INCANTATION — Unholy Deification (review)

INCANTATION — Unholy Deification album cover Album · 2023 · Death Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
Nightfly
Following the three year release pattern by Incantation over the last decade along comes album number thirteen from the USA death metal legends. I was extremely impressed by 2020’s Sect Of Vile Divinities, awarding it 4 ½ stars in my review. On the face of it Unholy Deification is more of the same but is it any good?

To answer the above question, well, yes, but… it didn’t get me hooked like last time around, at least not initially. Okay, it has big boots to fill as to my ears Sect Of Vile Divinities is top five Incantation. After four plays however it started to reveal its strengths. The first thing to note is after the cleaner sound (relatively speaking) we had last time the sound here is murkier and more in keeping generally with past work. This is old school death metal with slower doomier parts alongside breakneck blasting as you would expect from Incantation. Opener Offerings (The Swarm) is a perfect example of the Incantation sound. Fast and extremely heavy and a killer riff. Concordat (The Pact) follows and is more of the same only better. Homuncules (Spirit Made Flesh) is the first of the slower songs but still crushes with a compelling doomy riff. One or two songs lack memorability like Megaron (Sunken Chamber) that comes and goes leaving no or little impression but on the whole this is solid stuff.

The organic sound is essential for the murky depths that Incantation go to and works well. The band play well with mainman John McEntee’s easily recognisable guttural growl to the fore. The mixture of slower and faster tempos keeps things more interesting than 45 minutes of relentless blastbeats, something the band clearly know and use to good effect.

Unholy Deification is an album that is worthy of perseverance as it takes a while to reveal its strengths. It’s a more complex beast than initial impressions give. At present I’m not rating it quite as highly as previous album Sect Of Vile Divinities but that may change with a few more plays. Nevertheless it’s another strong addition to the bands impressive back catalogue and fans of the band are unlikely to be disappointed.
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