Starspawn

Starspawn is, for me, what really got this extradimensional party started. It wasn't my introduction to Blood Incantation, but the first material I actually purchased, that truly drew me on board the (deserved) hype train the band was riding. It's a natural successor to the EP, not necessarily eclipsing that in technicality, but clearly more ambitious and adventurous in structure, without escaping the gravitational pull of its more obvious influences, which could be drawn from an admixture of Floridian, Canadian and Finnish DM royalty. Again, not a ton of material here, just five tracks in 34 minutes, but at the same time, there's no fat to trim, no excess to the band's ideas that they can't pull off. They focus on making these five cohesive and memorable, and they succeed.

The production is a little denser than the previous release, and at the same time, it's more airy and atmospheric, especially on the melodies and leads like you'll hear pretty quickly in the depths of the 13 minute beast that opens this, "Vitrification of Blood (Part 1)". This tune covers the whole range of the band's fury from the start, whether it's the thundering blasts and writhing OSDM tremolo riffs, or the more proggy leaning grooves over which Paul Riedl's gutturals roar off into the cosmos with an appreciable reverb. The band yet again achieves that organic feel, murky but sincere, though I feel that the opening track definitely lends itself to more exploration as in the extended bridge with the chugging grooves and simple melodic lead licks ringing out, like a rocket transforming into a doomed space hulk in a slower orbit about some alien sun. The rest of the tracks are much more controlled at around 4-7 minutes, and get an equal amount of ground covered.

I definitely think Paul's voice is a bit more effective here, and there's a wider variety of riffs natural occurring since they've got twice the space to maneuver about in. The drums are tireless but never too insane, the band also got it's proper bass player here, also using a fretless, though I wouldn't say its leaps and bounds beyond the performance on the EP; the guitars and beats and growls just take center stage here, so it can get lost a bit behind their bulk, even though it's still audible most of the play length. There is an instrumental piece here which starts off more in the spacey dark ambient realm before turning into some clean guitars, it's a bit of a relief from the heavier material, but at the same time it sounds like it's a few separate ideas just being strewn together and it's easily the weakest cut of the five, and doesn't quite live up to its awesome title "Meticulous Soul Devourment". To some extent, it foreshadows their later ambient work, but it's not as interesting as that, just sort of an experiment that doesn't fully pan out.

Otherwise, Starpawn is awesome, and it's a record that does earn its place as one of the outbreak underground sensations of that 2010s time period. Is it quite the masterpiece that some might claim? Not exactly, if only because when broken down, the songs and riffs aren't always as sticky as I'd like, but as a sum experience it's very impressive and it's very natural feel holds up now as much as when I first listened through it. I could live without the instrument, but it's not the idea of the thing that lets me down, only that it needs a better flow, not only within itself, but with the tracks sandwiching it. Along with Interdimensional Extinction, this is pretty much the strongest era of the band thus far, but like I've said before, they don't have a ton of material out yet, I feel there is just so much yet to come and Blood Incantation won't be afraid to take some risks, some chances that might churn out even more impressive results.

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com

Blood Incantation was already on a hot streak before their debut album. They had managed to put out a bunch of killer demos alongside a split and an EP. All building upon what “Starspawn” was going to do, and that was to take all the killer old-school death metal influences. And their weird atmospheric and experimental edges, and amplify them to the fucking max. This album is stunning, combining technical and experimental death metal with old-school death metal filth.

As soon as you turn this album on you are drowned in this filthy atmosphere with “Vitrification of Blood (Pt. 1)”. Right away it’s filled with extremely heavy riffage and twisted technical passages. With being 13 minutes long it builds upon itself perfectly, using slow and mid-paced rhythms alongside some monstrous double bass. This album contains some incredible compositions and lead work, showing off these cosmic dissonant leads and melodies that contrast the odsm death metal brutality well. Riff wise it’s extremely tight with everything else as well. It’s very atmospheric and tremolo-dominant. The solos are very atmospheric and squealy, complimenting some of the slower more doomy aspects of this album.

