Interdimensional Extinction

Blood Incantation is one of the foremost entities to reap the death metal whirlwind of the last decade, expanding upon the cosmic sound of groups like Morbid Angel, Gorguts and the unknown Timeghoul through intelligent songwriting and really honing down their material to what counts. Hell, not including their ambient distractions and a handful of the demo tunes, they've only got about 14 metal tracks from this Interdimensional Extinction EP all the way to the present on the major releases, but they've made a huge splash regardless, landing themselves onto big tours, topping a myriad of years' end lists from various bloggers and publications, and already establishing some genuine staying power within the genre, assuming they stick with it (more on that later).

I didn't quite clamp on to Interdimensional Extinction at first, it was Starspawn that really drew me into the band's sound, but in retrospect, as I revisit this, I think it might be their best-produced of the extreme material, a compelling burst of slightly technical, progressive death metal which calls on anything from their Floridian forebears to hints of the old Finnish scene. The songwriting is varied, from faster melodic sequences to flailing leads and a few concentrated, mid-paced elements which might even channel a little epic death/doom ("Hovering Lifeless"). There's a little Moog playing here too which definitely exerts the nerdier prog inspirations, and its presence helps place this album into the sphere of related works like Spheres by Pestilence with all its synth-guitars, even though it's nowhere near as out there and not quite so original. This is more playing around in a swirling, pure death metal context and just putting out some feelers into the unknown, like a rocket hurtling to an eldritch universe and making first contact with the spawn of the Old Ones existing there.

What's most impressive to me about Blood Incantation is how they create such an otherworldly sound while remaining so organic. Listening through their first few releases, I always get the impression they can pull this off quite closely in the rehearsal space or on the stage, there's an honesty, where a lot of spacier bands will pull out every studio trick possible or wank off their technical wizardry. The Coloradan trio does none of that here, it's pure raw talent, and warmer tones, with a genuine pump to the rhythm guitars, clear and blazing leads that don't attempt to polish themselves off too much, maintaining just a trace of the unhinged. The drums are very good and there's also a fretless session bassist, the latter reminding me of Tony Choi when he was doing Pestilence of Cynic although I'll admit I can't quite tell the difference with the frets or not in some cases. But in this mix, everything shines, there's nothing repressed and its easy to hear how they've cultivated so much respect.

Interdimensional Extinction is easily one of the better 'introduction' EPs in death metal this last decade, and going back to it I think it might even be one of my favorite releases from the band, if not the singular favorite, though it's not as corpulent or escapist as Starspawn. It's just the right blend of grounded and weird, with a lot of haunting details like the vocal clamor at the end of "Subterranean Aeon", or the creepy clean guitars that herald "Hovering Lifeless" while the snappy, jazzy drums attack right into the blasting, ensuing mayhem. Absolutely worth picking up now as the EP is much more readily available than when the band first broke out.

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com

Blood Incantation is probably the most hyped and respected modern death metal band of recent memory. Their blend of osdm, technical, and experimental death metal continues to get praised to this very day. Practically changing the modern game of death metal as we know it and for all the right reasons. They've managed to create some of the best, most engaging, and most interesting death metal in recent memory. And it all started with this 4 track EP.

Right away the music is very reminiscent of old-school Morbid Angel and Demilich. The riffs are very crunchy and technical, displaying a very cosmic and sci-fi atmosphere. They’re very diverse and rhythmic with their balance of pure meaty death metal, and the more expansive experimental elements. Still at the core, they're extremely hooky and heavy. It’s very tremolo-dominant and filled with mid-paced grooviness. The solos are very very crafted, they have a squealy and sweep-picking approach that makes them sound incredible. Each song has incredible lead work and catchy hooks.

The music brings a wide variety of ideas and sounds to the table. You have an overall atmosphere that conveys a very spacey and cosmic feel. Through its imagery and the more slow and atmospheric parts of this EP. This is where the technical and more experimental flares come into play. The synthesizers and acoustic guitar sections in the background at times just make the music all the more interesting and cosmic. The cleans also make this all the more cultish as well.

The production of this EP is killer. Showing off a very fuzzy chunky guitar tone along with an amazing bass tone. The fretless bass work on here is amazing. There are many moments where it gets to shine, especially the track “Hovering Lifeless”. The drums also sound great, showing off a wide variety of mid-paced double bass and beats. Along with classic old-school blast beats in the vein of Morbid Angel. Songwriting overall is very wide and enjoyable, everything is consistent in transitioning and balancing out technicality and heaviness. The tempos are also consistently changing as well. I love how creative the riffs are and how the songs all stand out. Not many bands can pull that off.

