone is impressive, but the rest of the album now has to do something different. So it find them in a catch 22 of most bands like this how to maintain the sound long time fans want and be innovative.
They decide to rely on sheer brutality by getting even faster on the following song. The drumming is dialed in. They know how to bring it when it comes to death metal riffage as well making it hard to argue against this. On their 9th album they have this working like a well tuned killing machine, even when they drop down to the doom pacing of "Carrion Prophecy". While the only album I have owned by these guys is "Onward to Galgotha" which I loved when it came out, it seems they have stayed on a more traditional approach sense then. Their gallop really runs you over. This is one of the best death metal guitar sounds you will hear. The doomy evil pace still bears it's stain of "From a Glaciate Womb". This defaults in the death metal blast though they keep it a little more evil sounding than say Cannibal Corpse. At seven and half minutes they have the room to take you on a ride through a sonic house of horrors.No much of this is wasted, which is impressive as death metal tends to me one dimensional just focused on aggression, but Incantation takes it to some darker places.
There is a fucking slaying riff to "Portal Consecration". They song is dark and brooding but even in those moments the double bass is stirring the cauldron beneath it.These guys are pretty smart when it comes to pacing the fast parts and writing songs that don't just form a blur of blasts. This makes those blasting parts more effective when they hit as you are not numbed out to them."Charnel Grounds" hit tones that a funereal doom band could learn from, it's apparent they have influenced many funeral doom bands when it comes to vocals. They pour on the thrash like speed with " Impalement of Divinity".This almost comes across as being the most straight forward song on the album. At the two minute mark they hit their groove.
"Dominant Ethos" gets into the more cut and dry blasting, her are all the trademarks to check off on your typical death metal album that came out after 93.Halfway through the awesome riff that I knew they had in them takes the song on a more distinguished turn.The guitars show some layers.The final song is the almost 17 minute "Elysium". They take their time getting into it and starting out with some soul crushing doom. They stay on this path for two an a half minutes before really dropping the bottom out of things in a bold way. This pacing works for the first five minutes and is aided by some interesting and melodic guitar work.They start to build it up at the 80 minute mark. Th pay ramps up at the ten minute mark, they keep the tension coiled around you, then go back into an angular doom riff.They languish you int the doom for another four minutes and then the drums start a tribal roll to build it out of the pit from which they have been wallowing. The climax begins to transpire in an almost Slayer like fashion before they leave you hanging. While that pay off isn't what I needed , I can still see this album getting some play as I always like to have an album like this in my iPod to hit that spot when I need it. So I will round it up to a 9.If these guys are one of you favorite bands then it will seem perhaps perfect to you.
7.8
No comments:
Post a Comment