Hidden History of the Human Race

The recent success of Blood Incantation even among mainstream metal listeners kinda reminds me of Nile's rise to universal fame back in the mid-2000's: both bands come from a relatively niche, generally hard-to-market genre (in Nile's case, hyper-blasting technical brutal death; in Blood Incantation's case, vintage-sounding prog death with strong roots in the early-90's scene), and both of them caught the attention of "normie" audiences due to their Egyptian/Eastern-related gimmicks. That being said: Nile were still every bit as amazing as anyone said, and rightfully belonged among the upper echelon of their scene together with other obvious champions such as Cryptopsy, Suffocation, Deeds of Flesh, early Decapitated and 2004-2009 era Behemoth. Can the same thing be said for Blood Incantation in regards to their place in the current death metal scene? Well, I'd say almost - but not quite to the stellar level they're made out to be, basically eclipsing any other young prog death band releasing albums right now as we speak. Blood Incantation's sophomore effort, 2019's "Hidden History of the Human Race", has kinda become a "token listen", an indicator of having sophisticated taste for people who do not generally listen to any other stuff from that particular scene (let alone the band's main influences from the early 90's, such as Timeghoul and Demilich), but take this record for granted as being the absolute best in the modern scene and the best thing to ever happen to death metal in general since the release of "The Sound of Perseverance" (whose connections to death metal are very questionable to begin with, but I digress), just because the album has ended up on every top-tier list from mainstream metal publications in recent years. I've known the band for quite a few years even before their massive blowup (discovering them with their 2016 debut "Starspawn" - an impressive album without a doubt, but not quite a top-tier masterpiece) and I'm here to offer what I hope will be a more sober, contextualized perspective on "Hidden History of the Human Race".

Blood Incantation are indeed fantastic musicians and genuine music enthusiasts of the highest order. Their taste in both death metal and other music genres (such as prog rock, electronica and ambient) is definitely top-notch and not limited to the surface, shallow understanding many of the band's fans do instead possess of said genres. Some of the more intransigent corners of the underground death metal community tend to shit on the band for being "nothing but a Timeghoul ripoff" - but I think it's admirable for them to take inspiration from such a cult, obscure, visionary act playing such a niche, peculiar, generally forgotten style of prog death. And "Hidden History of the Human Race" represents indeed a notable step-up over "Starspawn" from any standpoint, integrating those obscure influences in their sound to an even finer degree, with far more vision and songwriting focus compared to the debut. Blood Incantation's sound is basically a very original, wacky blend of dark, cavernous, slightly dissonant US death metal (in the Immolation/Incantation/early Gorguts fashion many underground bands were pursuing during the 2010's) with Eastern-sounding melodic licks which take the best from both Demilich and Timeghoul (perhaps even a bit of The Chasm?); all of that, with a certain "ambient" sensibility that manifests itself especially during the slower, more atmospheric sections (see: the instrumental "Inner Paths to Outer Space", or even the second half of "The Giza Power Plant").

Those melodic licks have indeed gotten more refined and memorable than ever, and are nothing short of godlike. They take Timeghoul's twisted, almost ambient-like sense of melody and filter it through Demilich's even more twisted tritone-oriented style, resulting in those Eastern-sounding catchy monsters that make tracks like "Slave Species of the Gods" and "The Giza Power Plant" so iconic and unforgettable in their infectiousness, maybe even going head-to-head with Timeghoul themselves in sheer memorability. Blood Incantation are clearly meticulous, hyperactive songwriters - and when they're at their peak, they're able to milk those infectious motifs in the most disparate ways possible, with dreamy leads that harmonize in ingenious ways and blistering solos adding the richest, busiest sonic textures imaginable without ever falling into gratuitous wankery. That's pretty much as impressive as technical/prog death can get, and if the entire album sounded like that from start to finish, I'd have no doubt in calling it one of the best prog death metal records ever made. Unfortunately, the songwriting is not as flawless and consistently memorable as most people make it out to be - or at least I've never perceived it that way: some organization issues in the song constructions at a macro-level (something that could be heard on the debut album already) do still remain, making the listening experience not quite as invariably awesome and mindblowing as I hoped for when I first heard the album. For any of these trippy cosmic/Egyptian melodies, you then get some more "regular" death metal riffs (only made slightly dissonant and atmospheric - basically, the main bulk of most tracks from "Starspawn") which, while far from being bad or even mediocre, aren't still quite as impressive and don't sound too far removed from countless other modern bands aping the sound of Immolation, Morbid Angel and Incantation. This is especially true for the choppier, more mid-paced sections (such as the one that opens "The Giza Power Plant"), where these slightly more basic influences take center stage, yet never being quite as memorable and gripping as the otherworldly melodies the band is able to craft when at their peak - making your attention kinda wane during those parts, hoping for the wacky alien stuff to come back as soon as possible in all its cosmic might to knock you back into the dreamy fun.

For the first two tracks (whose lengths are quite average, and therefore offer a more concise, focused songwriting), this is still not that big of a deal: there's still enough awesome stuff to keep you entranced for most of their runtime. However, it proves to be a bit more problematic on such a long-ass track as "Awakening from the Dream of Existence to the Multidimensional Nature of Our Reality" - which, while still providing us with a huge deal of UFO/ambient-style ear candy (including some beautiful synth interludes à la Tangerine Dream), tends to stretch its duration a bit too much, not tying the song's core ideas together with enough memorable riffing to keep me consistently invested throughout the whole thing: when the final clean arpeggios come in to close the track, I always find myself thinking it has long overstayed its welcome. Let's compare it to, say, Tomb Mold's "Planetary Clairvoyance" (another super-popular death metal album released that same year, which in my opinion is a true modern masterpiece that fully deserved all the praise it got back then) - whose riffing sounds so inspired, consistent and fun from start to finish in its somber yet exuberant sense of melody lifted straight from the Finnish school: the difference in songwriting quality and general organization of ideas has always been evident to me, regardless of Blood Incantation's unique merits in some isolated departments. If anything, I think these four alien-infatuated music nerds should have insisted even further on the "Nespithe" angle of things - making their music even more consistently weird, trippy and cosmic than it already was. After all, when you're able to write such beautiful, peculiar melodies with such a deep understanding and mastering of the Demilich/Timeghoul formula (which in itself is no faint praise for sure), it feels like a waste to write anything more ordinary than that - even if we're still talking about high-minded death metal of the Trey Azagthoth/Luc Lemay variety. Even the "Inner Paths (to Outer Space)" instrumental might have gone a bit further in its immersive, ethereal atmospheric exploration - not limiting itself to a style of arpeggio that's honestly quite basic and overused in today's extreme metal scene as a token for "atmosphere".

So, are Blood Incantation the great new geniuses of death metal? They sure do have their fair share of unique, outstanding strengths - even though these strengths are still the byproduct of the band's careful study of their noble musical inspirations, rather than the lightning-in-a-bottle unprecedented genius young uneducated death metal normies make them out to be. "Hidden History of the Human Race" is indeed a beautiful, highly memorable, borderline-essential album that deserves many repeated listens in order to immerse yourself in its marvelous, otherworldly atmosphere, the same way you would with any record released by The Chasm or Cenotaph; however, when taking in consideration both the album's strengths and weaknesses, I wouldn't go as far as rating this any higher than various other records released in recent years by other fantastic, highly promising young bands such as Gorephilia, Krypts, Horrendous, Ancient Death or even Tomb Mold for that matter (which, by the way, on their latest album "The Enduring Spirit" have clearly tried to chase Blood Incantation's spacey formula by going all-out new-age prog death, while in the process losing some of the suffocating darkness and the exciting sense of danger that made them so compelling in the first place). I don't want to make this seem like a negative or even mixed review, because by looking at the rating you can tell it clearly isn't: however, in spite of all its merits, I can't really bring myself to call "Hidden History of the Human Race" the zenith of modern prog death as most people nowadays are doing, just because it's the only modern prog death album they know and they don't bother exploring the scene at large, where they might find so many bands that sound just as great (if not even more). I guess it's still better to see young death metal kids listen to this than, say, Sanguisugabogg or some other gimmick-ridden crap (remember when the epitome of "alien death metal" was *gasps* Rings of Saturn? Dark times were those) - however, I think the importance of this album is getting incredibly overstated by the same people who believe Death was the be-all-end-all of progressive death metal back in their day. And if this ain't even true for Death (of all fucking bands), then well - do you expect me to say the same for Blood Incantation while keeping a straight face?

If Starspawn was a record that exploded its own audience through a shitstorm of positive critical response and massive scene hype, Hidden History of the Human Race was the record that had to LIVE UP to all of that; and I can remember the high anticipation levels, palpable, like heaving and sweating Shoggoth's as this thing was first introduced. The full-length sophomore was in no way a disappointment, not to say that I think it's quite as good as the album before it, but again, like that from the EP before it, the band seems to have taken some baby steps in evolution. I was also pretty surprised to see the familiar cover artwork, not only from the Canadian Agony album from the 90s, but at the UMass sci fi library we had a copy of the Brian Aldiss sci-fi book it was first used on, and I guess it remains as intriguing here as then, if not quite so novel (har har).

I felt like this album, at only four tracks, really unleashes with a lot more death metal and less of the experimentation I might have expected. Loads of Morbid Angel, Nile, Cannibal Corpse vibes coming off "Slave Species of the Gods" and "The Giza Power Plant", where I would have thought they'd get stranger and spacier from the artwork and the lyrics which embrace the extraterrestrial themes and Chariot of the Gods stuff. It's not until "Inner Paths (To Outer Space)" that I get what I was honestly looking forward to, a piece that evolves from ambient adventurism to a proggy and forward-thinking style reminiscent of Cynic, Atheist and mid-era Pestilence. This is a much better instrumental than the one on the album before it, and sets you up for the 18 minute epic closer which is by far the most dizzying and impressive piece on the album, every bit the measure of the two previous releases. In fact I'll say that the latter half of this album is more compelling in general than the former, and even the flighty, crazy death metal riffing has more going for it as it fragments off into more unpredictable directions.

That's not to say the first two cuts are throwaways by any means, they're quality death metal, but the otherworldy/intellectual side of the band just isn't as present there. Fortunately, the rest does compensate for this, and I can only imagine if we were to get a full-length with 2-3 tracks that are as frenzied and bonkers as "Awakening from the Dream of Existence to the Multidimensional Nature of Our Reality (Mirror of the Soul)", the title of which is obviously a little throwback to how Demilich used to label their tunes with the ridiculous word-count. Musically, those Finns are also a reference in this one, but where they focused more on the grooves, this takes that style and thrusts it into hypserspace oblivion, so that when they DO break out into something slower and more roiling, you really feel it. They also spin it off into another ambient section, so the writing is really on the wall for where the band might head next. I just didn't expect how FAR. As it stands, Hidden History is another success for the Coloradans, but I feel it frontloads its less interesting (but still solid) material and is lacking just a little as a result.

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com

2019's “Hidden History of the Human Race” was my introduction to Blood Incantation. After so much hype and discussion over this record at the time I finally caved and binged their whole discography. But I had to jam this album first, and holy shit. I was not prepared for what I was about to listen to, as this album contains some of the most weird, heavy, and most engaging death metal I’ve heard in a while. Bringing in all the elements they’ve expanded and explored up until this point and then amplifying everything to the max. Creating something truly special and breathtaking. And it’s wild that such an amazing album has only 4 songs.

The most straightforward song on this album is coincidently the first song “Slave Species of the Gods”. Kicking off with a very pummeling blast beat alongside some killer riff work. Immediately I’m reminded of early Incantation and Morbid Angel right from the beginning. It’s unapologetic and groovy the whole way through, not once losing its edge through its technical leads and rhythms. Right away these fine gentlemen came out swinging and didn’t let up for the whole song. The drumming on this record is nothing short of a slap to the face. Displaying an all-out attack of blast beats, double bass, tasty symbol work, and all-around brutality. The songwriting and structure of this song is nothing short of heavy and precise. It switches up between extremely pummeling chugs and sections that are very progressive and almost sound like Death to me. Specifically the later era stuff like “Human” and “The Sound of Perseverance”. This opening song is very unique as it’s the most straightforward song on here, nothing else sounds like this song in comparison.

The production here is fucking fantastic. The guitars, bass, vocals, and drums sound so smooth and powerful. The solos and leads are very interesting and atmospheric, showing off this band's love of sci-fi horror, and just spacey cosmic themes in general. The album cover of this album fits the band and its lyrics/ concepts. The ambiance is also something this album excels in majorly. The synthesizers, the gong, and the tamboura are played to their absolute fullest and convey the atmosphere this band was trying to capture. Showing off just how layered this record is.

As the album flows and progresses it develops into a more progressive and atmospheric album. “The Giza Power Plant” is a prime example of how this record slowly and perfectly transforms into a more technically sophisticated and progressive listen. It starts groovy with these twisted pinch harmonics and killer fretless bass work. It’s mostly mid-paced as it stomps around, but you can hear the more progressive edges in just how the riffs are written and performed. It’s way more technical than the previous track. What really sells this is how the song gradually flows along before suddenly cutting out and transitioning into this very slow Egyptian melody in the bridge of the song. It sounds very Middle Eastern and reminded me of something Nile would do. And for the rest of the song, it’s very slow and doomy. Showing off just how haunting the vocals sound in its layering and reverb. This album is all about adding to the atmosphere and dynamics.

