BLOOD INCANTATION — Starspawn (review)

BLOOD INCANTATION — Starspawn album cover

Album · 2016 · Death Metal

4/5 · 2020-01-03
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BLOOD INCANTATION has become one of death metal’s most celebrated bands in the last few years and has really captured the imagination with its latest Timeghoul inspired sound on 2019’s “Hidden History of the Human Race” but the band has been around since 2011. Formed in Denver, Colorado, this band that mixes Morbid Angel style death metal with progressive rock and psychedelia took a few years to craft its alienating deathened doom metal sound that has popularized the fledgling scene of psychedelic death metal which in many ways is right of the Timeghoul playbook but whereas that band released only two demos and faded into obscurity, the influences reverberate to the modern era and it looks like BLOOD INCANTATION is the band that is successfully fulfilling the lost promises in the 21st century.

The band’s first release was an EP in the form of 2015’s “Interdimensional Extinction” which displayed the band’s flirtations with psychedelically tinged death metal rampages fused with doom metal sluggishness and long meandering bouts of atonal passages most remnant of Morbid Angel’s “Domination” era. The love of sci-fi and alt history percolates in the themes and subject matter and then musically all dressed up in meandering progressive compositions that find various passages creating well thought out compositions that add a breath of fresh air to the world of death metal and while technically fitting in with the technical death metal crowd, BLOOD INCANTATION has been more about progressive rock style developments over the flashy incessant bombast of many modern tech death units however this band isn’t afraid to strut its technical prowess when needed.

STARSPAWN is the band’s full-length debut which cemented its status as the newest darling of death metal with its already coalesced classical form. With only five tracks that clock in a just under 35 minutes, BLOOD INCANTATION hit the ground running on this debut with doom-laden tracks that infuse lengthy progressive workouts that meander through a cold, vacuous soundscape that generates both atmospheric angst while delivering thorough and sinewy metal rampage. In many ways the music matches the apocalyptic visions of the album cover with dystopian sci-fi themes enshrouded with angular down-tuned guitar riffs, suffocating sulfuric atmospheres and uncensored ugliness complete with Paul Reidl’s best tortured monster vocals that merge with the progressively infused dirge-like flows of workouts. While Timeghoul and Morbid Angel are the primary influences, BLOOD INCANTATION rises above the limitations of being retro and infused a touch of Demilich, Gorguts and other tech death craftsmanship to the mix.

The album bursts into action with the 13 minute “Vitrification of Blood (Part I)” which wastes no time creating massive sprawling and gnarled guitar riffs that instantly displays a more mind-altering display of classic old school death metal with modern infusions of angularity and progressive fusion. While tracks alternate between melody and dissonance, so too do they exhibit heavy death metal bombast with off-road side trips into psychedelic atmospheric headiness most readily experienced on the track “Meticulous Soul Devourment” which breaks the gravitational pull of the the more down-to-Earth limiting factors of the death metal orotundity. The best part of all is that BLOOD INCANTATION masters the balancing act of creating a logical trajectory that incorporates all of the aforementioned elements without sounding trite or forced in any way. Much like the expansive holistic sounds of Timeghoul, BLOOD INCANTATION proves that the band’s early and forgotten experiments were more than worthy of further development and all of that is on display on STARSPAWN.