There’s also a lot of doom mixed in here. Fitting perfectly into the more progressive and technically challenged riffs and rhythms. This EP balances the slow parts with the fast osdm sections really well. All of this screams a bunch of different bands. Timeghoul, Morbid Angel, Demilich, and The Chasm to name a few. All these influences can clearly be seen and heard within each song. Another thing I respect is this band doesn’t use technical music just to show off how talented they all are. They use it to enhance their sound and make it all the more memorable.

My favorite song is the first track "The Vth Tablet (Of Enûma Eliš)”. It starts off with a bell it seems before kicking into a very heavy chuggy riff with some double bass. The vocals are guttural and are drenched in this reverb and layers that sound haunting. The grooves and rhythms are very well written and flow really well. This song also has a lot of sweeping melodies, especially in the solo. Which gets played repeatedly, and man it sounds incredible. The repetitive playing of the solo near the end makes it all the more memorable and will get stuck in your head.

This debut EP by Blood Incantation is awesome. It sets the stage for what these guys would do in the future. Which would ascend them to even greater heights. This is 18 minutes of pure cosmic old-school death metal, with some twists and turns to keep you on your toes. With only 4 tracks this EP does a fantastic job at keeping your head banging. Check this out if you have already. I also highly recommend some of these guys’s other project Spectral Voice. Great shit all the way through.

Blood Incantation quickly came to be called the new gods of the extreme music. These, as time has shown, were not completely exaggerated and found its true justification. After all, the music of these Americans was quickly listened up by people who had never heard bands like Morbid Angel, Timeghoul or Incantation before. Anyway, start of this Denver band dates back to 2011, when a group of friends, i.e. Paul Riedl (guitars/vocals), Isaac Faulk (drums) and Morris Kolontyrsky (guitars) decided to start creating death metal combining underground atmosphere with cosmic climates. Before this intriguing vision took shape in the form of longplays, the band released three demos and in 2015 - the best crowning of this earliest period - the "Interdimensional Extinction" ep. This minor release had a very significant impact on the creating hype around Blood Incantation, even though the group did not have a full line-up yet, and at that time Damon Good from i.a. Stargazer played session bass for this release (also he appeared on their third demo).

No wonder, the music on "Interdimensional Extinction" very neatly refers to the above American classics, and at the same time, sounds natural and in its own way. This ep is only 18 minutes long, but on this release you can easily see that younger death metal bands can still produce releases that surprise. On "Interdimensional..." morbidish brutality, Death-type technique, progressive inserts and doom metal heaviness are mixed well together, and the futuristic atmosphere clearly fits here. There is an amazing potential in all this (which, of course, the group developed with more than that on the next releases), because even the exemplary songs like "Subterrarean Aeon" or "Hovering Lifeless" perfectly show that Paul Riedl's band was not interested in blind imitation, and they wanted to create their own vision for this type of s-f death metal. At the "Interdimensional..." period, although the plastic sound of the drums or the general lack of modesty of the material could offend (you know, there is never too much death metal in this type after all!), but you can turn a blind eye to all this in the context that such music is created much much less than those 20-30 years ago. Needless to say, we didn't have to wait long for the sequel.

The start of Blood Incantation should therefore be considered very successful. On "Interdimensional Extinction", Paul Riedl's band managed to find a perfect balance between inspirations and their own ideas, so that this s-f death metal intrigues them and attracts them for longer. Anyway, the aftermath of this turned out to be their official debut, which appeared only a year later and made even more hype.

Originally on A bit of subjectivism...in metal

Blood Incantation gained recognition and notoriety over the years, thanks to their two full-lengths which are considered critically acclaimed. You could say they reshaped traditional death metal, taking things to the technical and progressive levels, focusing on the instruments. Learning about their themes and lyrics, they’re practically the long, lost brother of the impeccable Timeghoul. One for one, you can compare them to Timeghoul, but they’re no match. Same goes for the likes of Demilich, although they don’t emphasis on the same themes and musical style, just the experiment, or the band to all bands, Morbid Angel. However, Blood Incantation is nothing more than the modernized version of these bands, to a very extensive amount.