Songwriting wise it’s fucking incredible. Every song is filled with so many layers and dynamics and it’s executed beautifully. It has all the old-school death metal flares you come to expect from Blood Incantation, and then you have the progressive and atmospheric vibes in the slower and sludgier sections. Giving off really heavy death-doom vibes that are awesome. It has so many twists and turns but it remains so fucking heavy, and that’s what blows my mind each time I listen to this record.

Now the instrumental track “Inner Paths (to Outer Space)” is a very interesting song. As it’s mostly instrumental. Showing off the more progressive and technically proficient songwriting dynamics. It’s extremely layered as the synthesizers and drums slowly build up the song. Adding layer after layer of pure ambient music. I usually don’t like instrumental tracks in death metal albums, but this one is written so well that it keeps my attention the whole way through. It has a very calm and soothing atmosphere to it.

As this song slowly builds up on its ambience and its progression it gets more intense. The double bass gets more prominent as the guitars kick into some heavy and doomy grooves. Before transitioning into a pummeling blast beat section that gives way to a heavy chug. The song perfectly fades back into its ambiance with a monstrous guttural from Antti Boman. Vocalist and guitarist for the amazing death metal band Demilich. I also love the lead work on this song.

Now all of this leads up to the final song. An absolutely MASSIVE 18-minute song entitled “Awakening from the Dream of Existence to the Multidimensional Nature of Our Reality (Mirror of the Soul)”. Goddamn, what a great album closer this is, it combines all the elements and influences this album has been building upon since the beginning of the album. The songwriting is at its absolute best on this track. It starts things off very straightforward with a very Morbid Angel influence tremolo and blast beat. It’s ruthlessly heavy and explosive with its grooves and osdm brutality, the double bass and symbol work is also at an all-time high.

After it beats your head into oblivion for the first 5 minutes it just cuts out. Slowly transitioning into an ambient section, the synthesizers are really honed in on this section and it sounds incredible. As it kicks back into the death metal gear of the song I’m reminded of once again of really later-era death. Specifically in the leads and crawling melodies that remind me of something from “Individual Thought Patterns”. This song shows off everything the music has down well up to this point and just pushes it to the absolute limits. It ends with a very doomy section and riff as well as one of my favorite solos this band has ever written. Before slowly ending with ambient music once again.

This album blew me away when I first listened to it. And it still does each time I listen to it. It’s all killer no filler. I love the ambition, the heaviness, the progression, and the masterful songwriting and dynamics. I have no gripes at all with this album. It’s truly the best thing Blood Incantation has done in my eyes. And probably nothing else they will put out in the future will even come close to this album's breathtaking music. I highly recommend this album to any lover of Death, Morbid Angel, Demilich, and Timeghoul. This album has already grown to become one of my favorites in death metal. Easily in the top 20 for me. Absolutely breathtaking.

A lot of interest and various discussions that "Interdimensional Extinction" and "Starspawn" gained in a very short time were (and still are!) quite impressive. No wonder that the audience got hungry for another portion of premiere music from Blood Incantation at any moment. Fortunately, we didn't have to wait long for it, because already in 2019 their second longplay entitled "Hidden History Of The Human Race" was released, and the popularity around Paul Riedl's band soared...even higher than last time! However, as it soon turned out, this type of hype made sense and it was not without reason that "Hidden..." was hailed as one of the most important death metal premieres of 2019.

So the 3 years between "Hidden History Of The Human Race" and "Starspawn" were not wasted. The second lp by Blood Incantation surpasses the debut in almost every aspect - even though that album was also very addictive. What impresses is the greater complexity of the riffs (often moving very efficiently from the guitar virtuosity of Morbid Angel, to the Death technique or even madness of Immolation), the clever parts of the fretless bass (although it's not in the foreground), the brutality perfectly suited to this progression, analog production and better, futuristic atmosphere (with excellent cinematic ambients).

The whole cd starts, without looking back, i.e. with concrete "Slave Species Of The Gods" and "The Giza Power Plant", where in the first the band interweaves blasting, slower, concert rhythms and Schuldiner's-like technique, while in the second, they put much more emphasis on the apocalyptic atmosphere (mainly when there is a fragment with growled-speaking dialogue) and the death/doom elements (which from then on moved to a much greater extent to Spectral Voice - the second band where there are 3/4 of Blood Incantation line-up). It gets even more interesting with the - almost - instrumental "Inner Paths (To Outer Space)", which is distinguished by an exceptionally lighter, but still mysterious atmosphere and generally more progressive style, as well as the froggy growl of Antti Boman (!) from Demilich appearing at the end. Further praise must go to the longest in the set "Awakening From The Dream Of Existence To The Multidimensional Nature Of Our Reality (Mirror Of The Soul)", where blasting, progression, technical sweeping, medium tempos, melodic solos and ambients that introduce a very cinematic atmosphere, are devastating. It's as much as 14 minutes of music, but so brilliantly composed that there's no attempting an extravagant progression. However, "Hidden..." has only one disadvantage: volume. Well, the album is way too short! Okay, this situation is better than overloading the all album, but if these Americans added one more track, the rating would easily go towards the maximum.

It doesn't change the fact that "Hidden History Of The Human Race" instantly became a classic among death metal albums released in the 21st century - and it should be noted that it's deservedly so. These four Americans managed to beat the level of their previous materials on it, and at the same time show that their formula can be extended with new, intriguing solutions. Even if it's a bit short as a whole.

Originally on A bit of subjectivism...in metal

After their incredibly popular and totally marvellous debut album “Starspawn”, Blood Incantation is back with their sophomore record, out now via Dark Descent Records and Century Media Records.

The familiarity of huge guitar soundscapes ridden with meaty bass and ferocious drumming blasts us straight in alongside searing lead work and descend into progressively melodic riffing and guttural vocal savagery, definitely offering a more spectral and otherworldly sound as promised. The tight musicianship is impeccable with a cascade of chaotic frenzy being a running theme which adds a volatile sound to the record while keeping things neat and gruellingly dark, especially with a really filthy production style that suits the album to perfection. There are parts, especially in the vocals, that definitely feel like a step up in terms of delivering a much stronger sound, while maybe dialling back on the nasty “cavern-death” feel a tad in favour of a more classically loveable death metal style reminiscent of Death or Possessed in some parts while going into the more estranged technicality of Gorguts later work too.

It is wonderful to see the band has retained their originality and unique sound that made them such a hit in the first place while offering a totally new experience that doesn’t feel like a cheap part 2 to “Starspawn” but a work of art in its own right. The meaty technicality and violent spew of darkness is not limited to the first track as the second delivers an even more impressive array of destructive grooves and unhinging atmospherics rife with pungent layering and intricate nuances across the board. In the third piece we are given a mental interlude of psychedelia that furthers the cosmic soundscape of the band into a whole new realm of madness before we are brought back in with a grandiose, 18-minute, finishing blow of total death metal ecstasy. While a long ending piece, everything is here. Huge stomping grooves, precise intricate melodics, bleak ambience and soaring melodies over a rupturing and rhythmic blend of pure old school death metal monstrosities.

This record not only surpasses my expectations and lives up to the at times worryingly large hype of the band, something I did not want to become a burden, Blood Incantation knock it out of the park (or atmosphere might be more apt) for a magnificent journey into stellar decimation. This total monolith of death metal is going to top many peoples release lists for 2019 and deservedly so. Blood Incantation remain the ineffable kings of atmospheric prowess and blundering brutality alike. This cosmic spectacle must be heard to be believed and shall certainly entice most with its fiercely violent musicianship and phenomenal songwriting work, truly masterful.

Written for www.nattskog.wordpress.com

Yes, yes, I know, another review for Blood Incantation’s Hidden History of the Human Race. I’m sure everyone’s absolutely thrilled to see me write a review about what is arguably the most popular extreme metal album of the last decade. In any case, I feel compelled to add my two cents to the conversation surrounding it, especially considering how the hype around it has long since died down and we can look at it with a more inquisitive perspective.

I ought to kick things off with a disclaimer and admit that the attention the band has garnered with this release is fully deserved. They really did manage to make a very expansive and unique project that’s worth a listen by any metal fan, especially those into spacey death metal à la Timeghoul and The Chasm. That being said, the splash Hidden History… made outside of the underground thanks to outlets like Pitchfork covering it wasn’t without consequence. Genre tourists who weren’t acquainted with death metal as a whole ended up praising the album as the greatest thing to come out of the genre, while at the same time dismissing the rest of it as artless garbage not worth one’s time. This led to some people being disappointed due to the overwhelming hype that it had behind it thanks to the reaction of the general public, resulting in a rather divisive release. Which is a shame, because when you remove it from the shitstorm it kicked up on release, it’s actually a great piece of music with a lot to like about it.

Hidden History… sees Blood Incantation change things up compared to its predecessor, Starspawn. The band here has taken a different direction in terms of how they approach songwriting, using intricate leadwork to instil their desired spacey atmosphere, contrary to the dense and cosmic horror-esque feel of the debut. Throughout the record’s 36-minute runtime, we’re being graced with fretwork that despite its virtuosity never devolves into wankery, with every floating note adding to the music’s cosmic feel. From whammy divebombs to more involved and long-winded solos, everything feels meticulously put together and focused on taking the listener on a journey through space. The smooth licks and wails found on the opener, “Slave Species of the Gods”, and the melting leads on “The Giza Power Plant”, the latter of which also features an unexpected Eastern-influenced break, are just stunning, not only in isolation, but also as parts of the whole.

With how much I’ve talked about the atmospherics of this album (don’t worry, there’s more to come), you’d think that this it’s absolutely bereft of noteworthy riffs, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. Blood Incantation has a wide array of influences, but the way they’re mixed and matched together results in something that feels much fresher than what it might seem at first glance. There is no shortage of raging riffs that bring to mind Morbid Angel, a more traditional counterpoint to disjointed mid-tempo riffs that bring to mind other “weird death metal” greats like the aforementioned Timeghoul and Demilich. All that is combined in a natural manner, leading to music that flows smoothly from one point without feeling lost, or giving the impression that it meanders (for the most part).

What I found to be the glue that keeps some of these parts together in a tidy manner is the ambient sections. Believe me, I was quite surprised when I found an extreme metal album in which the ambience felt well-placed and wasn’t an attempt at kneecapping the pacing. In retrospect, all of the spacey non-metal stuff presented here feels like an obvious hint towards this year’s Timewave Zero, a project that I sadly didn’t find myself caring for all that much. While these parts serve as transitions between passages to an extent, they didn’t put any less effort than they did on the rest of the compositions here. The most notable case of this is the track “Inner Paths (To Outer Space)”, a 5-and-a-half-minute instrumental jam session that is brimming with psychedelia, yet somehow doesn’t feel out of place or unnecessary. It’s a much needed palate cleanser and prelude to Hidden History…’s final song.

And what a song it is. It has a comically long song title to match its length, and it somehow makes its 18-minute runtime worth it. It’s a death metal epic the likes of which I haven’t heard in a long time. Blood Incantation manages to combine everything we’d seen up to that point and provide what is arguably the highlight of the experience. It really just has it all: dense grooves, sweeping leads, raging riffs, dreamy ambience, all combined in a package that could arguably make for an EP of its own. Upon first listen, it was a definite surprise to see that the final track was almost as long as everything that preceded it, but it feels much better paced than Starspawn, which went the opposite direction and opened with a daunting 13 minute song. Not that it was bad mind you, it’s just that it felt like a more lopsided and front-loaded project than Hidden History…. Meanwhile, “The Song With The Long Title” is appropriately placed as the climax of the album, serving as a grand and memorable note to end things on.

That being said, one of the few, if not the only thing that bothered me with this release is the production, more specifically the mixing. I don’t mind the fact that the recording is a bit cleaner, it really helps bring the most out of the leadwork and ambient parts, and it doesn’t take away from the instruments’ power either, but I can’t help but wish the bass was more prevalent. There are some really sweet floating basslines throughout that are a bit too quiet and can only be heard during some of the slower or more relaxed segments. A shame really, considering how it sounds really good, and could work great in tandem with the crunchy, dense guitars, and the driving drums.

Truth be told, revisiting Hidden History of the Human Race was one of the best things I’ve done recently. Being able to take it in removed from the buzz surrounding it and with another project right after it gave me a different perspective on it. Is it the world’s most original album? No, not really, I wouldn’t have cited 4 different bands had that been the case. Does it fall under the category of “Has influences but employs them in a manner that makes the music feel fresh”? Absolutely. Blood Incantation might not be the second coming of the (Anti)Christ that genre tourists and flannel-clad Pitchfork readers make them out to be, but they are undoubtedly a breath of fresh air. Do yourselves a favour and give it another shot in the year of our lord 2022, it definitely deserves it.

Highlights: Slave Species of the Gods, The Song With The Comically Long Title

When Blood Incantation was formed in 2011, I don't think the founding members expected the band to be as successful as it is. For years, the band had been laying in the underground for a while with their experimental themes of space and the Anunnaki mythos. Even when their debut album "Starspawn" was released in 2016, it was kinda shrugged off as one of those death metal albums that just existed. But then, everything changed in 2019 when the band released their second album "Hidden History of the Human Race". At that point, everyone in the metal scene truly began to appreciate the band's unique style and considered this album to be one of the best metal albums to come out that year. Now that the hype train has died down, I haven't really seen the album as a flawless masterpiece everyone had declared two years ago. But while it's not perfect, the album still has a lot going for.

