BLOOD INCANTATION

"Absolute Elsewhere" is the third full-length studio album by US, Colorado based death metal act Blood Incantation. The album was released through Century Media Records in October 2024. It´s the successor to "Hidden History of the Human Race" from 2021, although the two full-length studio albums are bridged by the 2022 "Timewave Zero" EP. Three of the four members of the band have also been busy recording the second Spectral Voice album titled "Sparagmos", which was released in February 2024. Blood Incantation and Spectral Voice share all members except for the drummers of the two bands, who exclusively play in one of the groups.

While Blood Incantation have been brewing music since 2011 and have been relatively active since their formation, it wasn´t until the release of "Hidden History of the Human Race" that they had their underground breakthrough. Almost universally lauded for it´s intricate, progressive, and abstract death metal sound, "Hidden History of the Human Race" certainly made sure that Blood Incantation were placed firmly on the death metal map. It´s an interesting death metal release, because for all its sophistication, technical playing, and complex song structures, it´s still inherently an old school death metal release, featuring a gloomy and filthy brutality.

While a large part of the playing time of "Hidden History of the Human Race" was made up of the 18:05 minutes long "Awakening from the Dream of Existence to the Multidimensional Nature of Our Reality (Mirror of the Soul)", writing such a massive progressive death metal track obviously haven´t satisfied Blood Incantation´s cravings for abstract and complex death metal constructions, as "Absolute Elsewhere" contains only two 20 minutes plus tracks titled "The Stargate" (20:20 minutes long) and "The Message" (23:23 minutes long). Both tracks are subdivided into three shorter tracks, but you still get the experience of listening to two long tracks, as the sub-tracks seque into each other.

Stylistically Blood Incantation take their music to a new level. While still featuring loads of old school technical death metal parts, the album features just as many 70s influenced tripped-out space rock parts (Artists like Tangerine Dream, Eloy, and Pink Floyd haven´t lived in vain), which have nothing to do with death metal. So how does two such different music styles co-exist? It should be impossible, but it actually works incredibly well. Blood Incantation ensure that there is a good balance between death metal brutality, technical playing, progressive song structures, and the 70s progressive/space rock influences. "Absolute Elsewhere" is epic, melodic, and atmospheric, but also brutal, dissonant, and raw. Gloomy atmospheres are followed by epic melodic moments, and laid-back psychedelic journeys into space.

The growling vocals are cavernous, but higher in the mix than on the previous releases from Blood Incantation, which is a plus in my book. "The Message [Tablet II]" features a strongly Pink Floyed influenced section with clean singing in the Gilmour vein, and although they are relatively sparse and subtle, they provide a great contrast to the brutal growling vocals, which dominate "Absolute Elsewhere". The instrumental part of the album is well performed too, and the band are arguably a talented unit. It´s the multifaceted songwriting and unconventional progressive ideas which make "Absolute Elsewhere" such an interesting release though. These days you kind of expect that bands can handle their instruments, but it´s never a given that they can write intriguing music. Blood Incantation master both disciplines with ease. Featuring an organic, powerful, and detailed sound production "Absolute Elsewhere" is a high level release on all parameters and a 4.5 star (900%) rating is fully deserved.

(Originally posted on Metal Music Archives).

Phenomenal. OK Computer of Death Metal. This is me just testing something heh [and this might be my first ever prog archives review ever!!!!!!!!]... great album thou BLOOD INCANTATION Absolute Elsewhere is going to be or it already is metal and/or prog metal album of the year 2024 for sure how many words is this so far I need at least a hundred words for this to be considered a review like I said I just wanna see something I'm rather new here on prog archives and I'm going to be writing a real one whatever that should be I don't know what to write right now you know I'm so shy For real I can't think of any other metal or non metal prog or non prog album from this year that I've heard that is good as this one I mean maybe there is I just can't remember it right now probably not What goes as a word here I'm not sure Is "Is" a word or not? I'm listening amazing album as we speak actually. It's called Agapanthusterra. It's from 2005 and the band name is Quantum Fantay They are in Psychedelic/Space Rock section here...198 Why is everyone saying Pink Floyd where the due is almost absolute elsewhere that is Eloy STOP SAYING STUFF JUST SO THAT YOU WOULD SOUND SMART (solo at 4:38 is very Gilmor-esque reminiscent)

