INCUBATOR — Symphonies of Spiritual Cannibalism (review)

INCUBATOR — Symphonies of Spiritual Cannibalism album cover Album · 1991 · Death Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
UMUR
Symphonies of Spiritual Cannibalism is the debut full-length studio album by German death metal act Incubator. The album was released in 1991 by Morbid Music, which is a division of West Virginia Records.

The music on the album is death metal with a slight experimental twist. The basis in the band´s sound is brutal yet catchy death metal with some really powerful growling vocals by lead vocalist Christian Mummelthey. Christian Mummelthey also delivers some clean vocals and talking, but the main vocal style on the album is the growling type vocals. The music, and the vocals for that matter, can be compared to a band like Morgoth but there are hints towards the mid-paced, crushingly brutal and groovy death metal style of Obituary too. The slight experimental twist I mentioned is audible in a few parts here and there on the album. Think Voivod or maybe Anacrusis. Those parts are kept to a minimum on this album though, so Symphonies of Spiritual Cannibalism is first and foremost a brutal and catchy death metal album with some killer growling vocals. Incubator is not your everyday death metal act though and songtitles like Puppenmord, Plants of the Bizarre or the title of the album itself should give you a clue that the lyrics are pretty unconventional too.

The production is not the best out there, but it´s not a distraction and I´m fully able to enjoy the music without thinking too much about the sound quality. And don´t get me wrong here. The production is fully on par with most other death metal releases from 1991.

I´ll level with you here. I´ve never heard of Incubator before very recently. Back in the early nineties when the internet wasn´t something the broad public had access to, the only way to discover new acts was by purchasing magazines and read reviews in the review sections of those magazines. Something I spend a lot of time doing in those years. That´s how I discovered some of the other great German death metal acts like Morgoth and Atrocity. I don´t know if I just didn´t purchase the magazine that reviewed Incubator´s albums or if the band´s albums were simply so badly distributed that my chances of hearing about the band was minimal. The point is that it´s such a shame that it´s taken me almost 20 years to discover such a creative and intriguing act as Incubator. Symphonies of Spiritual Cannibalism is actually a bit of a gem IMO and a 4 star rating is fully deserved. It´s not often you come across death metal albums that really stand out, but this is certainly one of them.
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