No rest for Incantation.
Formed in 1989 in the USA and led since then by John McEntee (guitar/vocals, Tribe of Pazuzu, Beast of Revelation, ex-Mortician, ex-Revenant), the band can now count on Kyle Severn (drums, Shed the Skin, ex-Acheron), Chuck Sherwood (bass, Occumancy, ex-Blood Storm) and Luke Shively (guitar, Dismemberment) for the release of their thirteenth album, Unholy Deification, on Relapse Records.
For almost thirty-five years, the band has been ardently spewing out their Old School Death Metal with unhealthy Doom influences via obvious patterns that blend a suffocating slowness with more vivid eruptions of violence, all topped by their founder’s massive vocal parts (who only took possession of the microphone in 2004).
This is exactly what the band does on these ten tracks, which begin with the killer blast and sharp leads of Offerings (The Swarm) IV, a thick but rather energetic composition. The sound darkens and slows down on the final, leading into Concordat (The Pact) I and its enigmatic tones, which accelerate under the orders of the drums, leaving lead guitar to regularly offer chaotic elements before Chalice (Vessel Consanguineous) VIII charges in. The band unleashes its full fury, only allowing brief lulls that are always filled with double kick, before Homunculus (Spirit Made Flesh) IX dips into ominous tones to enrich its heady slowness, which gradually comes to a standstill, only to flare up again with Invocation (Chthonic Merge) X and its nebulous solo. The frantic riffs follow a rather calm first part, but the track is relatively short, and quickly gives way to Megaron (Sunken Chamber) VI, which unveils a strange introduction followed by those jerky riffs characteristic of the band’s contrasted musical personality, incorporating mystical vocal parts before Convulse (Words of Power) III comes to trample us. The track again alternates between its different elements to create an infernal, catchy rhythm, while Altar (Unify in Carnage) V begins by burying us under a veil of dissonance inhabited by terrifying screams before introducing slightly more energetic elements. The slumber eventually gives way to Exile (Defy the False) II, a solid composition with a much gentler introduction, but it’s in violence that the band progresses again until Circle (Eye of Ascension) VII, where the album comes to an end, not without a dose of dark ominous dissonance, which nevertheless energizes towards the center before slowly giving up the ghost.
Incantation remains at the top of its game, skilfully blending savage riffs and asphyxiating parts under massive vociferations. A mystery remains on Unholy Deification: what do these numbers mean, and why are they out of order?
90/100