The production is incredibly heavy. The guitars are very fuzzy and clear while maintaining a filthy tone. The bass sounds exceptionally good and crunchy, and the drums also sound amazing. Overall this is a perfect mix and production for a modern death metal record. Everything is raw yet nothing drowns out one another. When it comes to the overall, riff craft, composition, and songwriting it’s nothing short of magical. Balancing a wide variety of influences and atmospheric sections. It’s very technical and progressive with some of the slower and melodic parts, but it’s also very brutal and pummeling. Once again displaying a very Timeghoul, Morbid Angel, and Demilich sound when it comes to just the meat and potatoes of the more standard straightforward sections.

Everything on here and I mean everything is memorable and fucking killer. It’s brutal when it needs to be and it’s technically effective as well, they don’t use prog or technical influences just to wank their guitars. They use it to write extremely intricate and complex riffs that have depth and hooks. And that’s what I love about this band, how they can have some of the most interesting and unique sounds while sounding so fucking brutal at the same time. This album sounds like Blood Incantation and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

After you get past the massive album opener you get into the faster and more intense side of things. “Chaoplasm” kicks things off with a very doomy mid-paced riff alongside some very tasty drum beats and fills. The vocals are once again drowned in this filthy reverb that makes them sound cosmic and heavy. The drums on this song and album are extraordinary, switching between blast beats and the more technically sophisticated sections perfectly. I love how groovy it is as well, containing some of the most head-banging moments imaginable while also throwing in some killer melodies in the leads. “Chaoplasm” also contains a very shredding solo, before slowing down into a more doomy section with some very nice synthesizers/ keyboards. Adding even more layers to the overall alien and spacey-like atmosphere.

The fretless bass is also played masterfully. Each band member just fires on all cylinders with their instruments and truly creates something special with “Starspawn” as every song is brutal, catchy, and memorable. It may sound weird at first with all the experimentation and technical riffing thrown into the mix, but after a while when the songs hit oh boy do they HIT.

Alongside the 4 songs of pure cosmic death metal, they also threw in an instrumental entitled “Meticulous Soul Devourment”. Usually, I’m quick to dismiss interludes thrown into an album. But overall this ambience-filled track fits well with what these guys are going for. And that is expanding upon the spacey sci-fi atmosphere they build and expand upon in their death metal.

All in all this album is amazing. Continuing to expand thier sound and what would we would later hear in the absolute death metal masterpiece known as “Hidden History of the Human Race”. I love everything about this album. The heaviness, the groove, and technical flare along with the cosmic atmosphere these guys have been able to convey. These guys have a LOT of influences and experimentation going around and they make this work beautifully. It’s very engaging and interesting, I never get bored when I put it on. Incredible stuff here all around. One of the best death metal records of the early to mid-2010s.

After such an ep as "Interdimensional Extinction", it's no wonder that the Americans from Blood Incantation immediately hit the mark with their official debut, and the topic of Paul Riedl's band was even more hot among the metal crowd (but not only). Once that there have been few that mixing between Morbid Angel, Timeghoul and Incantation; two, that few people managed to maintain their youthful freshness and verve. Both of these components appeared in large numbers on "Interdimensional...", but with their debut album "Starspawn" (already with a official bassist Jeff Barrett) is even more interesting in that case. Well, there was no doubt that Blood Incantation was supposed to be just a seasonal sensation or a boring mix of cult names.

From the very beginning of the album, i.e. "Vitrification Of Blood (Part I)", it quickly catches on how heavily filled with cosmic mold this death metal is - even better than on "Interdimensional Extinction". The fact is, "Starspawn" is not as extreme as the output inspirations, although it makes up for it well enough with progression (very often accelerating to colossal proportions), mysterious atmosphere (even in the acoustic-ambient "Meticulous Soul Devourment", in which cosmic chill sounds perfectly) and a warm, analog sound, where it's not bad when band comes into lighter climates (I mean that more melodic and cleaner inserts are quite common) or a large amount of moderate paces. Because despite this, there is always something going on on "Starspawn", the number of motifs is much higher than the norm, and at the same time, there is no mindlessly bombarding the listener with constant changes or unnecessary softening. It's enough to listen to "Chaoplasm", "Vitrification Of Blood (Part I)" or "Hidden Species (Vitrification Of Blood II)", how well-thought-out and sensibly advanced this material is. In addition, the spirit of the good times floats over its whole, as if the death metal boom was yet to come.

