Incantation (U.S.): Vanquish in Vengeance

Incantation  (U.S.): Vanquish in Vengeance  (Listenable Records)

Brutality, doom and blasphemy = Incantation.

Their previous album is from 2006, so this here “Vanquish in Vengeance” has taken a long while to surface, but all is well with Incantation.

This death metal institution is built upon a relentless work ethic: play death metal in the style of when they emerged with their highly regarded 1992 debut “Onward to Golgotha.” They continue playing in that style: low growling, passages of total blasting speed, contrasted with episodes of heavy-duty death doom.

Reliable, consistent, and predictable, Incantation plays death metal in the same fundamental way, always. Meat-and-potatoes death metal is exactly what Incantation specializes, and in fact, it is the only thing they do. If people want to sweeten things up with melody, keyboards or clean singing, Incantation is deaf to such opinions.

As usual, of course, Incantation’s album is a contrast of two sides of death metal they always have done. First, they blast their way in an undeniable manner. These moments are a thunderous roar of downtuned guitar, low growling and intense, fast drumming.  

Second, Incantation seriously slows things down to a crawling pace, where everything is in slow motion. There is usually a simple, big, fat riff that moves like a cloud of gloom and doom. It’s not cheerful and it is not light. That’s the part where the band works the listener's patience, building up to the fast parts.

It is true that Incantation in 1992 had a more claustrophobic, thick, thick sound quality that sounds a bit muffled, in 2012 Incantation has a clearer production, but the foundation remains blasting death metal and death doom. On here, the song "Legion of Dis" is more than 11 minutes long, and it is maximum death doom heaviness. That song is some of the slowest they have done and one of the slowest/heaviest things you will hear in 2012.

www.incantation.com