Let's start off with the instruments. Blood Incantation has always used a different style for its instrumentals, but "Hidden History of the Human Race" is where it shines the most. The guitar riffs are technical, and they have a high emphasis on atmosphere. The drums also have some complex beat patterns that set the mood for the space-like tracks. The bass, while not audible a lot of the times, still follow along the guitars pretty well and set the foundation for each track fine. The instrumentals may come off as a bit bland upon first listening to the album, but what makes them work in the long run is atmosphere. One of the best examples of this would be in the track "Inner Paths (To Outer Space)". It starts off with some space-like instruments that give the listener a feeling that they're in space, and it sounds like something out of a documentary about space. It isn't until the rest of the instruments appear that the track goes from good to near perfection. The instruments play these soft and relaxing tunes that set in a chill and calming tone. This eventually progresses into a more harsh and abrasive sound, and the transition is very smooth. This is easily the best instrumental in the album, and the other three tracks are also just as good.

What feels a bit weak though is the vocals. Paul Riedl does the vocals here, and they're not bad, but they do need a bit of work. For example, in the song "The Giza Power Plant", his voice mainly consists of deep growls. They sound fine, but the mixing of the vocals is poor, as they sound very quiet and it's hard to tell what he's saying with the loud instrumentals playing. There are even a couple of moments where his voice sounds generic, and that is especially apparent with the track "Slave Species of the Gods". The track is good overall, but Paul's vocals sound like a lot of other death metal vocals of that year, and don't really offer anything new in terms of vocal delivery. The vocals do have plenty of good moments, and flow with the instruments good, but a lot of the times, it's held back by the poor mixing, the generic growls, or a mix of both.

But while the vocals are a bit of a let down, the lyrics are the complete opposite. As I've said earlier, Blood Incantation focuses on space themes unlike most other death metal albums, and this album in particular executes them well. For example, in the track "Awakening from the Dream of Existence to the Multidimensional Nature of Our Reality (Mirror of the Soul)", this verse quotes:

Cast down to Amenti and adrift in the Halls of Judgement
Thoth grants the souls entry and guards the quest of passage:
Netherward descent into the afterworld and through the Abyss

Now I'm not all familiar with the Anunnaki mythos, so forgive me if I get this wrong, but it's about Amenti granting some souls into an abyss. Even if you don't know this type of mythos, you can still appreciate how descriptive the lyrics are. They are also executed very well on this track. The song is the most technical out of the four tracks on this album, and the anxious riffs and fast drums enhance the lyrics in giving it a more harsh tone. The lyrics deal with some celestial themes, and they are written and executed beautifully on this album.

Even after the hype has died down, "Hidden History of the Human Race" still remains a great album. While the vocals do need some improvement, the instrumentals are breathtaking and this album has some of the best lyrics in Blood Incantation's discography. Now it's currently unknown where the band is gonna go from here, and it's possible that they may enter some new ground that death metal hasn't explored yet. For now, though, "Hidden History of the Human Race" is an album that will make you wanna travel to space.

The hype train of hype trains, the death metal album to break in Pitchfork.com with a good rating, landing good ratings unanimously from critics, breaking in to the charts with solid results and being a number of metal related media site's album of the year. Hell even here on the archives the hype is writ large, few albums this young reach such a level of reviews and maintain such a high score. Most importantly though, it's an album that hits you in waves.

The first wave, the death metal wave. Without taking too much from the album, it can be hard to understand how it reached the level of recognition it did so quickly. Slave Species of the Gods is a quality death metal track, but its not exactly a revolutionary experience. It is a vicious headbanging experience fueled by blast beats, deep guttural growls and dissonant riffs that call back to acts like Gorguts and Demilich. I cannot stress this enough, this is a good song, but stuff like this doesn't hit the billboards and break out of the metal world all too often, in fact prior to this album I'm pretty sure it never happened. The Giza Power Plant follows in a similar fashion, blast beats and dissonant death metal riffing rip through in a death metal rampage, everything is tight, well performed and well written, but this isn't ground breaking. About halfway through comes a little softer more atmospheric passage that rotates out the growls of death metal and some chanting style vocals which hints at the second wave.

The atmospheric wave. Ok, atmospheric death metal is nothing new, but what Blood Incantation starts to spin with Inner Paths (To Outer Space) departs from death metal almost completely, if it weren't for a single extended growl at the tail end of the song there wouldn't even really be any sonic markers tying this track to death metal. Its relaxed, the drumming sounds smooth, a double pedal rhythm finds its way into the mix about halfway through but without making the experience feel more intense. I could start with where the guitars and bass start going here, but it is the atmosphere itself that is set that sort of becomes the important bit, the reason I think this album found a home and heart with people that aren't even necessarily far into the metal spectrum. The atmosphere is not dark, its not some kind of lovecraftian terror nor does it conjure visions of Geiger style aliens on the prowl. Rather the atmosphere is that of child like curiosity, not lending itself to negativity or positivity, but almost just the nostalgic feeling of looking at the stars for the first time and wondering whats up there. you could lay this over a NOVA documentary and it would fit PERFECTLY.

This then sort of melds into the third wave. Had they continued with what was brought forth on Inner Paths the album would probably drift off into the cosmos completely and just become an untangle-able mesh of oddity and weirdness, and so the following track (no I'm not typing out the whole name) brings back the dissonant churning guitar and the blast beats and drags us into a 1970's prog rock feel, where 3 tracks make up side A and one big epic length occupies Side B, with this obviously being the side B. it regularly trades off the death metal brutality with the more ambient sections which reigns both aspects in and sort of tempers them into a single dynamic piece. While it doesn't necessarily follow the steps of Hidden Paths musically, it does so in spirit, when the lyrics are dissected they invoke the same sense of curiosity, again not referencing the horrors of the beyond but rather asking questions and encouraging a listener to sort of think about the truths were presented.

If there was ever a way to write death metal that's inviting to new listeners without taking the melodic pathway it would be like this. It is very "kvlt" level metal musically, without even a hint of being watered down, but it the way its presented is easy to approach, and this is why this album was hyped off the train in a way that most death metal bands will never achieve.

Blood Incantation is one of the most popular modern bands in extreme metal. Almost every metal magazine or website has mentioned them at least once. They started out just as a underground band releasing some demos and an EP which strengthened their status and popularity in the modern scene. This band obviously belong to this new wave of OSDM revival along with other bands such as Tomb Mold, Gatecreeper, Baest ... but they also add some certain features and influences that distinguish them from other bands, so listening to Blood Incantation we can fully enjoy that old death metal feeling and attitude and at the same time enjoy creative and inspired music that doesn't sound generic nor boring nor forgettable. That's the Blood Incantantion's magic.

Many people (including myself) have defined this band as "the death metal version of Pink Floyd" and I completely agree with this definition. Their style is very unique and although we can find lots of old bands' influence here (such as Morbid Angel, Death, Immolation ... (just look at the band members' T-shirts lol) at structure, riffing or atmosphere; Blood Incantation has achieved to fully define their unique sound adding lots of progressive rock influences (such as technical structures and long songs) and an alien/futuristic sound (which complements with the cover very well). If you thought that Tool sounded spacial or progressive, you just must listen to this and you''ll quickly change your mind.

So, after describing my thoughts on this band, what's about THIS album? Well. Firstly, I'll state is a great and highly memorable album added to this band's discography and to metal in general. I'm pretty sure that this album will be considered as a classic or a masterpiece in the next years/decades. So, why did I give it that mark and not more? Because it just lacks some of the amazing qualities found in their previous album. While I consider "Starspawn" to be their best release yet and maybe the best death metal (or even metal in general) album that was released this decade, I think that this album has lost some of the greatness of "Starspawn".

Here we have four songs, all with a long length which make us travel through space and dream about aliens. All of them are great and they're well composed. If we talk about musical terms, it is technical but without being wankery and it sounds dirty without sucking. All the musicianship on here is very talented and they know exactly how to play in every section so it doesn't get boring but not overwhelming here. The production is good, because they avoid the modern tech death overproduced sound; the album was wholly recorded in an analogic way indeed, but is not underproduced neither, which help them to sound natural and as a live band. Unlike most modern tech death/thrash bands, the drums on here sound technical and fast (as it should be) but at the same time natural, and not being played by a robot nor sounding like a machine gun. The guitar tone/distortion as well as the bass is also very solid, without being overwhelming. Overall, it's great and very solid.

What qualities I think that this album lacks compared to "Starspawn"? Firstly I'll say that the more cavernous and special sound was diluted in this delivery by a more standard production and much less creative compositions, here they sound more like a typical modern technical death band than the ancient, enigmatic and massive monstrosity that "Starspawn" was. Secondly, the atmosphere here is not so immersive and oppressive, it is almost non-existent and sterile, they sound perhaps a little more technical, but that is something that personally matters little to me.

So, what's my opinion overall? I think it's another great album by this band that you should own (and you should buy), but it has been given a lot of hype that really doesn't deserve. It really annoys me that this album is getting much more reviews than "Starspawn", which I personally find it as their peak. But, as I mentioned in the first paragraph, Blood Incantation where much less known at that time so their true masterpiece will be underrated and eclipsed by "Hidden History of the Human Race" and won't get the recognition that it deserves. Before I finish, I'll state that the cover is really cool.

Hidden History of the Human Race is arguably the best death metal record of 2019, but I’ll be damn if it’s not the most overrated one, not to mention the sudden breakthrough of this band. I get it. The band, with this record, takes traditional/old school death metal to the next level, though the music is more melodic but catchier than before. However, this isn’t any different from some small-time, unknown bands who’ve either disbanded or had 20 years to write more material. At least they maintain consistency and originality. I’m not seeing any of this with Blood Incantation.

To start with the worst, even though they’re all-around decent songs, Slave Species of the Gods begins with a bang, similar to the epic Vitrification of Blood (both parts). What caught me off guard was the intense pitched harmonic which made the intro brutal than initially presented. The rest of the song is pretty predictable in its structure, releasing catchy riffs and drumming. Of course, this would be one of their primary songs to perform live; simply fun and gets the job done, but nothing too unique. As for their second epic song, represented in this record, the long Awakening from the Dreams of Existence to the Multidimensional Nature of Our Reality (Mirror of the Soul) is pretty damn similar to Vitrification of Blood. The band brought all that fancy heaviness for the intro, the groovy and phaser-effected riffs, and more. They also improved the bass, having more jazzy bass lines, and you have more explosive blast beats and pitched harmonics. After the 5:30 mark, the ambience arrives, with some electronics which lasts for about a minute and a half, returning to the heavier form. Nearing the 10:00 mark, the band unleashes some Death riffage, which was... okay. Unexpected, but unimpressive. More explosiveness unleashed at 11:20, which for me is the highlight. It got to the point where more chaos unveils, being decently catchy, yet technically awesome. From this stage, the song builds up for the outro; a few growls, a few blazing riffs, and the atmospheric instrumental last three minutes. Entertaining, but stretched as hell.

Now for the better stuff. The Giza Power Plant is insanely good, competing with the band’s best, such as Mephitic Effluvia and Subterranean Aeon. The first two minutes are batshit crazy from all corners. You’d expect Egyptian melodies based on the title of the song, and the sound is perfect for its intro, leading to more striking riffs and pitched harmonics. The next part is sinister, slow death growls with clean vocals that, to no surprise, sound a lot like Timeghoul, but not too bad. This serves as the bridge building to the outro, with slow but powerful melodies and mad drumming. As for the instrumental track, Inner Paths (to Outer Space) has a haunting, dark and terrifying keyboard intro, followed by the initial instrumental intro of great cymbals work and heavily effected, pretty melodies. The phaser effect, while temporarily used, can be pretty annoying to hear. At least there’s substance and semblance of character, compared to the previous record’s Meticulous Soul Devourment which has a cool title, for all sakes.

While not much has changed from this record to the debut, let alone the sound, the band wanted to incorporate more melodies than those that been established in their music earlier. It worked, sure, and the target is a little more friendly to the audience than what Starspawn offered. When I thought the Timeghoul inspiration to the music was part of their early stages, it’s showcased even more with this record, and there’s more Death to the structure. Which seems to me they can’t depend on their own creation, and the choice of their musical approach. At least all the tracks are better, yet this doesn’t change the fact that they continued with this poor choice regarding the available amount. I'm kinda glad they didn't have to split the longest song, unlike the previous record. However, they still literally recorded four tracks, for each record of the two records! I'm still baffled as to how they continue to write music over 10 minutes, which doesn’t always displays quality. I’m not saying quantity over quality, but under an LP, with the length being over 30 minutes... give me a break. I'd prefer they improve on the number of tracks than the music itself.

Following up a debut like “Starspawn” is no easy task, and many a band within death metal and beyond have found their second statement wanting. Nonetheless, and as I’ve written elsewhere, I find the idea of the sophomore slump in death metal especially to not generally apply – some of the best albums I can think of in the genre (None So Vile, Leprosy, Mental Funeral, Cause of Death, Unquestionable Presence, etc. etc. etc.) are sophomore efforts. Nonetheless, I’m sure the anxious energy that goes into following a band’s debut is absolutely palpable. In the case of Blood Incantation, few underground death metal releases have found the acclaim and success that “Starspawn” did, and the adoration was well-deserved. And with only three years’ distance, we’ve received the answer to how the band would follow up their debut, in the form of “The Hidden History of the Human Race.”

From the opening barrage of “Slave Species of the Gods,” we are subjected to a beating at maximum velocity, a throttling mass of pinch harmonics, cymbal catches, and spider-like bass guitar. Notably, the vocal presence here is noticeably more foregrounded – a definite development from “Starspawn” that is present throughout “HHHR.” “The Giza Power Plant” trades furious speed for pounding, thrashy riffwork, with perhaps the best single section on the album hitting at roughly the halfway mark – the violent churning of the song suddenly breaking into ancient, reverb-drenched hypnotism, a long atmospheric section in the best tradition the genre has to offer. Truly otherworldly and entrancing. While “Giza Power Plant” ends by taking us back to the realms of blasting death metal, “Inner Paths (To Outer Space)” continues the atmospherics, a considerable and pleasant surprise that proves Blood Incantation is willing to explore different elements of their sound.