So it quickly came out that "Starspawn" is one of the most important premieres of 2016. Since their debut, hardly any younger band has been able to make such a hype as Blood Incantation. Well, these Americans bring back to consciousness the largely overlooked bands (such as Timeghoul, Lykathea Aflame or Demilich), but they also hit with material that brought freshness and perfectly showed the old, maniacal joy of creating death metal. In this way, Paul Riedl's band clearly showed that albums with extreme music that cause a huge interest are still being record.

Originally on A bit of subjectivism...in metal

One of the bothering aspects is the recognition; at least here on Metallum. Compared to the band’s sophomore, and having listened to both records, I’m not sure why Starspawn lacks in attention. It’s slightly better, knowing the ideas are more original than the alien or the absurd Anunnaki mythology. The songs are also unpredictable, whereas the sophomore feels simple, not to mention the Timeghoul influence once again that’s squeezed out the worth of material. Again, as I’ve previously stated, the band takes the traditional root and implements technicality and progressiveness, heavily focusing on the music. Doesn’t mean they’re quite unoriginal, but I’m not too blown away.

To start with the longest songs, or the longest one which got split in two - whichever damn way you want to view this, Vitrification of Blood is 20 minutes long. The first part, being 13 minutes long, starts slow but with intense power chords, transitioning to some technical shredding and catchy riffs. Around 8 minutes in you get extra atmosphere created by the guitars, and right around 10 minutes in, a pretty middle eastern-like melody, followed by explosive drumming. The drums are self-explanatory; nothing too major, but not bad either. Considering it’s supposed to be one of the band’s epic songs, it lacks some lyrics than one would expect when the death growls are just part of the atmosphere. The vocalist does this in a spoken matter by adding some low screaming. As for its shorter second half (alternatively titled Hidden Species), it starts off with a blast, while being the atmospheric and somewhat psychedelic half of this epic song. The jazzy bass comes alive, which is great to hear. The psychedelic elements kick 3 minutes in, preceded by weak chant vocals. This section continues until the outro; repeated intro.

The next tracks are straight-to-the-point. For just one word used in a title, Chaoplasm is picture perfect. Chaotic, unpredictable, but damn confusing to like. After the intro, everything feels so out of place and difficult to fathom its direction. The instrumental track includes a terrifying, reversed intro until the actual composition blends in. Four minutes of disorientated and sorrowing guitar leads with acoustic guitar to back it up in the background. As instrumental as it may be, it also sounds like a long interlude. It doesn’t build into anything. To top it all off, the title track is where all the quality unveils. One of the dominant aspects is the mad drumming, with catchy, melodic riffs.

This record contains one of the weakest tracklist I’ve ever seen. There’s barely three songs, and the instrumental track provides nothing to compensate. What’s the point in separating a song into two parts, when you can combine both and create subsections? Was this for the sake of quantity? However, this whole concept of Vitrification of Blood has grown on me. The only two other songs with their short lengths have provided more than one could ask for, but Chaoplasm still isn’t a great song. That being said, do I still wish for Starspawn to generate more attention? Yes. But I also wish the band had more tracks.

While hype can ruin certain forms of art, whatever they may be, on occasion the hype is deserved. I do not merely want to repeat the praise that has been heaped upon this album, though whatever else one might say about it, it’s a genuinely new way forward for death metal that effectively straddles the distinction between the venomous murk of black/death metal that has been roiling within the underground, and the appropriately vicious but almost purely athletic technical death metal that has also been enjoying a great deal of success in recent years. Yes, the album has a great deal of soloing; yes, the album is a monstrous feast of memorable riffs; yes, the album is a chaotic dance across the blood-soaked maw of a million event horizons. But I would argue, what has truly gotten Starspawn as much attention as it has is the fact that it bridges the gap that seems to exist within new death metal at present: the more technical death and black/death trends that have been propelling the genre forward - the influence of Dead Congregation and the recent trend of Demilich worship are clear here, despite Starspawn transcending both of these tendencies within the genre's milieu.

