Incantation - Vanquish in Vengeance

Cover art by Worthless

It is always exciting when I browse a new label Bandcamp for the first time. My aim is to discern which albums are good, the end goal to decide which one I will ultimately be writing about. I carefully listen to tracks (sometimes whole albums) from many of them, before I make a hopefully well informed decision.

Not so much on the Listenable Records Bandcamp. My entire decision making process was "THE NEW INCANTATION?? HELL YEAH!!"

Perhaps it's the Dan Swanö production, perhaps it's a fuck you to the legion of bands usurping the Incatation legacy, but on Vanquish in Vengeance the band sounds fresh and energetic; quite a feat considering their long career (nine full-lengths since 1992's Onward to Golgotha). The basic Incantation blueprint is still there - as Doug Moore/IO writes: "Stiff-limbed blasting exists to set up stinky doom slowdowns. It’s a common ploy now, and it offers no surprises. Incantation is simply better at using it than virtually anyone else".

There are little tweaks here and there, for example feedback and pinch harmonics are put to great use in "Transcend into Absolute Dissolution"; but mostly it's "just" a collection of muscular riffs bolted onto a rock solid set of songs. The biggest change is in the sound. Very gritty and raw (love the guitar sound!) but without the murkiness usually associated with the infamous Incantation sound. You still got the heaviness and the oppressive atmosphere; the clarity of the mix somehow makes it even more crushing.

My favorite songs are the aforementioned Transcend into Absolute Dissolution, the ritualistic Profound Loathing with the interesting drum patterns and atmospheric soloing, and of course the brutally slow funeral doom of Legion of Dis. But really, there is not a bad moment to be found, Vanquish in Vengeance is simply a great death metal album.

[Go to the post to view the Bandcamp player]

Incantation - Onward to Golgotha & Diabolical Conquest

Cover art by Miran Kim

Incantation's Onward to Golgotha from 1993 is now available on the Relapse Alumni Bandcamp; together with Diabolical Conquest from 1998 and the rest of Incantion' Relapse discography. Onwards to Golgatha takes you back to the days when this sound was unique, before so many bands made entire careers out of aping the "Incantation sound". A genre-defining classic for sure, still Diabolical Conquest may be an even better album. The basic style is there in full force; a mix of slow, plodding doom metal and speedy, relentless death metal. But it sounds more aggressive than Onwards to Golgotha, and the song writing is just a little tighter in my opinion. Usually I would write "but check both albums out for yourself, and make up your own mind", but you can only stream a single track from each album...

Photo by Carmelo Española.

On the Relapse Alumni Bandcamp you can find entire Relapse discographies of many bands formerly associated with the label. Besides Incantation, there's High on Fire, Mastodon, The Dillinger Escape Plan, and many others. Bob from Relapse Records explained the concept of the Alumni Bandcamp to me:

We're going to be uploading a lot of classic albums to the alumni bandcamp of some of our largest bands. These albums we don't necessarily want to stream in their entirety or make artist pages for them since they are no longer affiliated with the label, so we figured this was the best way to still promote and sell them plus offer fans higher quality downloads!

To which I can only add: Great idea! My only criticism is that just streaming one track from each album is not enough (in the case of Diabolical Conquest the track chosen is the only instrumental on the album!). In my opinion 2-3 carefully selected tracks (or simply all!) would allow the listener to get a better feel for the music on the album.

[Go to the post to view the Bandcamp player]

[Go to the post to view the Bandcamp player]