King Crimson’s ‘Red’ recently turned 50. And apparently it’s okay to broadcast one’s love of prog now. No longer requested in hushed tones, served under the counter in a brown paper bag. People are poring over this lurid filth in full view of the public. ‘Red’, ‘Close to the Edge’, ‘Mirage’, these were exceptions to an otherwise very reliable rule guys. Have you ever actually sat down and listened to a Gentle Giant album? Or Van der Graaf Generator? You’re lying. Leave it in the ground.
Equally disturbing is the fact that death metal has become an unlikely vector for this wave of esoteric depravity, with the long awaited return of Blood Incantation.
I promised myself I wouldn’t weigh in on this event. But then it occurred to me, this is an event. We don’t have many of those in metal anymore. The discourse has suddenly unified on a fixed point. For how long, I don’t know. But I would be foolish not to oil up and join in while I can.
Fanfare this intense is usually only reserved for aged legacy acts hobbling out of the retirement home to shuffle around a bit and dance for our amusement. Blood Incantation, a mere fifteen years into their career, are positively spritely by comparison. And we’re all talking about them. But why? And to what end?
Blood Incantation’s journey is the journey of death metal since 2010. It chose a very different path to its troubled cousin black metal. The popularity of blackgaze and post black metal in the late 2000s rested on reconfiguring the vibe of black metal into something more palatable for the cultural nomads we used to refer to as hipsters. This trend has since burnt itself out, leaving black metal in the care of a dedicated rump, maintaining their holding pattern, patiently waiting for something to happen that isn’t a Darkthrone bowel movement.
Death metal, by contrast, stubbornly remained too homogenous and impenetrable for most, and for the longest time was left untouched by the prying hands of a wider public as a result. By the 2000s it was all but put out to pasture alongside disco and swing, a historical curiosity with nothing left to say.
This left it ripe for resuscitation as court jester. The explosion in popularity of old school death metal in the 2010s surprised everyone. Not least the survivors of the original old school, who hastily reformed to enjoy a renaissance in popularity. But this resurgence was built on the sand of diminishing returns.
In stark contrast to black metal’s many transferable skills that have seen it wind up in a diverse array of genres, or thrash metal’s easy going jam-curious attitude, death metal is a highly composed, rigid, intentional style of metal.
The elements that make it work – complex riff arrangements, thematic development, schizophrenic pacing – are precisely what today’s commentariat seem unable or unwilling to discuss, choosing instead to make vibes, atmospheres, textures, the choices made at the mixing desk their chief subject of study. All tertiary concerns for death metal, whose vibe package is stubbornly limited. Many have tried, but whenever one plugs a new module into death metal’s core programme, the results have been messy, unfocused, distracted, or worse.
OSDM bypassed this bottleneck by working on death metal’s terms but simplifying its code down to repetitive verse/chorus sequences. A move that allowed newer fans to get their foot in the door and grapple with this enigmatic artform even if a shelf-life was now all but baked in.
It’s therefore no surprise that out of this new wave of old school death metal (eurgh), the bands that rose to prominence – Horrendous, Tomb Mold, and of course Blood Incantation – were those capable of once removing themselves from blatant pastiche. Much like their blackgaze precursors, they are celebrated for their stylistic incontinence, for their determination to play any form of music except the genre they are purported to represent.
It was into this context that Blood Incantation released ‘Hidden History of the Human Race’ in 2019, an album that rescued the dignity of OSDM’s champions in the media, allowing them to continue consuming empty nostalgia and maintain their intellectual hygiene, propping up the chimerical mix of Gorguts, Timeghoul, Demilich, and post rock as some kind of unprecedented new vanguard. Five years and one tepidly received ambient EP later, anticipation for Blood Incantation’s next move was near incandescent. Part of me feels sorry for them. Maybe they felt they had no choice but to Snakes On a Plane it at this point.
So what’s really going on here? Despite my instinct to “both sides” it and say the album is average, that would be disingenuous. The scope of ‘Absolute Elsewhere’ is too broad for me to be entirely unmoved. I could point to its many quotations, derivations, and “homages”(?) lifted from the retroist detritus of death metal, prog, and ambient, I could, but this isn’t a Scale it Back video.
Will Blood Incantation be a gateway for newer fans to get into death metal’s notoriously obscurantist lore? Are gateway bands even necessary anymore? Does it matter that Blood Incantation are now the delegate of a genre they don’t even seem to like? Maybe a survey of the available literature on the topic can help here.