But to speak more directly about the content of the album itself, I admit that at first listen I didn’t immediately grasp what it was about the album that evoked such a strong response. It is an album that rewards repeat listens: while the riffs are fantastic throughout, many of them do not stick around for more than a few seconds, whirling past you like space dust at lightspeed. Fills and blasts, straight-ahead death metal beats and at times almost Atheist-esque jazz flair blend together in an unyielding, spine-thrashing miasma. It is this unique, chaotic approach to songwriting that flows organically while also forcing its way past particular sections unflinchingly that truly catches the ear and invites you to listen again for parts you missed. The musicianship on the album is truly spectacular, but it is how dynamic the songs are on Starspawn that elevates it from merely showcasing the musician's abilities to putting those abilities in service of memorable songwriting.

Front-to-back, the songwriting is magnificent and I don’t think I need to revisit this territory which other reviews have covered. What I will say is that perhaps the boldest choice in terms of the album's organization was to open with what could almost be described as a heavily extended “overture" (over a third of the album's run-time), with “Vitrification of Blood (Pt. 1)” expressing up-front what much of the rest of the album will contain. It is a remarkable piece of work on its own, containing dozens of riffs that whirl about each other, dense and compact, like a gravity pool crushing all matter, all the while creating an ear-catching composition that is full of memorable material. For how dense much of the album is, Blood Incantation nonetheless pull the rug out from under the listener with atmospheric track “Meticulous Soul Devourment” which might well require someone to get a tissue for the Eye of the Universe. Despite its title, its actually quite lovely – which is not to say it doesn’t belong here: it’s a welcome reprieve from the general madness of Starspawn - a brief dirge before returning for the harshness of the title track.

While Blood Incantation has created an absolutely transformative work, I simply cannot say its perfect. It might well be the most important death metal album in years, and is certainly one of the best debuts that I can think of. But does it reach the sheer heights of “None So Vile,” “Leprosy,” or “Left Hand Path?” It may well age into that pantheon. However, it still remains to be seen how Blood Incantation’s sound develops – the relative lack of vocals on this release, for example, while not taking much away from the compositions themselves, may perhaps be an anomaly in the band's emerging discography. On subsequent releases, perhaps a greater addition of vocals will elevate the band’s sound from an already masterful effect to the highest tier of the genre. I, for one, would love to see what a greater variety or abundance of vocals would do for Blood Incantation’s music. Nonetheless, Starspawn is an amazing achievement, and is well-deserving of the praise it has gotten.

“Caught between the empty fields of time
And dimensions that are lost
To the world we know as real”


97%

When this album was coming out in 2016, no one, and I mean absolutely NO ONE, expected this album to be as fucking amazing as it turned out to be. I had known of these dude's before Starspawn was released, and the difference in quality is very apparent even on the first listen. The boys have truly blossomed into their own style of music on this release, and boy do I like what I hear A LOT.

The music on this album is very technical and progressive. The longest song on the album "Vitrification of Blood" pulls you in with it's eerie atmospheric riffing. I have to say, that this album really places an emphasis on atmosphere. It's like the riffs themselves could be representative of the darkness and paranoia one could experience in space when trapped there for a long time all by yourself (this band has a fetish for space and shit), and the only thing you have to look forward to is your eventual death. The track that I'd say best shows off the atmosphere this album has to offer is on "Meticulous Soul Devourment". An instrumental track, this track largely features a guitar melody that conjures up the feeling of isolation one would feel when they are at their most loneliest. The feeling that no matter how hard you try, that no one can hear your pleas for help. I think Blood Incantation should really consider adding more songs like this into their repertoiré. It certainly would help expand the band's sound and make them even more unique then they already are.

Blood Incantation's musicianship between all of it's 4 members is insane. As mentioned earlier, these guys really know how to write technical/progressive death metal like no one else in the genre then or now. The boys simply are in a league of their own, and know how to make good shit without it sounding like a big wank fest on their instruments (which is more then I can say for a lot of prog bands), and that's very important with this kinda music. Many of the song's have a lot of moving parts to them, and if your not paying attention, it can become pretty easy to get lost.

In my opinion, no other album released this decade can top Starspawn. The musicianship is incredible, the songs are all killer, and the album has a whole is just such an engaging listen, that it's hard not to wanna listen to this album over and over again. It's gonna be very hard for Blood Incantation to top this release, so I'm very excited to see how they follow up this beast of an album. Whatever they do, I think it's safe to say that Starspawn is one of the greatest death metal albums ever.