…and then there’s the other half of this release. At just over 18 minutes, “Awakening…” was surely the song I was most interested to listen to when I first picked up “HHHR” – while, obviously, Blood Incantation had done long tracks in the past, this was a considerable step up in the sheer ambition of creating a single composition. And for this reviewer, unfortunately this was perhaps a stumbling block on which this multi-tentacled creature finally tripped itself up… there is really no reason why “Awakening…” should be a single song. There are no real discernible threads running through it, few ear-catching motifs recurring throughout, and not really a clear progression aside from a long break at its center that really does little other than meander idly for a few seconds before spinning back into the more chaotic side of Blood Incantation’s sound. Despite multiple moments of absolutely masterful songwriting (see the double-bass propelled “bend” riff just over two minutes in, slicing in after a few repetitions with perhaps the album’s best guitar solo), its length becomes an indication that the parts have not been worked into a greater, unified whole.

Again, this is not Bolt Thrower, where you’re dwelling on a meaty riff long enough to let it sink into your bones: the songs tend to be whirlwinds of frenetic, uncontrollable energy. “Slave Species of the Gods” is undoubtedly one of the best fast tracks Blood Incantation has put together to date, but some of the finest sections on “HHHR” – likely thanks to the contrast – is the reflective, pensive absorption in the solitude of space: the middle of “The Giza Power Plant,” the entirety of “Inner Paths,” or the conclusion to “Awakening…”. In the end, the main issue might be the bloated attempt to bring these two aspects of their sound together in a single enormous song: “Awakening…” simply doesn’t progress in a natural fashion, and given that it is half the album’s runtime, this is a major issue that “Starspawn” didn’t have. Not exactly a sophomore slump, but certainly not the absolute throttling vortex of death metal bliss that their debut was.


80%

Almost like it was released yesterday, I can recall hearing about this new release from Denver, Colorado's death metal heathens Blood Incantation. I remember seeing a lot of buzz about it around the time, touting this new opus as "title of the year," and, at the very least, cracking the top 10 on many "best metal albums of 2019" lists. I remember the hype being, for lack of a better term, "real". Blood Incantation was a band that, as a huge metal fan, particularly of death metal, I actually hadn't yet heard, so needless to say I was excited to give it a spin. I was, unfortunately disappointed, to say the least. In this review, I plan to cover why that was.

Before I delve into the thick of what troubles me so much about the release, I'd like to briefly go over a few things that stuck out to me about the album as positives. Unfortunately, there are not many to be had, but I can say that I can definitely appreciate the attempt at creating and rolling with what I believe to be a great theme: a spacey, airy, mysterious canvas to paint a picture of what could be out there; that there is an atmosphere here that, if executed correctly, could have and should have worked extremely well at putting you in its own world. Aside from this, I do believe the riff writing on the album to be mostly strong, and offered to me quite a throwback to many classic bands of the genre that dazzled me as a teenager; however, nostalgic riffing and a slightly strong atmosphere are not enough to save the record from its many flaws.

I want to continue straight into what I believe to be the album's biggest flaw, again focusing on its main theme and atmosphere, to me the most important part of any record. Upon listening to Hidden History of the Human Race, it becomes clear fast that the album is looking to create a wide spatial field with which it hopes to give the illusion of echo and depth. The vocals and lead guitar are doused heavily in reverb that is so overpowering that it feels cheap; it feels like the album is trying too hard to create the atmosphere out of echoes and reverb and NOT with any actual spatial and wide material present. The lack of subtlety with this comes off as very forced in a way, and can be hard o take seriously. I do not feel as if I was brought into their vast and mysterious void; I feel more like I'm watching a Youtube video about outer space while I COULD just be looking at it through a telescope.

The fact that the key point of the album seems to be its atmosphere and that it fails to put me in it is a massive red flag. A lot of the ambience presented to fill space comes off as amateur and actually hurts it deeply, and this is because I believe ambience should be earned and come from somewhere through good writing, however, when ambience, "feeling," is just thrown at you because "that's the theme," it doesn't necessarily mean it works just because it's there. It turns something neutral at it's best into something negative when it's applied here. Especially when you're writing particularly for theme, which I feel this is, things need to have reason; they need to serve a purpose, and almost all the "atmosphere" here falls completely flat. Unfortunately in this case, because of this, the album comes off as quite pretentious; like they had a great idea, but something was missing when it came to execute it and it leaves a very sour taste upon a deeper listen. My last point of theme has to do with style. I don't want to call it the "wrong" style to play when going for this, because I have heard this style-theme match-up done properly (Sulphur Aeon and Ulcerate come to mind), but I feel this is so weak in that area that it comes off as if this was just a bad idea. Another massive red flag.

The next points I want to cover have to do with the writing; what I believe to be a little less important than theme in the context of this album. The first thing to bring up is the choice of 4 songs, one being 18-minutes and the album totaling 36 minutes. This is quite a short album and unfortunately feels quite a bit longer. One thing that helps here is that you will not hear the same thing twice. As stated, the album riffs well in many areas, and has a few strong transitions. These are not at all enough to cover the many, many ill-attempted leaps at being progressive. Parts start and stop abruptly, as if the songs are constructed chunk-by-chunk separately and then pieced together in whatever order. A general example of this is appears evident when I realized there doesn't seem to be actual endings to any of the songs (aside from the last track- whose title is so ridiculous I can't even bring myself to type it out and arguably being the strongest point on the entire album), they just seem to kind of stop, and at points where it's hard to tell if the song should be over or not. There doesn't seem to be any sort of musical story worth following. The music just kind of happens and is... There. The album bridges furious and heavy parts with cheap ambience in an amazing amount of spots where it isn't earned or necessary; again, doing things for no reason. It comes off as very inconsistent in structure, and fails remarkably in its attempt to be progressive, most evident in, again, the last track; an 18-minute mess of this-and-that over and over again that seems to last for an eternity.

Speaking to the instruments in the context of writing, a huge problem is the lead guitar. The solos are random, messy jumbles of heavily-laden, reverb-y nothingness; the fast solos that happen sporadically should have been cut from this album entirely. They do absolutely nothing to contribute to the music here and border on the point of a possible accusation of improvisation, and as such, appear as take-one demos or rough studio cuts.

On account of the bass, unfortunately there is almost nothing to talk about. It's used more as a backing filler as opposed to an upfront presence, which robs it of getting to be its own instrument with its own identity, when it could have helped amazingly in actually altering and deepening their spatial field; a missed opportunity so massive it can't be understated. As with the lead guitar, which when done well, slow, and melodically works quite well here, the bass has its moments, such as in the beginning of "The Giza Power Plant," but honestly all it really does is make you wish it was like that throughout the album, and when it isn't results in resentment.

The vocals also take a back seat and appear low in the mix, which to me is very strange. I feel like a louder vocal mix would restore a good chunk of power here, but they're so clad in echo that they seem to almost not be there. Again, because there is a lack of structure to due the attempt at progressive-style writing, the vocals jump in and out at seemingly random times, have no flow whatsoever, and are muddled in their production. The talking parts also needed to be scrapped entirely; blank passages that you can't hear and that contribute absolutely nothing.

Going back to the guitar briefly, the clean guitars are the closest this album gets to making their own atmosphere with real music. They are too loud, but they are strong in their application, but ruined on account of placement for the most part because they usually bridge two riffs and come off as very weak transitions, rather than solid, comprehensible pieces on their own.

The rhythm guitar here is strong. It must be said that there are excellent riffs here. For an album touting progressive-ness, it feels overly-riffed, but shines melodically in spots, however the performances in some spots are weak, which I believe is for a particular reason; that reason being the number one biggest killer of basically every worthwhile section on the album; the drum performance.

To be clear, not necessarily drum parts or choice. Those verge on being the best part of the album. However, essentially every great moment, such as the end of "The Giza Power Plant," is marred by off-time and missing hits, kick that is inconsistent and buried, entire sections where tempos speed up and slow down (seemingly because of difficulty in more difficult areas) and not one single, clean, audible and complete tom roll on the entire album. This makes the guitar and bass stretch back and forth so badly that it's difficult to enjoy because it's difficult to establish a flow. As the music starts and stops so much, you'd expect major impacts upon going in and out of sections, however, they're so off-time in spots that the entire meat of the section, on all instruments, gets thrown off balance and what should smash actually blurs. The album comes off as if the drums were supposed to be a huge highlight, and while there are amazing sections played flawlessly, when they aren't, it's something one can't unhear.

Overall, Blood Incantation's Hidden History of the Human Race is definitely not a horrible album. It has its flaws, and its hype-train was odd. It started to feel like because of this it got lost between subjectivity, mainly because of its theme, I believe, and objectivity. It came out at a very interesting time in history where humans are discovering more and more mysteries previously unknown than we ever have, and I do believe it to be genius to have capitalized on this so well. It is a highly unique album, and will fit certain people very well for ages to come, as well as become a vessel for other bands to help establish and elevate this niche style, and herein lies the best thing to take from this experience.

I am of the majority that believes Blood Incantation’s previous full-length “Starspawn” is one of the best death metal surprises of the past few years. And I was naturally expecting something pretty special when “Hidden History of the Human Race” was announced. Alas, I was a little let down, the band’s obvious effort notwithstanding. One will notice quickly that “Hidden History” is less riffy than “Starspawn,” resulting from both a larger abundance of leads in conjunction with the rhythm guitars placed lower in the mix. One will also conclude that drummer Isaac Faulk is the featured player, and whose “indirect” and complex style is somewhat detrimental to the aggression as well. Even with those potential issues, ‘Slave Species of Gods’ is still pretty cool and is probably the overall highlight. After that promising opening, ‘The Giza Power Plant’ drops the ball in my opinion, especially when an orientalist melody pops up for color. It sounds less like a space-pharaoh-procession and more like a suburban-hookah-bar. Thankfully, we are treated to a mournful Finndeath melody later on that makes up for it. They didn’t need to do something flashy to get my attention and I think that is important to notice. The instrumental ‘Inner Paths (Outer Space)’ is somewhat disposable, as it serves as a warm up for the lengthy final selection, endowed with the similarly lengthy title ‘Awakening from the Dream of Existence to the Multidimensional Nature of Our Reality.’ I can’t really single out much of note, because a kitchen sink approach is in effect for a great deal of it. Flamboyant lead guitars swarm and divebomb, ambient sections punctuate the more furious ones and dozens (!) of percussion patterns move us through the journey. It doesn’t sound scary though. We are lyrically involved with terrifying cosmic entities that have enslaved mankind in an illusive-reality. But ‘Hidden History,” a record of rebellion and freedom, does not emphasize that struggle. Blood Incantation were clearing aiming to blow our minds, but I think they are much better at kicking our asses. Still, this is one to check out if you are even remotely interested because of how carefully the band has curated their classic influences into a capable whole. If it isn’t your bag, you can always pass it off to an “Ancient Aliens” acolyte.

Originally Published in Metalegion Magazine

Without a doubt the over-saturation of projects in the metal scene, and particularly in the Technical Death Metal scene, has generated that many proposals do not reach a deserved recognition. "But everything has already been invented" is a phrase that is constantly heard and keeps a certain degree of truth: the active presence of bands like Obscura, Alkaloid, Beyond Creation, Rivers of Nihil, Archspire, Ulcerate, Augury or even the already legendary Nile, Cryptopsy, Gorod or Cattle Decapitation, would definitely intimidate anyone who wants to make a name for himself within this scene. However, every now and then someone comes along who makes us question whether it is true that everything has already been invented.

Paul Riedl has been through countless bands linked to the scene. From the most traditional and aggressive vein of Death Metal, captured in Spectral Voice, through Merkstave's contemplative Drone, to Velnias' atmospheric Black Metal, this music has dominated a multitude of expressions that he would try to capture in his most ambitious project: Blood Incantation. Along with two members of Spectral Voice, the virtuoso guitarist Morris Kolontyrsky and Jeff Barrett, in charge of giving life to the 4 strings, in addition to the also experienced in bands linked to Black and Doom, the talented drummer Isaac Faulk, would give life in 2011 to the band. It would not be until 2016 that they would release their first work, the outstanding Starspawn.

Of course, what gathers us here is their 2019 work, Hidden History of the Human Race, laureate in different spaces dedicated to extreme music, and not so extreme and considered within the best of last year. 4 tracks that lead us through a journey of 36 minutes in which we are told a story about the extraterrestrial origin of the human species and how the various mass control devices have wanted to force us to believe in other stories. Of course it sounds crazy at first glance, or listen in any case, but if one goes into the music accompanied by the poetic lyrics recited by Riedl's guttural voice, one can attribute a new meaning to it, perhaps much deeper and which deals with themes such as the search for human freedom and self-knowledge. Blood Incantation speaks of an "ascent of the soul", a concept that converges perfectly with the very complex music they practice and at times atmospheric, as seen in the ethereal passages of Inner Paths or almost at the end of the last track.

Slave Species of the Gods opens up without contemplation, showing us the heavier side of the band. From the first second we perceive the compositional quality dressed up with a harmony not very common in death metal bands. The stridency of the quartet is present during the sound journey, however it is exalted by a cohesion in the instruments so precise that it gives a new air of greatness to the whole. To emphasize the work of Morris in the guitar solos that look so frenetic and typical of the theme of the album.