Blood Incantation has been a bit all over the place on their last few releases. Now, that's not necessarily a bad thing, mind you. 2019's Hidden History of the Human Race is both brutal and intelligent. It features nasty, complex riffs alongside brief interludes of Floydian atmospherics. Their last two releases, though, have seen them go in a much more explicitly astral direction. 2022's Timewave Zero was fully electronic and honestly not really my jam. If you're more into Tangerine Dream than I am, it might be for you. Then last year, they released the EP Luminescent Bridge. One of the two songs on it was a fantastic synthesis of their usual death metal alongside more cosmic space rock and classic prog. The title track, though, is simply too ambient for my taste.

Their new LP, Absolute Elsewhere, sees the band expand upon the ideas put forth in 'Obliquity of the Ecliptic', off Luminescent Bridge. Death metal and intergalactic progressive rock both feature prominently, and the band strikes a great balance. (Though, like so many other metal bands that decide to incorporate non-metal elements into their music, they go on about 'leaving the notion of genre behind' on their Bandcamp page. And I'm just not nuts about that sort of framing. Blood Incantation didn't leave 'genre' behind. They're just playing two genres on this album, instead of one.)'

Like their last EP and the ambient LP before it, this record consists of just two long compositions: 'The Stargate' and 'The Message'. Each of these pieces is split up into three parts, called 'tablets.'

'The Stargate' opens with tumbling drums and searing guitar lines. Harmonics are used effectively, squeaking out sharp contrasts to the churning backdrop of distortion. The first shift from metal to space rock is somewhat jarring as quiet, clean guitars and odd percussive flourishes propel things. They establish a pleasant, floating groove, and the synth line is quite nice. As things pick up some momentum, the solos that emerge feels like they're straight out of 'Shine on You Crazy Diamond' (to an almost-distracting degree).'

The transition back to metal is a bit smoother, and I like the way they deploy synth pads to flesh out their sound. It adds a wonderful depth to everything.

Tablet II of this piece features Thorsten Quaeschning of Tangerine Dream on various keyboard elements, and this movement showcases some stellar Berlin school electronica. Synth loops and Mellotron flutes build a lush atmosphere. However, dialog from a TV show or radio program or something quietly plays over parts of this, and that sort of Pink Floyd reference is a bit on-the-nose for me.

Eventually, acoustic guitar emerges alongside Mellotron flute. Those elements have an ascendent hopefulness to them, but the drums, bass, and electric guitar that eventually join have something of a darker edge. They soon enough descend into chaotic, squealing metal that evokes some sort of powerful cosmic storm.

Heading into the final 'tablet' of this epic, the mood is oppressive, and some Opeth-y (and by the transitive property, Camel-y) quieter moments are smartly deployed for contrast. Indic influences briefly crop, and it's a fun little sidetrack. Blood Incantation successfully keeps the focus on metal in this movement, and it features some of their best, most engrossing riffs they've ever written.

'The Message' kicks off with an uncharacteristically major-key riff and bounces between a few ideas before settling into a verse. Some ideas fit together better than others. The music is all solid, but the particular way they're put out there can feel disjointed.

Entering the second tablet, the band takes another borderline-jarring shift into some Cynic-inspired clean-toned jazziness, though it doesn't stick around for long. Some quiet moments here sound distractingly like passages on Animals or Eloy's Ocean. Despite these minor gripes, these gentler passages are well-played and do a great job of cultivating the eerie atmosphere the band is aiming for.

Absolute Elsewhere ends on its longest cut, the eleven-and-a-half-minute third tablet of 'The Message'. The riffs powering this along are muscular and propulsive, and the guitar patterns evolve and mutate in ways that feel organic (or maybe exo-organic, considering this band's outer space focus).'

The next quiet section Blood Incantation dives into features some wonderful acoustic guitar and synth textures, and the transition back to big, lurching walls of metal is smooth as butter. Guitars soar and sear the listener's ears, evoking the interstellar travel these guys are so fond of. This eventually fades out, dissolving into gentle synth pads and some quiet ocean noises. It's a satisfying conclusion to the record.