I was always steadfast in my belief that death metal was dead. No band had ever created an album since at least 1995 that had gripped my soul and my mind like the works of Morbid Angel, Death, and Autopsy. I felt that metal was slowly becoming another formulaic genre and the only way to find anything interesting was to look back on the albums of the 80s and the like.

In comes Blood Incantation. I hadn't heard of these guys until this album, their first full-length LP, was released, and despite the positive reviews, I still never gave it a chance. I really liked the cover, but for some reason I never delved too deep into this release until later in 2016. I don't know what the fuck I was thinking. This album absolutely crushes any opposing forces, and has every element I believe death metal should have. Gnarly, tortured guttural vocals, reverb drenched and muddy production, Lovecraftian space-oriented lyrics, and most important of all: Riffs. This album is riffs upon riffs upon riffs that both look back on those aforementioned masters of the genre, but Blood Incantation does not stop with just death metal riffs. They explore soundscapes that reflect death/doom in the style of dISEMBOWELMENT, an idea they would further develop in their side project, Spectral Voice, and they use speed in crushing patterns that call back the thrashy and very technical sound of Coroner and Voivod.

There is no particular highlight on this album because the entire work is of an upstandingly consistent perfection, but if I had to choose, the first track "Vitrification of Blood (Part One)" would have to take the title. It sums up everything you are about to hear on the LP within the first 4 minutes of its nearly 13-minute runtime, and it still provides 9 more minutes of pummeling and oppressing death metal ambience. Other standout parts include the guitar solo on "Chaoplasm" and the acoustic interlude of "Meticulous Soul Devourment". The latter creates a nice respite from the chaos with an almost Opeth-like instrumental that never strays too far from being just a little bit evil. The destructive and nebular sonic terrorism of Blood Incantation drives the point home that Starspawn is one of the definitive albums in metal in the 2010s, and could possibly be looked at as a turning point in death metal's projection for the next few years.

I remember reading an interview with one of the guitar players not too long after this was released and he said something along the lines of "Man, I'm in this metal shit for real, I don't fucking wear nice clothes or have short hair. When I'm at work being a slave to the system all I think about all day is making riffs and playing guitar". While I'm very happy that I'm not that guy, this is exactly the type of guy I want making my death metal. The dedication to riffcraft certainly shines through, and Starspawn is an absolute triumph of all that is awesome about death metal. Last year's Interdimensional Extinction EP was great and showed an enormous amount of potential for the young band, but I had no idea they'd drop something this jaw-droppingly massive.

Blood Incantation are a band that know their shit and have a deep understanding of what makes for good death metal. While they show affinity for tech death, BDM, death/doom and even occasionally subtly hint at melodeath, more than anything this is very much rooted in an OSDM sound. While I could go on for paragraphs about what classic bands influenced what part of their sound, what obscure group rears its head here, what band a riff resembles there, not only would that make me an enormous nerd, but would also be completely superfluous and unnecessary. Blood Incantation doesn't sound like any one OSDM band in particular, instead they take everything that was special about that formative time, take healthy amount of influence from more recent developments, blend it up and somehow find their own identity along the way. The thing that's really important to take into account is that this is very much OSDM in style, but the substance of their sound isn't just a gutless retread.

Songwriting wise, this doesn't really sound like a lot of the classics. Let's take a look at "Vitrification of Blood (Part 1)", their expansive 13 minute opus which bravely sits at the beginning of the album. There's a metric shit-ton of riffs on this song, something that is typical even of their shorter songs. Is it just a particularly tasty riff salad? Sort of, but I think there's a bit more going on. There's fast riffs and slow riffs, there's very immediate visceral ones and more subtle cerebral ones meant to carry the momentum of the song. The flow and the way the riffs are sequenced (not to mention interspersed with atmospheric breaks, psychedelic leads and wailing solos), is done very painstakingly and in a way that kind of seems to convey a narrative. It's sort of like how in any of the three main tracks in Pink Floyd's Animals, even if you ignored the lyrics or even stripped the vocals away completely, the music would still seem to convey a story just by the brilliant non-traditional epic song structures and excellent choice of sequencing.

