Blood Incantation – Absolute Elsewhere

Death metal appears to be undergoing something of a renaissance. Never earning the mainstream breakthrough at its peak nor afforded the credibility of other extreme genres like black metal or doom, it’s taken until now, more than 30 years since innovators like Death and Morbid Angel released their groundbreaking albums, for the genre to finally be taken seriously. 

But while genre stalwarts like Cannibal Corpse and Dying Fetus have continued to release well-received albums, and are playing to larger crowds than ever before – it’s a new breed of death metal band that are really taking the genre in interesting directions. 

Leading the way amongst the new pretenders are Blood Incantation. Since forming in Denver, Colorado in 2011, they’ve quickly become firm favourites – their 2016 debut ‘Starspawn’ and 2019’s sophomore ‘Hidden History of the Human Race’ earning critical acclaim and showcasing a knack for effortlessly combining the most progressive elements of extreme metal with retro-nostalgic aesthetics and production values. 

While the similarly celebrated likes of Fulci or Sanguisagabogg still rely on the classic lyrical tropes of death metal imagery – horror, violence, mutilation and cannibalism – Blood Incantation are concerned with altogether more cerebral, cosmic matters. Indeed, the very limits of an often restrictive genre are there to be dismantled for a band hell-bent exploring everything from their musical limits, to the universal origins of creation. 

There were signs that this was coming – not many acts would follow up the modern classic ‘Hidden History of the Human Race’ with a fully ambient, synthesiser-only album. But 2022’s ‘Timewave Zero’, completely sans guitar, drums or vocals, showcased a band supremely confident both in their abilities to take a creative risk and deliver a work outside of their normal oeuvre, and in their position within the scene – a self-assured statement that you may have got into them for the riffs and the blastbeats, but there’s a whole lot more to them than meets the eye. 

Absolute Elsewhere then takes this confidence and truly builds on it – this is an ambitious project; the pre-release statements from band and label cite a plethora of influences, not just musical, but from science fiction, literature and philosophy, with guitarist and vocalist Pail Rield happy to set high expectations, promising a “soundtrack to a Herzog-style sci-fi epic about the history of/battle for human consciousness itself, via a 70s Prog album played by a 90s Death Metal band from the future.” 

And while the fanfare for the record, already one of the most anticipated of recent years in heavy music, may sound hyperbolic, it’s an assured triumph that Blood Incantation deliver, on what is likely the most vital 45 minutes of metal this year. Together with producer Arthur Rizk, the band have created something both warmly analogue and fiercely innovative, complex yet never intimidating. Structured into two sides, both ostensibly unbroken 20+ minute compositions, ‘The Stargate’ and ‘The Message’ play through a warmly earnest journey of psychedelic stories, metaphysical questions, and dynamic experimentation. 

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The opening 20 minute salvo of ‘The Stargate’ sees Blood Incantation gleefully cherrypick from the 20th century musical canon; the dissonant symphonics of black metal warp into playful 70s prog flourishes, indeed there’s as much Brian Eno here as there is Bolt Thrower. The second movement of ‘The Stargate’ even features Tangerine Dream’s Thorsten Quaeschning, supplying not just ambient soundscape, but an incorporated nod of approval from the very artists Blood Incantation have been influenced by. But it’s not all an exercise in reverence or nostalgia; Blood Incantation can go as heavy as any of their peers – the closing movement of ‘The Stargate’ is a vicious and violent storm of guitars and drums, recalling the progressive heaviness of early genre innovators Cynic and Gorguts, somehow sounding more relevant and powerful than much of the over-produced contemporary death-core of today. 

Moving seamlessly from whirling technical death metal into woozy, Pink Floyd-esque breakdowns, accelerating into a power metal thrash-a-longs worthy of Slayer or Megadeth, via neo-folk introspections and jazz intermissions, part two of the record – ‘The Message’ – is a breathtaking, playful voyage through what might otherwise have been a tiresome checklist of musical and cultural name checks, but in the hands of Blood Incantation, it feels like a seriously joyful – or joyfully serious – homage to their myriad influences. 

Throughout this record, the sense of adventure and excitement is palpable – this is a band at the peak of their powers, having fun creating; it’s hard not to get caught up in such a truly unique and thrilling journey through the cosmos. If death metal hasn’t yet had its breakthrough critical moment, this might well be it. 

9/10

For fans of Cynic, Mastodon, pulpy sci-fi paperbacks, Carl Sagan’s Cosmos

Words: David Weaver