Interdimensional Extinction is basically a compilation of the band’s previous releases, albeit a few remastering, with Hovering Lifeless receiving the most production rework. The band’s self-titled demo pretty much got thrown in the tracklist except for the original Mephitic Effluvia. Instead, the remastered version which is paired in a split with Spectral Voice earned the spot, serving as a bonus song, even though they recorded this version the year prior to the album version I chose to review. They did the same with their second demo (literally Demo II), yet properly recorded with vocals. The Vth Tablet (of Enûma Eliš), however, underwent a studio version recording instead of the live one you heard on the third demo Astral Spells. The direction towards writing this EP was a much needed refurbishment of their earlier material, adding more edge to them with a cleaner production.

The opening song is a pretty decent introduction to the band (assuming you start with this release), and it already showcases that strong Timeghoul influence in the sinister vocals within the music. But I’d say the band holds well enough on their own creation than being strongly influenced by another band. The following song is more technical, and considering the lyrical theme, it also reminiscences Timeghoul and a bit of Nocturuns; space and occultism combo. The small acoustic guitar blend with the jazzier bass was an interesting take, but overall, it’s not the best song. Subterranean Aeon is one of the songs that required remastering, not to mention the extra length, vocals, and this ritual that sounds like Darth Sidious in the outro, giving it a character of its own. It’s quite Immolation/Incantation-like, especially with the outro being similar to the outro of Immolation‘s The Devil I Know.

Regarding these two songs, Hovering Lifeless starts of atmospherically, while the rest of the song goes out more traditionally. The original, raw version definitely needed rectification, and the newer version from the second demo and this re-recorded version gave it a new life. There isn’t much difference between the Demo II to the latest one, but they both sound good. The crisp, jazzy bass lines and the vocals helped tremendously. As for Mephitic Effluvia, it’s awful compared to the original. This version sounds too clean, and the guitars are bland and annoying. You can barely hear that explosive guitar solo in the outro. The somewhat raw and reverb version had more power. Why didn’t the band just include the original instead? As I already stated, this release is a compilation of their demos, so I don't think there would've been an issue.

Blood Incantation started off quite well, and while their early material may not compare to their mature and developed sound of their full-lengths, the two records don’t sound any better. Their situation is a mixed bag and for the majority of listens, they turn out lackluster. But that’s not the case here. In the span of two years, they recorded five great songs. I can see the reason for investing in the quality of these songs rather than record and expand their discography sooner, but in the future, this idea will fall short. The best songs are Hovering Lifeless, Subterranean Aeon, and for the sake of its existence, the original Mephitic Effluvia.

Hailing from the heart of the Rocky Mountains, this Colorado death metal group have made a hell of an impact with these four relatively short songs. The EP's briefness is definitely to their advantage, as this is completely devoid of filler and chalked full of ass kicking riffs and face-melting solos. While they are hardly reinventing anything, Blood Incantation is a band that really understands their chosen style of metal. This grabs from a wide variety of death metal stylings. You have a fair amount of rambunctious tech riffs, lots of OSDM badassery, some (thankfully tasteful) prog sections, some doomier passages - you get the idea. Everyone in this band is very technically adept, yet this never devolves into a garish display of technical showmanship. More than anything, Interdimensional Extinction shows that innovation isn't always necessary to make some really solid music.

I've seen this band be discussed most frequently as a technical death metal band, and I suppose if it had to be pigeonholed into one style of death metal I suppose that would be it, but at the end of the day this doesn't really feel like a tech death band. Besides completely lacking the wankery many tech death bands unfortunately find themselves succumbing to, technicality is hardly the purpose here and there really are a lot of styles at play. It feels like Blood Incantation has the heart of an OSDM band and uses that base to bounce different ideas off of. You've got some of the undisputed classics like Morbid Angel and Demilich forming the foundation, as well as some cult favourites such as Timeghoul. The music has a somewhat dirty, cavernous old school style. Honestly, I don't know why everyone is saying these guys are a spacey death metal. Actually, I do - the EP is about space. But c'mon, guys . . . just because it's thematically about space doesn't mean it sonically evokes it. That's just people hearing what they want to hear. This really doesn't have an atmosphere that far removed from the next death metal band. It is the riffs, the solos and the musicianship which makes this awesome.