Colorado really has been on fire this year. We have Blood Incantation and Cobalt making probably my two favourite metal albums of the year, Vermin Womb creating an absolutely devastating slab of unbridled vitriol and Spectral Voice (who feature most of Blood Incantation!) and Primitive Man participating in awesome splits. While Cobalt take in a dark americana atmosphere and a wandering expansiveness inspired by their home state and Vermin Womb and Primitive Man seem like an outlet for blue collar aggression no doubt taken from their experiences working in the state, Blood Incantation doesn't seem like Colorado's spawn - it doesn't even sound of this planet. The riffs are awesome and the biggest part of why this is an instant modern classic, but there's a lot to be said for the atmosphere. It's not a particularly friendly one, and it sounds wholly extraterrestrial and twisted. Blood Incantation's main peer would probably be Zealotry - it's amazing how both bands have taken in the classics, lots of cool obscure shit and twisted them into some bizarre alien entity. From the doomy dirges of "Vitrification In Blood (Part I)", the classic OSDM banger in Part II and the rambunctious melodic-tinged fun of the title track, this has some of the best riffs this way of Dead Congregation.

Somewhere in Denver, Colorado a group of extradimensional travellers landed five years ago after having observed the state of death metal from their listening probes embedded in our lower atmosphere. Aware of the changing tastes and musical trends both established and obscure, they began to gestate and spawn a collection of demos along with an EP and a split with Spectral Voice. An underlying set of characteristics emerged with each one that grew clearer in spite of the frequent re-recordings and an otherworldly sound that was vast and forbidding as the black depths of space yet inscribed with esoteric markings and coordinated by forces supernatural in their precision. This year, the final stage of this conscious evolution was reached and Blood Incantation have produced Starspawn.

Where this album stands in relation to death metal today is hard to determine but some have used the terms such as progressive, technical, atmospheric, ambient, and funeral. For some these may be tiresome but are not necessarily off mark. However they do focus on specific facets of their sound rather than the whole picture. Refined musicianship is a central part of the album, understated and playing towards the progression of compositions as opposed to self-indulgence and colourfulness, and the band demonstrate familiarity with forms both ancient and contemporary. It is however the calculated execution towards the lengthening of phrase, the careful elaboration on siren-like melody, and sudden busied motions that contribute a great deal to its varied sonic landscapes and varied moods. All six of the songs go for an approach focusing on longer streams of theme arranged in labyrinthine forms that journey across spaces both jagged and vast, displaying a great deal of content yet with a careful ear towards how they build off of and unify one another in the service of an overarching aim. The easiest explanation for what they are would be the phantom category of adventurous bands such as Garroted, Ghoulgotha, Zealotry, and StarGazer who have created from elements familiar a sound that exists outside of the major movements of today. Even then, it is still a very nebulous grouping at best.

It does not take much time, even on the shorter songs, to see that Blood Incantation use quite a few riffs per track. These tracks have a level of complexity and thoroughness in execution that rivals Timeghoul, Alf Svensson’s At The Gates, and The Chasm in their emphasis on using devilish details to paint larger, over-arching columns of theme and progression. Compared to much of the genre a wider range of tone is used to communicate this alien grandeur with the band working through a cyclonic void of instrumentation, all of which surround a central guiding idea outlined in a track’s opening movements. Both guitarists home in on a particular set of tonal coordinates but carefully diverge at key moments with subtle counterpoint, exploring a wide range of possibilities across the scales. Gradually voyaging outwards on slithering worm-like motions, riffs are filtered through segments of self-examination and mutation where they cycle and through and touch on particular facets their own construction, altering note placement and phrasing to draw out their full usage. Each section expands into succeeding iterations often with overlaid leads capitalizing on buildup and summarizing intent to segue into increasingly more aberrant and tense forms, resulting in a consistent transfer of motion. All of these threads of development converge on slower, procession-like doom-dirges that settle and resolve preceding tensions and bring the songs to a severe, crushing sense of death-like closure.