Absolute Elsewhere is a very fun, engaging record. The individual death metal and space rock elements are well-played, but the transitions between them can be somewhat choppy or awkward. Despite that, Blood Incantation did a great job realizing their vision for cosmic death metal.

Review originally published here: theeliteextremophile.com/2024/10/21/album-review-blood-incantation-absolute-elsewhere/

The Denver based BLOOD INCANTATION has wrested its way up to the top ranks of the world of technical death metal in the last decade through a meticulous melding approach of morphing the old school death metal magic of bands like Morbid Angel and Immolation with the retro space rock effects of 70s progressive rock, a trait that a few intrepid extreme metal pioneers like Opeth and Enslaved have been tinkering with for over two decades now. Finding itself at the right place at the right time just as the world of psychedelic death metal was poised to break through to the mainstream as the newest death metal strain to come of age, BLOOD INCANTATION was more than ready to slay the competition and declare themselves the kings of this adventurous hybridization that finds space rock cozily commingling with brutal death metal bombast laced with concepts of our suppressed history and science fiction (often proven to be science fact).

The band immediately made a splash with its 2016 debut "Starspawn" which showcased the band's meaty metal hooks and technical wizardry but it wasn't until 2019's "Hidden History Of The Human Race" that the band really unleashed its true psychedelic potential with heady concepts wrapped up in psychedelic death metal splendor. The band while always technical in nature also proved to craft a mighty fine progressive metal album and the stage was set for this new extreme metal royalty to wear the crown. Despite the seeming certainty that BLOOD INCANTATION was in it for the long run, along comes the curveball release "Timewave Zero" in 2022 which found the band dropping all traces of metal music like a hot potato and rather totally rocketed off into space with a pure space ambient and progressive electronic style that took more inspiration from Berlin School giants like Tangerine Dream or Klaus Schulze. Had BLOOD INCANTATION gone the way of Leprous, Opeth or Ulver and completely shifted gears midstream?

It comes as great relief (as much as i love progressive electronic music) that BLOOD INCANTATION did nothing of the sort and rather was just allowing themselves to dabble in non-metal playgrounds while recharging their batteries for the next chapter of their metal mojo jounrey. Finally in 2024 we are treated to the newest installment of the BLOOD INCANTATION universe in the form of ABSOLUTE ELSEWHERE, a crafty conceptual sci-fi saga divided into two overarching 3 sections that are called tablets: "The Stargate" and "The Message." While many were wondering if BLOOD INCANTATION had abandoned metal for the world of progressive electronic on "Timewave Zero," it seems they were simply honing their chops to bedazzle their fans with an amazing fusion of their already masterful technical / progressive death metal with the more cosmic meanderings of 70s proggy space rock and Berlin School progressive electronic. Even Tangerine Dream member Thorsten Quaeschning appears for a cameo thus cementing this new development as a major leap in death metal ingenuity.

While such a collision of disparate musical worlds can result in a convoluted unconvincing disaster in the wrong hands, BLOOD INCANTATION has proven once again that this quintet of talented musicians can achieve the seemingly impossible on the same level as Opeth and Enslaved have done in the past. ABSOLUTE ELSEWHERE seems to have attained the perfect balance between the detached technical brutality of death metal and the more chilled excursions into the cosmos in the form of heady space rock. While the juxtaposition of these two seems rather dubious, somehow this band forges the perfect bridges to allow the disparate genres to trade off without a hitch. While "Hidden History Of The Human Race" was greatly praised and lauded as some sort of pinnacle of the style, i personally found the album to not flow as coherently as i had imagined however on ABSOLUTE ELSEWHERE the band seems to have ironed out all those peccadillos and forged a veritable masterpiece of progressive psychedelic death metal like no other. While Opeth has tackled both genres independently on different albums, BLOOD INCANTATION brings it all together in a most convincing way.

