Blood Incantation takes listeners on an intergalactic exploration through a brutal vortex of cataclysmic chaos with the release of, “Hidden History of the Human Race.” The Denver, Colorado based band deals out some vicious sounding death metal to compliment their science fiction rooted themes.
I find that the Blood Incantation’s first album, “Starspawn,” was the beginning of what the band looked to accomplish when pertaining to their whole science fiction death metal approach. In the past there have been numerous bands who have crafted extraordinary albums that present fascinating science fiction themed concepts with some brilliant sounding death metal. Blood Incantation is trying to establish themselves as a band who is capable of conveying that same ability.
This new album, “Hidden History of the Human Race,” is written in a solid manner, however, it fails to really break through the barriers of what has already been done. The band seems to fall flat at times and drifts around these simplistic tech death structures, which keep the music in a state of repetitive and mundane delirium.
The opening song, “Slave Species of the Gods,” wastes no time in throwing listeners into a fire storm of musical entropy with plenty of blistering guitar riffs and blast beats. I felt like the band hastily jammed together the intro section, but I will give the lead guitarist credit for his ability to sneak in some fluid technical leads, especially considering how the other instruments seem to overload the song’s atmosphere. The second song, “The Giza Power Plant,” is far more interesting and incorporates some dynamic tempo changes that are not sloppily executed. In my opinion, probably the best sounding song off of the album.
Track three, “Inner Paths (to Outer Space),” begins with a cold sounding cosmic atmosphere similar to something you would hear when watching 2001: A Space Odyssey. The band’s approach on this track is to slowly build up the song with an instrumental section and then out of nowhere hit the hyper drive button. The final song, “Awakening from the Dream…(Mirror of the Soul),” is an eighteen minute extreme sounding piece of music that looks to push the boundaries to infinity and beyond. Unfortunately it takes a certain type of band to really keep people listening for that long of a time. I drifted away into the black abyss of space about seven minutes into the song. The guitar playing is decent, but the riff compositions did not have what it takes to keep me fully engaged for eighteen minutes.
In the end, Blood Incantation did not construct a heaping pile of monkey feces, however, they sure as hell did not inspire me to what to play this album over and over again. One must credit the band for attempting to write a creative and unique album, although the execution could have been slightly better. Production wise not a horrible sounding release, but then again, nothing I haven’t heard before. I will say this, if Riley Martin from the Howard Stern Show was still alive, he would love these guys.
Listen to “Inner Paths (to Outer Space)” below:
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