The riffs here are pretty diverse. There's definitely some tech stuff going down, but these riffs still feel like meaty fucking riffs rather than technical rhythmic guitar parts that don't really feel like riffs. They have staying power, and they kick ass. There's lots of old school awesomeness pummelling about as well as some mid-paced tremolo stuff. My favourite riff is actually when they slow it down - in "Subterranean Aeon" there's this awesome Wagnerian doom riff which excellently evokes this overwhelming feeling of impending war. The riffs shouldn't get all the glory though; the leads fucking kill on this one. Although there are some really good suspenseful evocative leads, shit really starts getting real when things speed up. The soloing is not a far cry away from classic-era Morbid Angel: a frenzy of technically proficient but intentionally sloppy guitar swirling and tumbling over itself with astonishing speed. The bass here is decently high in the mix and quite intricate at times. It especially shines through on the brief proggy breaks. I often find myself noticing something new in the bass work with each listen, with it twisting around under some meaty and straightforward riff. The drumming is just as awesome. There's lots of speedy assault type stuff going on, but he also produces some sweet fills and mixes up the tempo rather frequently.

Overall, this checks all the boxes for a good death metal release. This wouldn't be much without good riffs, and thankfully this has heaps of them. The musicianship is great, the production is pretty good for a young band that has yet to release a debut album and this has held up after multiple listens. This band has a great sense of dynamics and are very good at making transitions feel natural. The only thing that wasn't particularly spectacular about this was the middle-of-the-road death growls, but they were well enough executed and it works with their sound. Like their sister band Spectral Voice, Blood Incantation shows a lot of promise (however, Blood Incantation is a level above Spectral Voice). The debut album is sure to be a beast. Interdimensional Extinction is quality death metal that should appeal to fans of the genre across the spectrum.

Technical death metal is a genre that's very hit or miss, with many bands missing the mark by a long shot. When I was a teenager, I became quite obsessed with the style, as the level of musicianship is a step above what most people can play. However, I found that the more bands I checked out, the more they just blended together into a mess of technical wankery in which nothing really stood out. The riff was lost, and eventually, so was my interest in this style of death metal.

Colorado's Blood Incantation, however, have proved to me that quality technical death metal still exists. After releasing a trio of demos, these Rocky Mountain dwellers have teamed up with Dark Descent Records (who are also located in Colorado) for their debut EP. "Interdimensional Extinction" combines dazzling fretwork and science fiction themes into an old school death metal framework to create four memorable songs.

As stated, my biggest problem with a lot of technical death metal is that it just becomes an unmemorable mess. Blood Incantation, although technically proficient, do not sacrifice riffs to display their skill. Rather, their musical prowess enhances the riffs to give them that extra flair that'll keep them in your mind. Listen to that death/thrash riff that comes up halfway through "Obfuscating the Linear Threshold" and you'll see what I mean. These riffs induce some serious neck snapping, and that's what death metal should be all about.

Blood Incantation's songs are full of dynamics that are well arranged, giving each song it's own identity. The opening track, "The Vth Tablet (Of Enûma Eliš)," has a break into a sweeping guitar lead, which is obviously dangerous territory where many bands would fall into a endless string of uninspired notes. However, these guys manage to make the lead guitars catchy, and that particular sweep will be stuck in your head for days. The second track features some death/doom breaks that balance out the speedier parts of the song. Catch and release songwriting is utilized very well on this EP.

"Hovering Lifeless" is perhaps the most standout track on this release. The intro is open and eerie, and allows the fretless bass to really shine. On that note, Damon Good (aka the Great Righteous Destroyer of StarGazer and several other quality Australian bands) fills in as a session member, and does a fantastic job doing so.

The EP ends off with its longest track, "Subterranean Aeon," which again sees the band twisting their fingers around and turning the tempos on a dime without it feeling awkward. The outro utilizes some melodic playing on the fretless bass, and wraps up this 18 minute slab of music very nicely.

I really wish this EP was longer, as it seems to whiz by before you know it. It demands further listening, not because it's difficult to comprehend, but because it's just that addicting to listen to. That being said, it is understood that Blood Incantation has a full length in the works, which should be on everyone's radar after listening to "Interdimensional Extinction." Damian Herring (of Horrendous) once again did a wonderful job of making this release fulfill its potential in the production department. Blood Incantation has a very promising future, and anyone who enjoys classic technical death metal like Gorguts, Demilich, and Timeghoul should give this a listen if they haven't already.