I think it goes without saying that psychedelic death metal has truly come of age and no better example exists than this latest BLOOD INCANTATION bombshell which produces a bountiful buffet of psychotropic bombast and kaleidoscopic calamity throughout ABSOLUTE ELSEWHERE's six-track / 43-minute excursion into the realms of sci-fi fueled proggy death metal extraordinaire. Now if anyone told a hardened death metal fan back in the early 90s that someday a band would successfully meld the meaty metal bluster of Morbid Angel with the psychotropic expansiveness of Pink Floyd and the Berlin School scene, nobody could have imagined that such a thing was even possible but here in the calendar year 2024 BLOOD INCANTATION has taken such possibilities into the realms of plausibility with one of the most well-crated examples of psychedelic death metal to emerge. I think it goes without saying that BLOOD INCANTATION has not jumped the shark in any possible way but has only improved its unorthodox genre coalescing manyfold. For my liking there are no missteps on this one, no moments that seem out of place and even the production that links the various styles is impeccable. This is BLOOD INCANTATION's finest moment yet!

It's a beautiful brutal mix of death metal with 70's space/psychodelic rock, in a way that reminds me of the Opeth death metal-era but with a more chaotic approach regarding composition and structure. (although it could have more cohesion)

The Stargate pt II has a collab with Tangerine Dream and it delivers greatly. The atmosphere honestly is fantastic and IMO it's the main strength of the album. The guitar work is beautiful, with lots of trademark sounds you would expect from a 70's space rock act (delays, reverbs, distortion, etc) but allied with the expected (but great) brutal death metal riffage.

The mix is also very good, without going for the usual loudness approach which makes the experience much more pleasant listening with headphones. As excepted, a lot of great growling vocals (and some clean too) but it has a nice spacey reverb which creates a cool effect and doesn't tire your ears after 40 min.

4.5/5

"Hidden History of the Human Race" is the second full-length studio album by US, Colorado based death metal act Blood Incantation. The album was released through Dark Descent Records in November 2019. It features the same quartet lineup who recorded the band's debut full-length studio album "Starspawn" from August 2016. Three of the four members of Blood Incantation are also involved in death/doom metal act Spectral Voice and they released the "Eroded Corridors of Unbeing" debut album with that band in October 2017, so it's been some busy years for at least some of the members of the band.

Stylistically the four tracks on the 36:20 minutes long album continue the technical/progressive yet old school oriented death metal style of the preceding releases, but Blood Incantation have improved in all departments since their debut album. The songwriting is now more memorable and less chaotic, the band are even more well playing, and "Hidden History of the Human Race" features more detailed and powerful production values than the releases which came before.

Blood Incantation are still worshippers of the cavern mode old school death metal style of Incantation, but they are so much more than that, as they add highly technical playing and progressive song structures to the mix, making their sound and overall style relatively unique for the genre. So while this at times is both brutal, grim, and murky old school death metal with abysmal deep unintelligible growling, it's at other times progressive and atmospheric music painting a very different picture than the basis raw and brutal death metal of the band's music.

As mentioned "Hidden History of the Human Race" features four tracks. The first three are between 5 and 7 minutes long, while closing track "Awakening From The Dream Of Existence To The Multidimensional Nature Of Our Reality (Mirror Of The Soul)" is an 18:02 minutes long track and naturally the most progressive oriented track on the album, although the remaining tracks are by no means regular death metal songs either. Every track on the album features twists and turns, challenging musical ideas, and song structures which are quite unconventional and doesn't feature regular vers/chorus format structures (if something is repeated it's definitely not done in an easy commercial manner).

So this is quite challenging music and "Hidden History of the Human Race" may not initially resonate with all listeners, but it's worth giving many spins, because as challenging as it may be, it's also quite brilliant and the tracks have a great flow. It's not an easy feat to write material which is not cyclical but instead almost linear in structure without losing catchiness and recognizability, but I think Blood Incantation do a great job on "Hidden History of the Human Race" doing just that. Add to that the fact that they are still pretty authentic old school death metal and don't appear sophisticated technical for the sake of it, and there's a further plus in the book. A 4 star (80%) rating is fully deserved.

(Originally posted on Metal Music Archives).

"Starspawn" is the debut full-length studio album by US, Colorado based death metal act Blood Incantation. The album was released through Dark Descent Records in August 2016. Blood Incantation formed in 2011 and released three demos before being signed for the release of the 2015 "Interdimensional Extinction" EP. There has been one lineup change since the EP as bassist Jeff Barrett has joined Blood Incantation, making them a quartet on "Starspawn".