All across the board each musician is cognizant of the role they play but while not technical in the way typically associated with that term, showcases careful application of their capacities. Paul Riedl and Morris Kolontyrsky pick a wide variety of riffs to both centre songs and deform any sense of comforting repetition. Denser chords stab and dig in arrangements of sharp, semi-alien geometry providing a network through which off-tone lead hydras twist and flail, exploring the spaciousness implied by their impeccably written patterns. Much of it frequently bends or twists with more accessible rhythmically referencing strum being used sparingly, letting most of it rest on tendril-like upper-register playing, sometimes melodic and sometimes almost Voivod-like in the ways they subtly bend and contort themselves. On top of that, they unleash some impressive solos that violently climax segments and display an interesting style somewhere between Trey Azathoth’s string-bending sorcery and the metalized fusion tendencies of classic Atheist. Jeff Barrett’s fretless bass can be a little hard to make out in the subdued production but like some alien observer recording his research, his lines quietly examine the murky lower end and annotate these perplexing motions. His work is by far the subtlest but it plays a vital role in keeping the riffs punchy and directed. Finally we have Isaac Faulk with a style I’d call “compact” to make it concise. He touches on some of the active arachnid-like flexibility that pervades death metal’s upper echelons but his strength are his short, snappy fills and tasteful accents that skillfully play into the wave-like motions of the songs. It might be relatively low-key compared to say, Ghoulgotha’s Charlie Koryn or Zealotry’s Alex Zalatan but his timing and careful choices in approach give him a distinct identity that fits this album perfectly.

If this album has flaws, it’s that the production feels a little muffled and subdued and that there are only six songs, one of which is a cool although not really mind-blowing ambient interlude. However with a 13 minute monstrous opener and a nearly seven minute epic not too long after, some might say that’s been covered well. In its meticulousness and attention to detail yet simultaneous awareness of how smaller pieces reveal an encompassing narrative, Starspawn creates an album that communicates the kind of abstract, inhuman horror that we have been attracted to since we first looked towards the night sky with doubt and uncertainty. Yet it never really feels stereotypically Lovecraftian, forging its own mythos of alien mysticism and cryptic recollections by otherworldly observers. As death metal begins to settle into comfortable patterns across its stylistic plethora, Blood Incantation isn’t a breath of fresh air but a new compelling vision of possibilities that were left behind and forgotten in the past but now are becoming more visible and plausible with the increasing knowledge of death metal’s musicians.

Originally posted on The Metal Observer

One of the genre’s up-and-coming heroes, Colorado death metallers Blood Incantation has built a steady stream of impressive releases that showcases their astounding blend of atmospheric and technically-challenging material. Rounding themselves into a four-piece now with the addition of Jeff Barrett as their full-time bassist, the group’s full-length debut is released August 18, 2016 on Dark Descent Records.

This here comes off as a ferocious, highly engaging effort mostly due to the propensity for dynamic, outrageous rhythms on display that give this such a varied, complex structure. Essentially at it’s core a death metal act, that allows for a series of dragging, churning riff-work with all the hallmarks of the old-school scene as it utilizes the sprawling, cavernous-style structure with it’s deep rhythms at slow, plodding tempos while battering away with plenty of tight, vicious drumming that gives this such a stylistic old-school approach and then throwing out a series of tightly-wound, technically-extravagant patterns on top to round out the experience.. That basic framework is then balanced out with the addition of ultra-slow, plodding sections filled with sprawling, atmospheric notes that wrangle out hints of psychedelic soloing alongside the churning, rumbling rhythms and the contrast between these elements is not only wholly apparent but also delivers a varied approach that’s hardly ever seen in the genre. The quiet, reflective atmospheric sections bumping up against the vile, blasting death metal is a rather ingenious and impressive mixture that gives this a variance not typically seen yet still manages to come off with enough of a semblance to either genre that there’s plenty to enjoy for fans of either style. In the end, that really leaves only the listener’s tolerance for such material as the main defining factor against this one, with it being based mostly on whether or not there’s any interest in one aspect of the band as the biggest selling point for it. The length might be an issue as well, with the band not really giving this one much of a chance to really showcase it’s chops with a thirteen minute epic to open this and an instrumental cluttering up the running time here, but these are all trife problems that aren’t all that worrisome.

Despite a few minor, barely worthwhile issues that crop up throughout this one it still has enough quality efforts on display to remain one of the more impressive and dynamic acts in the style and makes for a wholly appealing act for anyone looking to expand beyond what is normally considered death metal or other adventurous extreme metal fans.