If the first piece is outstanding, The Giza Power Plant takes things to another level. A devastating sounding drum kit hits the nail on the head of the string work. Paul Riedl's vocal work is noteworthy to say the least. But it's that break around the second minute that takes the biscuit: using the Egyptian music that is so characteristic of another great band like Nile, they manage to make an already memorable song incredible. To end with the existentialist delirium, some clean voices tell us how the alien stories have been spreading.

The third shot of the Blood Incantation artillery arrives and those from Denver, Colorado present Inner Paths (to Outer Space), a glorious instrument that progresses slow to finally end up in an energetic exhibition of all the instruments. It's worth mentioning that this was the single on the album and is also the "softest" track, so to speak. Of course, the quality is there, in fact, it doesn't escape for a moment. The raw voice of an old acquaintance, Antti Boman, a member of bands like Demilich and Winterwolf, and some exquisite chords close a great song.

Awakening from the Dream of Existence to the Multidimensional Nature of Our Reality (Mirror of the Soul) is the last song on the album, the longest and one of the longest titled songs I remember ever seeing. Blood Incantation shows a perfect conjunction of all the exposed along the album, alternating the passages of the purest and hardest Death Metal with those that evoke the contemplative moments of the atmospheric music. It becomes a complete journey through the music and perhaps the most pleasant experience that the album leaves me.

My final impression with Hidden History of the Human Race is that it ends up being an album that takes you through passages where the music simply stops sounding raucous and ends up turning into pure harmony.

The first time I listened to Hidden History, I fell asleep (an occurrence that owed nothing to the quality of the music) somewhere during “The Giza Power Plant” and woke up during the last five minutes of the record. It was surreal, and left me feeling very excited about digging into this sweeping work from a band I’ve heard repeatedly heralded in Messianic terms as the vanguard of the death metal revival.

Repeated listens have been enjoyable, but time has tarnished this one somewhat for me.

The album has everything one might look for in a death metal record. The drumming is awesome. Blast beats, fast double bass, good production. The moments when this album strays into melodic territory are nicely complemented by artful cymbal and tom work. The guitars fill all kinds of interesting sonic spaces — cool leads, a wide variety of styles nodding to their influences, tasteful employment of effects ranging from delay pedals to what sounds like some kind of ring modulator. The bass playing pops into the forefront at cool moments, and holds a firm presence in the mix throughout. The vocals are solid, and accentuated by some of the cryptic half-speech you might expect from Enslaved at a few moments on the record. Really, the musicianship here is solid all around.

However, it’s the songwriting on the record that’s ultimately left me disappointed. This is particularly noticeable on the too-long instrumental track, which sounds like a Porcupine Tree song, apart from a minute or so of heavy shit, and which I ultimately feel the album could live without. The 18+ minute “Awakening from the Dream of Existence…” is the strongest track on the record by far in my mind, but it too suffers from the album’s general malaise. Is it breadth without depth? Is it a lack of focus? Is it over ambitious? Does it wonder without progressing? I’m not sure any of these phrases are accurate, or fair, to apply to this record as a whole, but they’re all true at one point or another in its 37 minutes.

The atmosphere and the impressive variety of riffs make up for these problems in large measure, but not enough to ultimately save this album from itself.

Blood Incantation is a Denver based death metal band that has made a splash on the metal scene as of late. Although this album is not groundbreaking or entirely original by any means, it really solidifies the death metal formula established by legends Morbid Angel, Incantation and Immolation. There are also many unexpected twists and turns to be found on this album. For example, psychedelic soundscape passages, sludgy yet melodic riffs and notable musical borrowing from Obscura by Gorguts, are the unquestionable highlights from the album. What makes this album great is that it revisits the songwriting and musical structure of the 90s death metal sound by adding it's own artistic take and touch. In contrast to Blood Incantation's undoubtable influences, their songs are dizzying and feel as though someone is weaving in and out of a hallucinogenic nightmare. Its almost like being on a roller coaster ride one second then experiencing a dirge the other second.

For some strange reason, the trippy visual and auditory aesthetics resemble the musical form and content of fellow Denver based band Cephalic Carnage. Although the bands are stylistically different, they both aim for the same phantasmagorical, mind blowing, quirky and surreal musical experience. Interestingly, Isaac Faulk's drumming compliments the chaotic music perfectly and adds an almost tribal feel to it. Coincidentally, Faulk's percussion work has some similarities to Erik Wunder's drumming from Cobalt, another Colorado based band, mixed in with inspirations from legendary death metal drummers, Pete Sandoval from Morbid Angel and Steve Asheim from Deicide. The tightness of the drumming how cuts through the thickness of the heavy and pummeling riffs. Furthermore, the splash and china fills add an euphonic tone and compliment the other instruments exemplarily.

In terms of the songs themselves, the magnum opus of the album is definitely the 18 minute track, "Awakening from the Dream of Existence to the Multidimensional Nature of Our Reality (Mirror of the Soul). Although the song title is unbelievably and tediously long, this 18 minute track is pack with excellent riffs and intriguing musical effects, that the song does not feel 18 minutes at all. In addition, the song feels as though Incantation's "Onward to Golgotha" was playing in one stereo and Morbid Angel's "Gateways to Annihilation" was playing in the other, except with a spacey and dystopian overtone. The guttural vocals, like the drumming, are not overdone or out of control, but rather go perfectly with the dynamics and organized chaos of each tune on the album. Although the other songs somewhat pale in comparison to the epic and monstrous 18 minute song, they definitely still add substance, flavour and uniqueness to the album in their own menacing and ominous way.

While this album is a fresh take on death metal, one that is not overly produced or saturated, I still wish that more jazz, progressive and avant-garde elements were included. Despite having a solid death metal foundation and sentiment, this album could have lived up to its title in so many other ways if it borrowed more from groundbreaking 90s metal bands like Cynic, Atheist or Pestilence, for example. All in all, this album is excellent and intriguing in many ways, but I wish it would have been more daring and more willing to venture into uncharted territory.

‘Hidden History of the Human Race’ is itself an elaborately scribbled document of an internalized war with the very DNA of death metal as an artistically viable practice beyond its core influential statements. What might initially appear to be a harmoniously brutal head-first dive into safely non-brutal, non-technical, but seemingly progressive modern science-fiction themed death metal is itself a studied equalization of forms shareable between the greatest North American death metal apices of the 1990’s taken a step beyond the compounded formulæ of the 2000’s. In this sense Denver, Colorado quartet Blood Incantation eclipse the scattered efforts of many of their retro-futuristic peers within underground death metal’s writhing and waning ‘classics minded’ ecosystem and erect a preposterously full-range tent amongst them with this second full-length. It might be too referential for the truest of the true, isn’t as entirely heavy as their first record (‘Starspawn‘, 2016), and it won’t be gimmick-ridden enough for the chair squirming tech-death youths of the world but ‘Hidden History of the Human Race’ is one of the most compelling and complete ideations of pure death metal in recent memory.

For all of the hyperbolic blather I could throw at Blood Incantation none of it could soften the shock a side-by-side comparison of ‘Starspawn’, a muddy but brilliant take on Timeghoul‘s sound from members of Spectral Voice (see: ‘Necrotic Doom‘, 2015), and this well-polished, varietal, and thuggishly heavy second record. The sludge-gunked hollow drum sound of their previous work now aims somewhere between the thunder of ‘Blessed Are the Sick’ and all the heft of ‘Erosion of Sanity’ with a warm but space-capable atmosphere. The songs? They’re similarly frantic in organization, though, aiming for something as directional as Mithras but only until several more pressing influences distract them away at a full clip. You’re going to hear direct references to a very specific and tasteful array of influences throughout this record and half of the appeal lies there for me personally as a point of entry because I never found the songwriting itself to be effective beyond their flair for atmosphere. Morbid Angel‘s ‘Altars of Madness’ and ‘Formulas Fatal to the Flesh’ are the most obvious drivers of Blood Incantation‘s slow-morphed sound upon first impression and not only because of opener “Slave Species of the Gods” but also because an equally grand reprisal that sticks out beautifully on the 18+ minute opus “Awakening from the Dream…(Mirror of the Soul)”. Immolation, Demilich, and ‘Symbolic’-era Death are equally featured as aesthetic influences upon the bands sound design while also acting as great informants upon riff structures.

“The Giza Power Plant” is where I first began to feel like Blood Incantation had struck upon their own ‘thing’, a technical crawl of a song that kinda dips into mosh-death grooves in between its descending arabesque leads; A heavy focus on receding atmospheric swells isn’t too far removed from what StarGazer were doing back on ‘The Scream That Tore the Sky’ although the attack is probably more loosely in line with The Chasm‘s modus late last decade, progressive but not overtly technical. Where ‘Hidden History of the Human Race’ first lost me was around the fifth or so listen when the cosmically bloomed lotus of “Inner Paths (to Outer Space)” became droll as an underbaked intro for the grand finale of “Awakening from the Dream…(Mirror of the Soul); The song peaks with a single growl from Antti Boman (Demilich, Winterwolf). Yep, he growled once: “Dude, perfect.” Within minutes we’re shoved into some killer Finnish tech-death riffing to kick of the final song, which is more or less two songs, a full Side B with a quasi-interlude.

The ensuing transition between ‘Nespithe’-apropos riffs, towards “Invocation of the Continual One”-esque lava before a slick-as-fuck flip towards ‘Here in After’ riffs and beyond… that confident whipping of riffs for the first 4-5 minutes of the final song is where Blood Incantation really pull out all of the stops to the point that it begins to sound like they’d intended the song to be an education, or a ‘greatest riffs’ of death metal, plucked from history and sent into space as an Arecibo message for the continuation of death metal beyond humanity. On one hand it is a set of referential and somewhat basic death metal moments and on the other hand it all fuckin’ smokes in succession. The only reference that I’d felt hadn’t been smoothed-over and considered comes around halfway through “Awakening from the Dream…(Mirror of the Soul)” where they pay tribute to the mid-to-late 90’s era of Death. It doesn’t feel anywhere near as slick as their other much more subtle references to classic death metal along the way and a riff on ‘Human’ would’ve made a lot more sense. Even if a Morbid Angel or Death riff somehow did bother you along the way Blood Incantation‘s intent to clearly express their taste in death metal, the deepest running veins of interest, within their own highly stylized atmospheric death metal piece is yet artfully realized. An admirable feat in any case.

I admire any musician who can somehow meld the five magics of death metal for roughly 40 minutes of detail-rich material within a very narrow point of focus and still manage to create this level of brutal, mind-expanding music. It won’t stick in your head beyond flourish and deathly tic but it will plant itself directly around the cerebellum and feed tendrils along the edges, quickly taking control and acting as your newest, shiniest Rosetta stone for the world of classic death metal’s continually evolving central languages. Atmospheric brutality is truly put into practice throughout ‘Hidden History of the Human Race’, a great step beyond the muddy barreling of Blood Incantation‘s debut and fashionably so; This (along with multi-tiered and extended songwriting) lends a great feeling of depth to an otherwise accessible death metal record. This celebration of the best and most brutal acts of death metal mankind has to offer is only compounded by the unusually Lovecraftian metaphysical prose that references Kabbalistic, Gnostic, and Egyptian poised perceptions of the nature of the universe and deeply contemplates the nature and placement of men within those biggest of pictures. The prose is neatly obscure but perfectly fitting for the death metal placed in line with it and I couldn’t help but think of it as a couple generations removed from what Timeghoul‘s (or, Mithras‘) lyrics had/have explored. I fully doubt ‘Hidden History of the Human Race’ is the defining moment for Blood Incantation but it is a massive and valuable first step towards establishing distinct personality as a be-all/end-all death metal act.

Attribution: https://grizzlybutts.com/2019/11/19/blood-incantation-hidden-history-of-the-human-race-2019-review/

This band has had an underground cult following for a few years now. After a couple hard years of much troubled effort trying to put out the average selling Interdimensional Extinction EP in 2015, the unexpected happened when the band seemingly became an underground sensation overnight as they dropped their debut full length Starspawn. This was rightly so. The album was done fully analog and had a thick and organic sound reminiscent of the old days of death metal before digital production techniques took over. They took cues from classic Florida death metal, along with other classics like Timeghoul, Demilich, Nile, and Gorguts. But despite this they never felt like a mere "worship" or "clone" band. These influences were taken into further unexplored territories of the cosmos than ever before, and combined with a distinctly self realized and unique "Blood Incantation vibe". As incredible as that album was though, it felt like they weren't even getting started yet.

Enter Hidden History of the Human Race. After several tours of North America and Europe supporting legendary classic death metal acts, along with a new EU deal with Century Media to take things to the next level, the band finally reentered the studio to record their sophomore LP. We were promised more of everything. There would be more speed, heaviness, and aggression, but also more prog and psychedelia. The band absolutely delivered on all of these promises, yet some might decry this as the marks of an unfocused work. On the other hand I argue this album is much like the universe itself, which expands in all directions yet never falls apart or loses its structural integrity. Take for example The Giza Power Plant, where the song transitions seamlessly from a technical yet slamming mosh riff, to the sandy plains of ancient Egypt, and then into a psychedelic cosmic passage all within the span of about two minutes. Moments such as these are sprinkled all throughout HHotHR and are an essential part of what makes this album so amazing.

