Review: Blood Incantation ‘Absolute Elsewhere’
The new lords of cosmic progressive death metal have returned from whatever dimension they normally inhabit when not on our island Earth, and Blood Incantation have treated us to a new record, Absolute Elsewhere. Last heard from on their 2023 Luminescent Bridge EP, where cosmic ambience met spiralling prog death in a piece that was quite divisive when released, this time Blood Incantation have leaned straight into their Pink Floyd influences and taken death metal for a ride into elsewhere. The record is out now through Century Media.
We’ve got six tracks, split into two three-part pieces (The Stargate and The Message). It feels like it is meant to be approached this way, as two movements, so let’s review it this way. Tablet I of The Stargate gives us a punishing opening of that Immolation-style death metal that the band do so well, churning and swaying in the boiling riffs before a spacey prog rock section takes us out into the darkness with synths and clean guitar repeating a glinting melody. It is epic to the extreme, a vast vista of space opening upon us before the death metal comes crashing back.
Imagine this record as a journey into space, as if fired from a cannon. You’ve got the brutality of gnawing fear and dread, the endless violence of the abyss. But you also have the unbearable beauty of endless stars and cosmic radiance. Tablet II is the undulating synth work of Timewave Zero but given narrative form and direction as that Immolation swooning heaviness bleeds back through into Tablet III; jagged Morbid Angel-isms skitter and writhe across a cosmic backdrop. This is Blood Incantation‘s most brutal work since Starspawn. And that’s only half of it…
The Message plays with moments that you’d swear were spacious, early 2000s Devin Townsend solo tracks, like the mid-part of Tablet I. It isn’t something you normally hear in ‘progressive death metal’; bands tend to lean more towards Opeth than Devin, but that change works here. Tablet II of The Message is where the real prog rock and Pink Floyd influences come to the fore, sounding just like an off cut from Dark Side Of The Moon, until we get into the shapeshifting closer Tablet III.
It’s death metal Jim, but not as we know it…
Powerful death metal meets delicate prog rock in a melting pot of influences, and it might be the best personification of the band’s sound. The Message side is much more prog rock than spacious dark ambient, and it just speaks to the mastery of Blood Incantation‘s approach that it all fits together so well. When the death metal comes, it is thick, crushingly heavy and expertly composed, but everything else leaves you feeling in a dream state.
Absolute Elsewhere is the final thoughts of the Space Jockey in Alien, the unfathomable and the infinite. It is the Blade Runner soundtrack, given deathly weight. It is the final form of cosmic Morbid Angel’s early 2000s work. It’s death metal Jim, but not as we know it.
What Blood Incantation are doing now is what Cynic and Atheist did back in the early ‘90s; take the death metal we know and love then push it into new realms, new directions and without heed of consequences or reprisal. People who don’t ‘get’ Blood Incantation might want to look back instead of forward because Absolute Elsewhere is the spiritual successor to Focus and Unquestionable Presence. This is galactic death metal, brutal prog, and all spellbinding in nature. Blood Incantation are leading us through the Stargate, with only cosmic entropy left behind in their wake. Simply astounding.
Label: Century Media
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Scribed by: Sandy Williamson