Stylistically the material on the 5 tracks, 35:19 minutes long album is a continuation of the progressive and at times almost abtract death metal of the "Interdimensional Extinction" EP. This time just even more complex in structure and challenging on the ears of the listener. Although some riffs and ideas are repeated the tracks often feel like a long journey with new ideas and riffs constantly being introduced. Some tracks feature some atmospheric parts which are nice for the variation of the album, because otherwise this is a very busy and layered release, which is quite relentless in its approach. The fact that Blood Incantation rarely play any riffs which are of the more regular death metal kind, but instead focus on playing unconventional and often dissonant and twisted riffs and rhythms make "Starspawn" a difficult listen with very few hooks to hold on to.

...and that is my main critique when it comes to evaluating "Starspawn". It features a relatively well sounding gritty sound production and the musical performances are arguably through the roof (how can these guys even rememeber these tracks?), but it´s an album with little soul or death metal integrity. Take the vocals for instance, which are delivered without any punch or aggression. They are just there and barely get the job done. The tracks are also so complex in structure and the riffs and rhythms so tech nerdy that they leave little impact on the listener other than an interest in how the hell they are played or how they got the idea to compose them this way...so to my ears this is a musicians album and less an album for the regular death metal listener to enjoy.

When that is said "Starspawn" is still an intriguing album on some levels and it´s certainly a bold and adventurous death metal release showing a band who defy tradition and want to challenge the concept of death metal. I can relate to- and respect that, but on the other hand "Starspawn" just ultimately leaves me cold and it´s definitely not an album which incites headbanging and moshing. It´s way too nerdy and focused on something completely different that the primal energies of regular death metal. A 3.5 star (70%) rating isn´t all wrong.

(Originally posted on Metal Music Archives).

"Interdimensional Extinction" is an EP release by US, Colorado based death metal act Blood Incantation. The EP was released through Dark Descent Records in August 2015. Blood Incantation formed in 2011 and released three demos before being signed for the release of "Interdimensional Extinction".

"Interdimensional Extinction" features 4 tracks and a total playing time of 18:05 minutes, which serves as a good length and amount of material to introduce Blood Incantation to the world. Stylistically the material is technical/progressive death metal. It´s a combination of old school death metal elements and more contemporary elements like dissonance and an atmosphere of controlled chaos that many other contemporary artists also use. Lead vocalist/guitarist Paul Riedl has a decent sounding growling style, but his vocals are not placed very high in the mix and I also miss a bit more emotion from his performance. The vocals have a tendency to become a little monotone. The instrumental part of the music is both interesting and challenging, but a few more hooks or memorable moments would have been welcome. It´s details though, and overall the quality of the music is high.

The EP features a powerful, detailed, and well sounding production, which helps heighten the listening experience, and upon conclusion "Interdimensional Extinction" is arguably a good quality debut release by Blood Incantation. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.

(Originally posted on Metal Music Archives)

Despite an ever growing number of technical death metal bands vying for the attention of a niche genre that has been growing in recent years, the Denver, Colorado based BLOOD INCANTATION has succeeded where most fail in crafting two gems of genre by fusing the worlds of tech death metal, progressive rock and the ambient and atmospheric accompaniments of spaced out electronica. While "Starspawn" caught the world's attention, "Hidden History of the Human Race" was the slap in the face that no true metal head could ignore and after having poked the restless fanbase with a stick, it's always a mystery as to how any given band once given such attention will react.

It seems that amongst the more technical minded extreme metal bands in this stage of the 21st century that there seems to be an ambition for any given band to prove themselves as worthy musicians outside of the context of the world of metal. This has been a growing trend in recent years often resulting in a double release in the same year. I guess this trend started all the way back in the 90s when Ulver decided to completely drop its black metal shtick and jump ship into the world of electronica. This trend was followed by Opeth, Devin Townsend and Anathema but for a technical death metal band on the top of their game?