Not only are the individual elements of this album combined so masterfully, but they are worthy of praise in themselves. The heavy parts are heavy. They make you wanna mosh and stage dive like there's no tomorrow, or headbang until your neck snaps. On the other hand, the psychedelic parts genuinely evoke the feeling of a meditative trance even when listened to stone cold sober. The fretless bass performance by Jeff Barrett is incredibly tight yet natural, and doesn't just blindly follow the guitars. The drum performance by Isaac Faulk is incredibly spastic and blisteringly fast at times, yet disciplined and subdued when need be. Don't expect anything spectacular like a Lord Worm performance from Paul's vocals however. Still they are powerful however and fit the music perfectly. His general vocal timbre reminds me a bit of Timeghoul especially during certain vocal patterns. Some spoken word parts are sprinkled through the album and honestly I feel like these parts wouldn't have worked as well with just your standard death metal growls. These parts really add to the atmosphere of the album.

Let's talk about the fucking solos on this album because they're truly something else and deserve their own paragraph. My god the solos on this album are something else. This takes you back to the "guitar hero" days of death metal. The days where fretboard masters such as Chuck Schuldiner, James Murphy, Trey Azagthoth, Bill Steer, Michael Ammott, etc challenged all the young death metal freaks of the world to step up their shred game. Paul and Morris drop these bad boys all over the music like it's fuckin nothing, and never does it feel forced or hamfisted. The lead guitars on this album are almost worth the price of admission alone and evoke just about any feeling you can think of, and sound even jazzy at times. A particular highlight is one near the end of Slave Species of the Gods, which evokes a feeling of pure cosmic euphoria. The solos themselves, in a seeming callback to the classic era of Carcass, are all given sick names. Particularly awesome nomenclature is included but not limited to "Spontaneous Release of DMT","Decapitated Obelisk", "Orbital Remains", "Dream Matrix Telemetry", "Orion Dawn Over Mount Nemrut", and "The Star of Creation that Splits Heaven & Earth." I don't wanna give away too much here but you probably get the picture and this is why this album is best owned physically.

Which brings me to the way this album feels as a whole artistic vision. Of course Blood Incantation could have just dropped an album full of sick riffs (which this is BTW) and called it a day. But this album is more than just a fine collection of riffs. Every part of this album feels like it was considered meticulously as how it fits into the whole. For example, Starspawn, in an arguably erroneous manner, placed its long cosmic odyssey at the beginning of the album. While I didn't have a problem with this myself I could see how it would turn off some people. HHotHR avoids this issue by placing it last and putting before it the track Inner Paths (To Outer Space) which serves as something of a palette cleanser. This however is a sick track in its own right. It starts as a psychedelic journey through spaces within and without and eventually transitions seamlessly into slamming riffs overlaid with a powerful "BLEURGH!!!" from Antti Boman of the legendary Demilich. Aforementioned cosmic epic Awakening... is up there with the most classic of long winded death metal such as Crimson by Edge of Sanity. The track has a perfectly placed synth interlude between its different movements that is evocative of soundtracks on classic John Carpenter films. Other than the music itself the lyrical themes and aesthetics of this album feel like they are just as much part of the experience and inseparable from it. The lyrical themes revolve around ancient astronaut theory, reincarnation, the nature of consciousnesses, the cosmos, psychedelics, and the secrets of history and the ancient world. The multiple art pieces by Bruce Pennington in the booklet are reflective of this as are the quotes and the reading list and weird booklet of the vinyl version. The music itself sometimes feels like an attempt to emphasize these themes metaphorically or to convey the more abstract concepts of these themes which cannot be expressed verbally. I understand if someone might not really be interested in this side of the band and just wants to hear some sick death metal and that's fine too but one should at least purchase a physical copy to get a glimpse into the whole artistic vision of this band because it's the type of stuff that really has you pondering deeply about the more profound nature of our reality than the mundane every day existence. This music is not an escape from reality but rather a quest for transcendence by searching for its hidden truths.

I guess it seems like I've just been heaping endless praise on this album so maybe I got to get a little nitpicky here in an attempt to be fair and objective. This is definitely not death metal for all death metal fans, and while all death metal fans might be able to find something they like here there's no guarantee they will like it as a whole. If you're the type of person who only enjoys the first three Death albums this might not be the album for you. If you're like me however and more appreciative of the broader history of death metal you might appreciate this album that takes some of the best elements of death metal history and fuses it with other elements while taking preexisting influences into unexplored cosmic frontiers. If this is you, then listen to this ASAP. The production is probably a step up from Starspawn overall. It still maintains that old school analog feel but with a new school clarity. This clarity is well balanced out by a healthy dose of reverb as well. No one instrument dominates the mix. If I could nitpick anything about this album all I could think of is stuff in the production department. Paul's vocals might seem slightly low in the mix at times, and Isaac's drums maybe sounded a bit more powerful in Starspawn. Still overall the production definitely feels like it suits the music well no matter what it's doing and overall feels heavier than Starspawn as well. Any complaints are nitpicky and more than made up for.

If you asked me to pick a highlight for this album I would just tell you to fuck off because every song is amazing. Seriously just go listen to it. Probably the best thing to happen to death metal in 2019 and one of the best of the decade. I can definitely see this becoming a classic a couple decades from now.

Blood Incantation set the bar tremendously high for themselves with their 2016 debut album “Starspawn”. It was an album unlike most death metal released in the last decade, heavily influenced by Timeghoul, Demilich, and other obscure bands with cosmic themes and odd riffs (odd by even death metal’s standards). The sophomore album of Blood Incantation “Hidden History of the Human Race” continues the sound and style of the first album and offers a couple surprises here and there. I wouldn’t say it tops Starspawn but the musicianship on this album is even tighter. And it also features the same analog production quality the debut had, making it sound like a classic death metal album from the late 80s/early 90s. It is a very well executed, old-school-sounding album.

Even though the album only has four songs, each one is very dense and packed with riffs: the fast, odd, Timeghoulish riffs this band’s known for, slow dissonant riffs with lots of harmonics, shredding solos, progressive riff patterns, and there are even some tribal, middle-eastern riffs that make up 2/3 of the song “The Giza Power Plant.” Clearly the riffs are the most essential ingredient to this band, and there's quite a diverse range of riffing going on here!

The song that really stands out from the rest on this album would be “Inner Paths (to Outer Space)". Even though it’s the shortest song, it’s the one that offers something new from Blood Incantation. It’s more melodic and progressive than the rest as well as psychedelic. Of all the songs on this album, “Inner Paths” makes you visualize the grandness of outer space the most. It’s not what you’d expect on an old school style death metal album, but if you’re listening to this album for just the heavy stuff, the other three songs will do. But even then, the last track has a moog synth that kicks in in the middle of it and the tribal, eastern style melodies and riffs of “The Giza Power Plant” don’t make it a typical death metal song either. “Slave Species of the Gods” is the most savage (and typical) song on the album. It is nothing but a fast, straightforward riff frenzy from start to finish.

Now, the album is not perfect and as stated above it doesn't really surpass Starspawn. One of the negative things about this album is certain parts of these songs (excluding Inner Paths) drag on for too long. The last song, for instance, begins with a bang with fast, odd, harmonic-filled riffs but they continue for five and a half minutes without stopping; it’s just one fast, odd, harmonic-filled riff after the other. After 2 minutes the song just becomes a boring experience. It just sounds like Blood Incantation jerking themselves off with riffs (without creating anything mind-blowing) just so they can get to the ambient moog synth that creeps in at the 5 1/2 minute mark. This is where the song starts to become very interesting, and as it can be guessed from their social media posts during the recording of this album, this part of the song was super crucial for them. Then after two minutes of being mesmerized by the moog synth, these epic, layered riffs explode out of nowhere. They're very melodic, almost sounding like later era Death (Symbolic/Sound of Perseverance). But then after two minutes the song starts to drag on again until it progresses into the slow melodic riffs and the final melody that take up the last four minutes of the song. It's worth noting that this last section of the song makes for a chilling conclusion to this album. When it comes to this final track, it has its great moments, its epic moments, and its memorable moments, but the song is just too long to stay interesting the entire time. It seems like some riffs could've been left out during the song's creation.

And speaking of this song and how long it is, its long title seems a bit uninspired and contrived. In fact, all the song titles seem contrived and less imaginative than older song titles. "Starspawn", "Hovering Lifeless", "Chaoplasm", "Obfuscating the Linear Threshold"...there's something about these older song titles (and their lyrics) that really grabbed your attention. They sound more creative and interesting whereas song titles on this second album (Inner Paths to Outer Space, Awakening from the Dream of Existence to the Multidimensional ....etc) seem uninspired, as if they came up with them off the top of their heads right before they finished the album. Also, when it comes to the first song some of the riffs seem a bit uninspired as well. Some of them are rehashed from Starspawn and the first riff is almost a complete copy of the first riff to Morbid Angel's "Immortal Rites". That first riff was probably meant as a tribute but it may catch you off-guard when you first listen to it.

Song titles aside and Morbid Angel worship riffs aside, what's most important here is this band's music, and for the most part this is a great album musically-speaking. It's not a masterpiece like the first album but it is well executed and well-recorded and there is no shortage of riffs on this album. It will certainly be interesting to see where the band goes from this release.

This one has been making waves since its release. Are Blood Incantation the true heirs to the death metal throne, or just re-treading the mysterious paths of Luc Lemay at the turn of the century? Whatever the answer, 2019’s ‘The Hidden History of the Human Race’ has made the boys at deathmetal.org mighty upset, always a good enough reason to crack a beer and give an album a spin in my book.

The biggest disappointment of Gorguts’ ‘Obscura’/’From Wisdom to Hate’ era is the fact that death metal did not follow in the wake of these albums, instead finding itself swallowed by deathcore, slam, and brutal tech-death of the Suffocation school. Blood Incantation purported to right this wrong with debut LP ‘Starspawn’ (2016), and the much anticipated follow up ‘Hidden History of the Human Race’. But Gorguts clone this is not. Although Blood Incantation lean heavily on the jazzy dissonance perfected by the legendary Canadians, they draw on many more conventional schools of death metal along the way.

Opening number ‘Slave Species of the Gods’ for example, is a random hodgepodge of riffs from every stripe of progressive death and thrash metal you can think of. What is apparent immediately however, is their sense of atmosphere and theatrics, an appeal many death metal bands tend not to pander to. The guttural vocals are spacious and outdoorsy, the guitar solos, although technically dazzling, are often used to create space within the cacophony rather than add to the narrative itself. Whilst this is not a criticism in and of itself, one wonders if and how such stylistic choices will play out as the album progresses.

Sure enough, the riff salad gives way to jazz breakdowns, and a woefully out of place post-rock intro on ‘Inner Paths (To Outer Space)’. Now, I won’t criticise Blood Incantation for exploring these avenues. As the tracks develop they often take them in interesting and unexpected directions. There is no doubting Blood Incantation’s ambition and ability to execute a vision. So in one sense this should be a stand out release for 2019. But it’s not, for the simple reason that it reeks of squandered potential, of half finished ideas that are not effectively rounded off.

In places it comes across as terribly disjointed. One minute we are riding the waves of otherworldly progressive death metal and all the deliciously unorthodox musicality that comes with this, and then I find myself listening to a riff that belongs on a Fen album and the spell is broken, normality returns. For that reason there is only one word to describe ‘Hidden History of the Human Race’: frustrating. It points us in a direction, and at times really does aspire to be the new rallying cry of death metal for thinkers. But there are simply too many moments where Blood Incantation break the spell with an ill thought out transition, a jarring aesthetic choice, an influence that – in context – is indicative of poor taste.

So now that’s out of the way, let’s end on a positive note. This is one of the more interesting death metal releases of recent years, and it comes as no surprise that it is receiving so much attention. But I cannot say that this is anything more than a signpost, one that points to new routes and vistas for death metal as it wallows in middle age. There is much fertile soil in HHOTHR, whether Blood Incantation or some other young upstarts grow flowers out of this in the new decade is yet to be seen. But let’s not get carried away with the album we have in our hands today, it’s not the reincarnation of ‘Unquestionable Presence’ or ‘Nespithe’.

Originally published at Hate mEditations

If you're wanting some cheaper/simpler Death worship, this is your album. That's not necessarily a knock. It's not too on-the-nose like that unfortunate and disrespectful album from Exhumed's front-man (Matt Heavy) side project called Grotesque. It's subtle here but you can hear the combination of their early albums (post-Scream Bloody Gore) and the latter end with The Sound of Perseverance. At the 09:21 minute mark on the final track it goes full Death. This particular section is more the mid-to-late career Death. The album had these elements but creates it's own style with crunchy death metal with quasi-extraterrestrial tones and instrumentation and more straight-forward death metal.

It's an odd choice to have 3 tracks be average length and then one massive track (almost 20 minutes) as a closer in the form of "Awakening from the Dream of Existence to the Multidimensional Nature of our Reality (Mirror of the Soul)". I guess they did that on Starspawn, but it makes for an unenjoyable flow for me, at least. It's decent overall but definitely they were trying to elongate the song which I don't like to be able to tell when that's the case. It didn't feel natural that it was that long. I feel the track should have ended at around 11:40 or 12:08 at the latest, but hey that's just me. Also, if you're only going to have only 4 tracks, don't have an instrumental track. Please. On a different note, by the end of the album you can feel they're attempting to write a new(ish?) religion of space and extraterrestrials. The lyrics obviously reflect this but so to does the instrumentation, specifically the guitar section.