Much like the death of the Queen, scanning the many column inches already dedicated to ‘Absolute Elsewhere’, one can’t help but assume they were penned long before Blood Incantation even hit a note. Opinions circle like vultures. The significance of the object before us is uncertain. Clues are there for those willing to look. Beneath the edifice of pre-fabricated conclusions, opinions fashioned from sheer will, the truth is out there.
If you build it, they will come.
And lo, death metal’s rehabilitation is nigh. And the people did tremble in wonder and awe.
And the doubters were quelled:
And we rejoiced. Tlhoy law’meH DuHbe’
“the greatest achievement is how easy to SWALLOW this all is”
They wrote scripture by their own gaslight:
Do you need to get out? Blink once for yes, twice for no:
“Every transition on The Stargate is seamless, every stylistic switch makes sense, and”
chutmey pabbe’taHvIS je, ngeDmoHbogh
The overlord’s demand for qualified platitudes will not be quenched, we work day and night in the mines but he demands more:
“it’s essentially a 1970s prog album with death metal bits”
machqu’ ‘ach nabwI’ ‘ach ngeb ghoghDaj
“the greatest achievement is how easy to SWALLOW it all is”.
The unfed mind devours itself.
“the greatest achievement is how easy to SWALLOW it all is”.
Ultimately, whether Blood Incantation is the true Renaissance Man of death metal, all things to all people, or the T1000 taking random shapes and forms to save itself from drowning in the lava of expectation (it’s the latter btw), I remain grateful that things can still happen in metal.
If for no other reason than it prompting me to re-appraise some albums I’ve previously plugged here (some a bit too willingly under self-gaslighting duress I’ll admit). One in particular stands out all the more clearly to me thanks to Blood Incantation’s rentier attitude to death metal. This is the part where I’ll ask you to put down the burger and eat your greens but you’ll probably flick onto something else anyway, but if you’re still with me, throw it on:
Hate Meditations 
I actually enjoyed their Hidden History Of The Human Race. I felt it had enough of its own identity and was reasonably well composed and memorable. A little bit too much prog but it wasn’t too in one’s face.
However the new one is self indulgent incoherent wankery. It all sounds terribly amateurish, almost like a college or even high school death metal band trying to write a progressive epic.
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If I keep staring at this long enough, I might understand it. It was very entertaining nonetheless. Like laughing honestly at a joke I didn’t get while hoping I’m not actually the punchline.
I guess it’s enough for me to hear praise for death metal followed by a reminder of black metal’s hipster problem, which doesn’t get discussed enough (even as it’s discussed all the time).
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“This left it ripe for resuscitation…”
Oh Shelly
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Even as someone who normally tries to give bands the benefit of the doubt, I was a little perplexed by this one. The first set of tracks had some catchy moments, but to me they couldn’t find a way to make it work. I think they made a good effort at trying, but the ambiant sections should break up the climactic tension and release into a wider set of developing themes. Instead, it’s like a mood board of fleeting moments strung together, plus Opeth. Their drummer is quite good, though.
With that said, i don’t think the discourse here or elsewhere is doing anybody any good. It would be more interesting if someone were to make a long video or written piece on different moments in metal when ambiant was used justifiably. I offer the first three tracks off of Malhavoc’s demo Dark Age of Renaissance as an interesting example of moments when they almost pulled it all together.
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This one was really fun 😀 If you can’t fight it, laugh at it!
By the way, there’s a new Mefitis coming out next month, although I’m sure you’re well aware of it by now.
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Anyone ever noticed how the Mefitis photo but also sound basically is 1:1 Molested “Blod-Draum”. Which is almost 30 years back, so where is the progression and new vision? I don’t get the hype around Blood Incantation but neither Mefitis…
On another sidenote: it’s interesting, talking about happenings, that this post generated more comments than any other of yours. So there’s truly Something happening.
My first comment too btw, in years reading your exceptional blog.
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I have to agree, Mefitis are a weird choice to illustrate this particular article. Their last album is big on “musical literalism” for lack of a better phrase and grand demonstrative gestures, things that are typically anathema to death metal and are miles from the “uncompromising, unapproachable structured riff language” death metal described in the early paragraphs. I would think that Suppression, Ectovoid, Undersave, or La Sanche would be better modern examples.
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For some reason, it doesn’t look like this lets me post links, so go to YouTube and look up Lil’ Trend Killa’s Blood Incantation diss rap. It’s the best take on this to have ever been made.
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That should read “best take on this band”. Missed a word.
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Also, I apologize for this shitpost, but I just can’t hold it in any longer.
I suspect that the author of the review you’re quoting is very accomplished in swallowing.
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