Well in 2021 the tech death cavern-core band Portal released the one two punch of "Avow" and the dungeon synth "Hagbulbia" and many black metal bands have released dungeon synth non-metal accompaniments. Come to think of it Neurosis also released accompanying ambient albums to be played in tandem with its sludge metal albums under the name Tribes of Neurot so i guess this is somewhat of an underground tradition at this point but was anyone really expecting a Berlin School style album sounding more like classic Tangerine Dream from the 70s from one of tech death's most revered up and coming acts? I have to admit that this one totally caught me off guard but then again nothing really shocks me any longer so my reaction was that at least BLOOD INCANTATION didn't decide to make a country album about life in a coal mine. That's where i draw the line.

And so here we are, the third official album by BLOOD INCANTATION titled TIMEWAVE ZERO which features two lengthy ambient progressive electronic tracks that could easily be mistaken for any given 1970s Klaus Schulze release complete without vocals, guitars, bass and drums. This is amorphous synthesized space drifting in all its freeform glory. If i didn't know better i'd swear that Edgar Froese or Hans-Joachim Roedelius was behind these sinister streams of sound effects but lo and behold we have a modern day metal band feeling the need to take a chill pill this time around and craft an album's worth of spaced out ambience that surely won't sit well with the fanbase and yet for those with more open minds and the ability to just sit back and enjoy the ride, a sensual journey into the downtime between the metallic uproar episodes that allow the sensuality of astral body journeys to take place.

TIMEWAVE ZERO is very much influenced by the progressive Berlin School electronic acts of the 1970s right down to the running time of two tracks adding up to just over 40 minutes of playing time. While fans of classic Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schulze may have something to gravitate towards in this whippersnapper's delight, modern tech deathers are scratching their head in dismay wondering what the [%*!#] is up with these dudes! Two tracks titled "Io" and "Ea" swallow up an album's length of extraterrestrial ambience that allow your consciousness to escape the confines of bombastic metal and enter the ethereal zone whether you signed up for it or not. I guess why not. Buckethead has mastered multiple genres over the decades with a whole series of progressive electronic albums so if you don't like this one i'm sure the next album will blow your mind away with all those crazy guitar riffs, bass bantering and percussive blastbeasts. For now, it's transcendental mind expansion.

As a lover of virtually every genre under the sun, it's not really the fact that BLOOD INCANTATION has released an ambient progressive electronic album that really disappoints me at all but rather i find this album a bit lackluster in terms of what genre it exists in. I have in my vast collection of albums a fair share of Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze, Mort Garson, Jean Michel Jarre and other similar acts so i'm no stranger to the world of ambient and progressive electronic music by any means. In fact i downright enjoy it although it's not my main staple of music for sure. This is a style of music that is reserved for those moments of contemplation where only a complete journey of transcendental existentialism is in order. This is a special kind of music indeed and one that literally makes you feel like you have entered a wormhole and are being transported from our [%*!#]ed up reality on this prison planet and transported into some higher level civilization where all shortcomings of consciousness have been overcome.

Ambient album aside, i just don't feel the band has mastered this style of music in a way that makes it their own. Rather they are merely emulating the progressive electronic masters of the past without really adding anything new to the style. Granted these guys have done a splendid job of mixing psychedelic electronica with technical death metal but as a stand alone project of this side of the equation i find this album a bit on the generic side of the progressive electronic equation without really adding that extra something that makes it their own. I'm not sure why BLOOD INCANTATION thought that this was a good idea just after they pretty much rose to the top of the tech death metal game but if this is what they want to release then i can't say it's an unenjoyable experience by any means. It's just that for someone like myself well versed in this style of music, it's not very inventive either. For metal-centric head bangers who have not yet experienced this music, then i do have to say that this very well may be an excellent introduction to the world of Berlin School progressive electronic music but i would advise you to head straight to the 1970s and experience the classics of Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schulze which exceed this in quality. Having said that, this is a decent album but not OMG great.

Album cover that could have been ripped off a 1970s sci-fi paperback? Check. Themes pulled from the likes of Erich Von Daniken's "Chariots of the Gods" schtick? Check. Song titles, lengths, and even compositional structures which could be prog rock numbers from a lesser-known band of the 1970s? Check.

But don't be fooled - Blood Incantation's Hidden History of the Human Race isn't some sort of attempt at straight- ahead retro-prog. Instead, it takes the song structures of classic prog and applies to them the sonic toolkit of technical death metal, yielding a short but sweet 36 minutes of mashup mayhem which sets Blood Incantation as a band to watch.