The guitar takes up the front with it's gainy chugs and tremolos with higher end licks that sound straight tortured. As mentioned, the guitars are fairly crunchy and I think that's part of the production. Maybe making them a little lower-end would some beef that's lacking from the bass. There are riffs aplenty, which you'll see from the very first track, "Slave Species of the Gods". There is solid use of pinch harmonics. Not just a little quip but actually holding the note. The clean guitar sections that are slower add a fun space feel. The lead and solos that start in the 14 minute mark on the final track is my favorite lead section, even that songs feels stretched to tearing.

The bass matches the guitars fairly well but there's not much to write home about. It seems to struggle to add the needed heft to the string section. As mentioned, that might be due to the production rather than the player. The drums pull off some complicated maneuvers here and there. They keep up the speed and bring some odd technicality to match the simpler version of Death-style riffage. The drums offer much to digest along with the guitars. These two instruments play well together and follow each other leads well. Drums can get boring when they're a glorified metronome but that's not the case here!

Favorite tracks (only four tracks so I just ordered them)
-The Giza Power Plant
-Slave Species to the Gods
-Awakening from the Dream of Existence to the Multidimensional Nature of our Reality (Mirror of the Soul)
-Inner Paths (To Outer Space)

Technical skill: 82% Originality: 84% Song writing: 78% Production: 70%

This created quite a surge of support in the death metal underground last month, unbeknownst to myself. It took a fellow writer to point me in the direction of Colorado deathsters Blood Incantation, and their weird-ass themes of the mysterious Anunnaki mythos. The quartet blew many minds with their debut full-length, Starspawn, back in 2016 and their sophomore, Hidden History Of The Human Race, is set to do exactly the same. Both albums are structured in very much the same way, except this time around the mammoth lengthy epic track is (more suitably) at the end. I must say, as a lyrical concept, the Annunaki is something that should be explored by more acts of this ilk. The ancient celestial aura of the Sumerian Gods adds a basting of alien-esque atmospheres to a record that thrives on being ‘alien’.

Despite the eerie mysticism surrounding the lyrical themes (including that amazing artwork), Blood Incantation waste no time in displaying their penchant for writing brutal yet mature death metal that sounds like it came right out of the early ’90s. As a matter of fact; upon first listen, me and two friends all described Hidden History… as equal parts Gorguts, Immolation and Death. When blasting at full force, they resemble Immolation’s more modern output; the irregular time signatures, angular melodies and occasional unconventional instrumentation are very Gorguts; yet the whole affair is polished with the maturity of some of Chuck Schuldiner’s works. In fact, I’d go as far as to say that track 3, “Inner Paths (To Outer Space)”, at points, strongly resembles Death’s “Cosmic Sea”. This is no bad thing. Blood Incantation take their influences, wear them proudly, and then bend them to fit their own brand of forged mastery.

Although this record certainly does not go for ‘catchy’, opening track “Slave Species Of The Gods” serves as an appropriately accessible introductory statement. Within this 5-minute firebomb are all the great things about this band in a concise package: viciously chromatic riffs, startling pinches, cavernous vocals and a drummer who simply will not sit still. This is Blood Incantation at their most accessible, and there are some slamming riffs towards the song’s climax. “The Giza Power Plant” takes a more reflective, progressive approach but hits with no less impact. If the album were made up of 6 of this song, that would be one hell of a listening experience. However, Hidden History… is saving its jackpot for the finale. Having already mentioned the Schuldiner-esque instrumental “Inner Paths (To Outer Space)” – which, by the way, has one of the best riffs on the album at the 4:27 mark – I now need to devote quite a chunk of text to the 18-minute beast that is “Awakening From The Dream Of Existence To The Multidimensional Nature Of Our Reality (Mirror Of The Soul)”.

I’m not only devoting a paragraph because it requires a chunk of text to relay the amazing title, but because I would happily pay the price of the album for this song alone. Basically rhapsodic in structure, it takes the listener on a whirlwind journey through different death metal environments. The maelstrom madness of the first third is countered by the ambient interlude, then some real headbang-worthy sections around the 10-minute point. The hulking groove that drops at 11:38, followed by the utterly gargantuan riff at 12:31, then the sincerely gorgeous acoustic playout make this one of the most satisfyingly exhausting musical experiences ever. Overall, this disc could probably do with one more track. After all, this is the kind of progressive genre that can take extensive lengths. However, the quality of what’s on offer here simply cannot be denied. Blood Incantation can rest easy knowing that Hidden History Of The Human Race is going to top many year-end lists.

I have to admit it, I jumped on the Blood Incantation hype train quite late this year. I had never listened to the band before, I heard some people mention them, but I had never cared to check them out or to inform about their story. Man, was I missing something! "Hidden History of the Human Race" is not only a serious contender for the album of the year spot, but also one of the most intriguing and original death metal releases of the decade! Combining a superb, technical riffing with a great sense of atmosphere and a progressive approach to the compositions, Blood Incantation have crafted a truly superb opus, a real declaration of intents for a band that's gaining more and more popularity among the contemporary metal acts, and rightfully so.

"Hidden History of the Human Race" is one of those albums that sound exactly as one would expect looking at the cover: Bruce Pennington's sublime art was the perfect choice to represent the unique brand of atmospheric death metal Blood Incantation have instilled in this 36 minutes long package. Intricate guitar patterns intertwine with a meticulously studied drumming, in a context where tempo changes and experimentation are acting as the host. Typical death metal features, such as an intense double bass work and the blast beats, are present throughout the entire duration of the record, but they're used in absolutely original and unconventional ways, accompanied by studied and precious jazz-influenced fills that contribute to the uniqueness of the product. The riffing is absolutely phenomenal, as, although oriented towards atmospheric realms, it doesn't sacrifice even an ounce of memorability, instead opting for an extremely technical and varied approach. The result is a neverending succession of killer guitar riffs, melodies, tremolo picking and arpeggios that enhance the atmosphere, with the occasional frenzied guitar solo to spice up things even more.

Each song displays a great balance between aggressive and calmer, atmospheric sections: that's true especially for "The Giza Power Plant", which starts at full blast to proceed towards a fantastic and highly suggestive instrumental session, driven by oriental-sounding, sci-fi-esque melodies, and for the final epic, which features a crescendo leading to an ambient part towards the mid, and ends with melancholic acoustic guitars. The vocals and the production prove to be essential to the spacey sound of Blood Incantation: the guitar tone is cleaner, punchy and avoids excessive distortion; the volumes are well-balanced, so as to ensure the bass being perfectly audible (which is dued, especially considering its crucial role and the originality of its arrangements): indeed, the fact that there is no instrument overwhelming the others, or standing out too much in the mix, proves to be essential to mantain the organicity of the music and its psychedelic attitude.

The vocals consist in mid-ranged growls drowned in reverb, at times intertwined with spoken words, making frontman Paul Riedl sound as the astral voice of some obscure alien entity. His performance itself is nothing mindblowing, but it perfectly complements the songs: the platter is composed of only four tracks, with "Slave Species of the Gods" being the most straightforward, while "The Giza Power Plant" and the instrumental "Inner Paths (To Outer Space)" are the most hypnotic; the best piece, however, is undoubtedly "Awakening from the Dream of Existence to the Multidimensional Nature of Our Reality (Mirror of the Soul)", an incredible 18-minutes epic that feels like a real celestial voyage, deep into the depths of space and the human mind.

Describing the feelings inspired by "Hidden History of the Human Race" by mere words is no easy task: this album is truly a transcendental experience, containing a message that can be communicated only through music. I absolutely suggest you to listen to the whole thing, obviously in full, and possibly to buy it, as it's not only one of the year's best albums, but also one capable of opening your mind to new dimensions. If you're looking for something original and really evocative, get it! You're gonna love it!

I absolutely loved Blood Incantation's first album, "Starspawn". I think it's an example of almost perfect progressive death metal. They know how to keep the tracks to a minimum, but pack in a lot of punch per song. Five songs on that album is all it took to create some fantastic and memorable metal. I was a bit worried for this release though, because there are only four songs and one of them is 18 minutes long. I'm not a huge fan of extremely long songs unless they REALLY keep me interested. I have actually skipped releases that have three to four tracks, but are 10 minutes a piece. Just split the damn songs up. I think I have had that same mentality going into this record initially. I listened to this around four or five times in the car and on the way to work. I seen so many people appreciate it, but I absolutely could not get into it. My mind elsewhere on those initial listens apparently because this album really is something special.

It wasn't until I sat down and focused on everything for this review that I really appreciated it. Things start off a bit slow with the opening song, "Slave Species of the Gods". I mean, it's still a great tune, but nothing I haven't heard from these guys before. The good news is that things ramp up with "The Giza Power Plant". It's a behemoth of a tune that is filled with so much talent. I honestly can't single anyone out on this song or record as a whole. The writing and instrumental work is almost flawless. There is so much meat in each individual part that I can't pick a favorite. Right around the middle of 'Giza' there is this middle-eastern guitar tone that was way out of left field. It fit perfectly. That's what this band does best. They incorporate these amazing sounds for a short time and don't return to them. It may be a detriment to other bands that do this, but Blood Incantation does it perfectly. Instead of you rewinding the song, it will have you listen to the entire album again.

Honestly though, I could do with some more songs. I understand that "Awakening from the Dream of Existence to the Multidimensional Nature of Our Reality (Mirror of the Soul)" is 18 minutes long. I understand that bands have made albums shorter than the run time of that song. I just don't think that four songs really cuts it after three years. Now, the band doesn't owe anyone anything. If they feel like four songs was perfect for this then more power to them. I just find that there could have been some minutes chopped off on the last song and maybe added in one more to match "Starspawn". It is around the same length as their previous full length, but I can't stress enough that "Awakening from the Dream of Existence to the Multidimensional Nature of Our Reality (Mirror of the Soul)" does not need to be 18 minutes long. It's filled with fantastic playing and didn't actually feel like 18 minutes, but is still a bit overboard.

Overall, I have to say this is contender for album of the year despite its flaws. I mean, I complained about the length of it, but those four songs all have something special that puts it miles ahead of most albums that came out this year. I didn't appreciate it at first and actually kind of disliked it. It was after I sat down that I truly understood the genius of this album. There is so much meat to each song, all being performed by these fantastic musicians. I just wish this album was a tad longer and the last song be split up a bit. I am not going to give any recommendations since there are only four songs. I just advise to go out and buy it immediately.

As information about this album was released, I was interested to see what the band would do. I first heard :The Giza Power Plant" live a few years back and was blown away. Next I heard them play a "Slave Species to the Gods" live and it didn't live up to the same standards as the prior track. The next bit of information I got was that the album was only four tracks which really threw me for a loop. A few months back I saw them live and they played the entire album, sans Inner Paths (to Outer Space) and I was very impressed with the tracks, especially "Awakening...". So fast forward to November 2019, Blood Incantation finally releases The Hidden History of the Human Race, the follow up to the seminal debut, 2016's Starspawn. Hidden History of the Human is more musically and sonically diverse than its predecessor, but Starspawn has better stand alone tracks and does not need to be listened to in order to fully enjoy it.

Hidden History of the Human Race sees Blood Incantation explore the conceptual elements that made so many progressive classics such as Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here, King Crimson's In the Court of the Crimson King, and Close to the Edge by Yes so enjoyable. The long form tracks on Hidden History create a sonic narrative that takes the listener on a journey through the empire of the cosmos. The shining moment on the first half of the album is "The Giza Power Plant". The song begins with a discordant harmonic driven riff, which is only bolstered by the Isaac Faulk's wild jazz influenced drumming. The drumming throughout this album is some of the best that I've heard in awhile, with every hit meticulously placed. The track really blossoms when the acoustic guitars come in accompanied by gongs and tablas, taking the track in a psychedelic direction. The song finishes out with a great old school death/doom riff.

The build up in the next track, "Inner Paths (to Outer Space)" is reminiscent of the post-rock you would find on a Godspeed! You Black Emperor or Explosions in the Sky album. The final track, "Awakening From The Dream Of Existence To The Multidimensional Nature Of Our Reality (Mirror Of The Soul)" clocking in at 18 minutes, encompasses the entire second side of the album. The track jumps around from technical riff to technical riff. The most interesting moment in the track is the synthesizer interlude incorporating sequences similar to Pink Floyd's On the Run.

There were some problems I had with the tracklist. The first major concern I encountered was after my initial listen. Although the album sits at 37 minutes, two minutes longer than its predecessor, it felt shorter. I feel this issue stems from the track order and the choice of tracks. If there was another non-instrumental track, even if it was shorter then said track, I believe it would add some listening length to the album. "Inner Paths...", although a good track, seems to stall the momentum of the album. Maybe the band should have added another track after "Inner Paths...".

The sonic elements of this album really stand out and are critical to the albums overall aesthetic. Blood Incantation marketed this album as an album recorded directly to tape and shying away from most digital enhancements. This adds an extra dimension to the album. While the musicianship is stellar throughout, the production really boosts it up a few notches. The quality of the drum recordings is certainly the standout. By recording to tape, the drums have that warm, deep, and punchy sound that older albums have.

Although one of the albums greatest accomplishments, the overall concept album feel has its drawbacks. Starspawn does not commit to a concept, so it is easier to listen to the tracks either out of order or in a playlist. Arguably, the title track of that album might be one of the best death metal tracks of the decade. Hidden History of the Human Race however, does not have that stand alone track appeal. I've listened to the tracks a number of times out of order or on playlists and they don't have the same appeal. While tracks like "The Giza Power Plant" really emerge in the greater canon of Blood Incantation songs, it is odd to not have "Slave Species" come before or "Inner Paths" come afterward. Furthermore, the final track of the album can be overlooked when not listening to the album as a whole because of its monolithic length. Although this album overall supersedes Starspawn in recording quality, song writing, and direction, it lacks the standalone listenability of its predecessor.

I'm almost certain this album will top AOTY lists for 2019 and be featured on many decade lists and could potentially become as influential as the Immolation, Timeghoul, or even Yes and King Crimson albums that influenced it. I think from here Blood Incantation can only continue their upward projection. Whatever comes after Hidden History of the Human Race will have substantial cosmic sized shoes to fill, but I'm confident that they will effortlessly accomplish. Outstanding album, go buy it, see them on tour.

90/100

The moment I pressed play the silence was broken so abruptly that it legitimately frightened me, so early signs are promising. I also have a fondness for bands that use long and mysterious titles and track names which Blood Incantation understand and deliver on. Cosmetically The Hidden History Of The Human Race is top notch. I wouldn't typically do a track by track but this entire album is made up of 4 very distinct tracks, particularly the last one which is almost half the album.

Other than the abrupt start, we’re immediately treated to some rolling pounding old school death metal with science fiction trimmings, mostly felt in the guitars. It’s a menacing kind of melody that contributes to the overall headbang-ability nicely, we got regular headbanging, we got head nodding, we got windmills and… uh, side to side? The entire opening track, “Slave Species of the Gods” is written for the sake of physical movement, you can’t help it and it doesn’t lessen, it just makes your face change absurdly in reaction to the growing intensity. This is how you do a chunky and addictive death metal song.

With the tone set so masterfully for the album, the second of the four tracks is “The Giza Power Plant”, a slower doomier track that’s just as fat and interesting as the first, the analogue recording process has done wonders for Blood Incantation. It always moves around organically, it’s a style that recalls The Chasm and their twisting scifi ways of old. The third track “Inner Paths (to Outer Space)” continues this but in a much more subdued and proggy way resembling post metal. An unexpected but not unwelcome change. A lot of Opeth fans who yearn for the earlier styles will likely appreciate this track a lot. The vocals that come in at the very end sound slightly different again, as they have with each track. It’s a spicy mix.

Finally, the final and curious track that stands out on this otherwise standard album structure, an 18-minute epic titled “Awakening From the Dream of Existence to the Multidimensional Nature of Our Reality (Mirror of the Soul)”. I told you it would deliver on titles. This track proves Blood Incantation are very capable of holding a listener attention span as it never wavers or wastes time, it’s a great heaping of metal that showcases the musician’s fluidity. It’s metal that dreams, big and fantastical.

Overall this will be on every AOY list, it’s pretty much inevitable. There’s a level of quality attained with this work that’s undeniable and will stick in the memory. It catches the eye and the ear, perhaps even ones whimsey. Look out for the merch, I’m particularly keen on the cassette.

Noob Heavy - https://noobheavy.com/category/2019-albums

2019 has been quite a busy year for the death metal genre, and many of the genre's stalwarts and up-and-comers have released highly anticipated albums this year. Some of these releases, such as the new Tomb Mold, have lived up to the massive hype generated around them, while others just...didn't (looking at you, Gatecreeper). But none of these releases were quite as highly anticipated as the new Blood Incantation album. After hearing their wonderful 2016 release Starspawn, I was quite weary of whether the band could live up to the success of their previous incantation with Hidden History of the Human Race.

Not only did this record live up to my expectations set by their debut, it blew them out of the water.

Hidden History of the Human Race features a smorgasbord of winding, serpentine riffing that calls to mind early 90's technical death metal. Paul and Morris are both accomplished guitar players, as not a single riff or solo is wasted despite the record being crammed full of both. On the surface, one could simply write this album off as a Demilich or Nocturnus worship album from that description alone. But as we all know, Paul Riedl and co. are far more clever songwriters than to simply write a mere tribute album, as this release places just as much emphasis on painting a bleak, spacey atmosphere as it does technical proficiency. The tapestry of cosmic riffs and solos on display is interwoven with clean guitar licks that wouldn't sound out of place on a 70's psychedelic prog album, as well as tasteful use of doomy funeral dirges that place the listener in the depths of outer space itself. The analogue recording technique that was utilized to give this album a vintage style production is icing on the cosmic cake that further enhances the album's extraterrestrial atmosphere without taking away from the ferocity of the riffs.

The album wastes no time with opener "Slave Species of the Gods" blasting through the gates with its otherworldly riffing and wailing solos that echo from the abyss as if they were an alien horror. Album highlight "The Giza Power Plant" carries much of the previous track's intensity before venturing into a more progressive territory with a middle eastern interlude and an atmospheric outro that carries with it one of the best guitar solos on the record. "Instrumental track "Inner Paths (To Outer Space)" is where the band embraces the psychedelic side of their sound the most, serving as a breather after the complexity of the two previous tracks and the monolith of a song that follows. Speaking of which, the 18 minute long album closer "Awakening from the Dream of Existence to the Multidimensional Nature of Our Reality (Mirror of the Soul)" is an experience all of its own. A song of this length may intimidate some listeners, especially considering the style of death metal that Blood Incantation plays. Fortunately, not a second of this song is wasted on inappropriate filler and features some of the best riffs on the album.

With Hidden History of the Human Race, Blood Incantation have shown that highly anticipated albums sometimes do live up to the massive hype surrounding them, releasing one of the most engaging and forward thinking albums within the death metal genre. If you want a death metal album with superb songwriting that strives for more than simply worshiping at the altar of bands past, make this album a mandatory listen.

The debut Blood Incantation album ("Starspawn") was the record that reinvigorated my love for death metal. I was excited to hear "Hidden History..." when it came out. My initial feelings were positive. This is a great sounding record with a clear and crisp production. We get a more mature, musical, confident and complete Blood Incantation here. The band have taken their time, developed as musicians and brought non-metal influences in. The songs have a looser feel than on the debut. It all sounds meticulous and correct, the transitions and build-ups are slicker and more pleasing than before. The band appear intent on surpassing former glories. There are only four songs but one of them is 18 minutes long, so we're delving into something deep here, right?

Unfortunately "Hidden History..." sounds better in theory than in reality. Where "Starspawn" was a grower, this one is more of a 'shrinker' and becomes less satisfying with every listen. Paradoxically, I think this album suffers for the same reason it succeeds. Death metal music thrives on chaos and deviation from established norms, it works best when bands play beyond their comfort zone, overreaching their grasp by 20-25% (e.g., “Seven Churches”, “Left Hand Path”, “Starspawn"). "Hidden History..." is the sound of a band who have achieved what they wanted to achieve. This might be good music, but its not good death metal. There is no vigour here, no struggle, no glory, no confrontation, nothing that makes your heart skip a beat.

“Slave Species of the Gods” is the first and best song, it twists and turns and widdles and growls and does everything you'd expect from Blood Incantation. There are loads of pinch harmonics, the riffs sound warm and fuzzy, there is a tasteful solo towards the end. There are hints of Morbid Angel here and there. I can’t fault it, yet it somehow sounds less than the sum of its parts. "The Giza Power Plant" picks up from where the opener left off, moving through some complex double-time riffs with some ringing-chords. Eventually it retreats into a well-executed “Miserlou”-tinged melody (certainly better than any of Nile’s attempts to sound ‘Egyptian’). Then it slows into My Dying Bride territory (3:54) but without the emotional weight of that band, then it hits a warped Slayer/Morbid Angel lead near the end (6:10). The whole song makes me want to sip green tea and nod my head approvingly, but nothing hits me in the gut.

The latter two songs are more problematic. The (almost) instrumental “Inner Paths (to Outer Space)” sees Blood Incantation stretching their ‘prog’ credentials. It starts off a bit like Godspeed You Black Emperor mixed with the Blade Runner soundtrack, then it twinkles along like Mogwai for a couple of minutes before building to some blasting and some death growls. It's not very exciting, and offers nothing that other bands haven't already done better. The final track is where everything unravels. The structure of this 18 minute ‘song’ makes as much sense as the title of it (which is too silly to quote in full). To me, it sounds like a series of half-songs stitched together into a ‘suite’. None of it is memorable and it isn't worth trying to decode what is going on (I tried).

I’m sure this album will have broad appeal and will appear on many “Best of 2019” lists (both inside and outside of the metal scene). The musicians in Blood Incantation may later regard this album as transitional, or perhaps as a 'difficult second album’. Personally, I'd like to see them leave death metal behind next time and move into pastures new. There are enough hints in "Hidden History..." to suggest that they might do such a thing. They have the talent, but do they have the vision?

I will start this interview with some real talk. I’ve never been totally sold on the hype with Blood Incantation. There I said it. Don’t get me wrong, I did enjoy Starspawn and I’ve seen them live once. It was good but it wasn’t near as incredible of an experience as I read in, what seems to be, every single article about the band. As a Swede who burns for death metal more than any other genre this is weird to me, it seems I have to think Blood Incantation is the biggest thing to come to the scene this past decade or I’m missing something big time. If I had to compare similar bands that’s been out roughtly around as long I’ve thought Chthe’ilist deserves a lot more praise of those that continue the spirit of Demilich and Timeghoul. Be that as it may I did state I found the both Starspawn being a good album and their live performance at Plan B was a good one so with that in mind I did have high hopes for Hidden History of the Human Race, just probably not nearly as big as most people seem to have and I don’t expect this album to be an album of the year contender in my book. Who knows maybe this is the album where I get completely turned over and grasp the full power of Blood Incantation.

Right from the start they lay some crazy riffs and it doesn’t take many seconds before I start headbanging with joy on the opener “Slave Species of the Gods”. What a great start and already I think this is the best song I’ve heard from the band. It’s actually one of the best death metal songs of the old school sound I’ve heard all year. Not only production wise which hits that sweet spot between filth and clean, losing nothing of the brutality, but also on how the tempo-changes and different sections within the song are so flawlessly executed and brings such incredible depth to it you can have it on repeat for days. Now I already know the band has gone a lot tighter and got just about everything done better during their years of crafting this.

“The Giza Power Plant” doesn’t quite pack the same punch to me but it’s also a showmanship in a well crafted song done by great musicians it has to be said. Here I do get some Nile vibes of old at times which is cool and gets my motor running but not at full gas like the opener did. The instrumental track “Inner Paths (to Outer Space)” I could live without, or at least have it a bit shorter. It adds atmosphere to the album for sure but it’s too drawn out in my opinion (around the two minute mark I find it having done it’s job) but I get why it’s there. Then we have the epic finale which is almost as long of a track as its name, “Awakening from the Dream of Existence to the Multidimensional Nature of Our Reality (Mirror of the Soul)”. Real tongue twister that one and it takes a lot of unexpected turns along the way, however it’s all for the greater good and it’s a fantastic closer. Atmospheric death metal with a lot of brutality to boot that will leave the listener breathless at times.

Hidden History of the Human Race is a lot better than Starspawn to my ears and I think I’ve finally started to get Blood Incantation. It’s definitely one of the best death metal albums of the year, which I honestly didn’t expect going into this. They’ve won me over and even if I don’t think it’s a masterpiece a la 5/5 it’s a stunning piece of art that have it’s signature sound which Blood Incantation can be proud of.

Originally written for The Metal Gamer

Blood Incantation have built a cult following in the death metal underground over the past few years, mostly due to their colossal 2016 debut Starspawn. Their brand of twisted, technical, and progressive death metal is combined with analogue recording techniques and an overall old-school sound once again for the sophomore album, Hidden History of the Human Race.

Considering how many people complaints can be heard about how death metal has itself trapped in corner (get it?) with the walls closing in, it's great to see a band like Blood Incantation consistently pushing the limits of possibility within the genre; hear the acoustic interlude in "The Giza Power Plant" contrasted with the furious double-bass thunder that soon follows to best understand the diverse qualities that define Hidden History of the Human Race. Blood Incantation's sound is impressively consistent yet inexplicably difficult to define; their spacey, exploratory wanderings (the fading-in intro and the outro to "Inner Paths") are nearly sonic opposites to the oppressive, atmospheric thunder that immediately assaults the ears at the start of "Slave Species of the Gods." The guitarists frequently play riffs that could be qualified as doom metal, yet those are nearly always accompanied by blast beats. The unconventional odd-time signature riffage that has come to best define the band is in stark contrast with the locked-in groove that hits at 4:26 of "Inner Paths."

The songwriting is impeccable on this release, incorporating countless unexpected changes that are able to masterfully hold the listener's attention. With no clearly defined choruses to be found on the entire album, the general unpredictability of the thing really adds to its appeal. While it is not by any means a straightforward album, Hidden History of the Human Race offers a much clearer perspective into Blood Incantation's potential than their debut, in my opinion.

Blood Incantation, as well as their label, have made a point of clearly stating that the entirety of this album's recording was analogue. While similar results could have probably been produced with some digital interference, it's a good way to ensure that nobody could strip Hidden Species of the Human Race of its old-school feel. The guitars are thick and heavily distorted, though every note can be heard perfectly. The bass thunders under the mix in a way that really helps bring out the technical complexity of the guitar parts. The drums have a natural sound that is extremely rare nowadays in metal. The growled vocals are deep, boomy, and soaked in reverb; yet they take a much more central role in the overall mix than they had on Starspawn.

Anyway you look at it, Hidden Species of the Human Race is a phenomenal album. The unconventional song structures ensure a captivating and highly repeatable listening experience. The mix is very classic-sounding, and will not irk the more traditionalistic metalheads whatsoever. Blood Incantation's atmospheric, cosmic death metal is beautifully unique, and I am happy to say that this new album is definitely my favorite of 2019.

Every song on this album is fantastic, but if I had to pick one favorite it would be "Inner Paths (To Outer Space)."