Luminescent Bridge 12’’
Reviewed By: Mostowski
Review Score: 9.0
What to say about Blood Incantation? They come from Denver, Colorado in the US, and have been putting out material since 2011. To be honest, this band have stumped me a little with respects to genre, which is a good thing! They are a death metal band, that much is obvious, but there is more to this band than the ears first realize. I’m intrigued, to say the least, about their influences and would love to ask them “what’s going on in your heads?”
Their back catalogue is a real mixed bag with three demos: an EP, Interdimensional Extinction, three albums, Hidden History of the Human Race, Starspawn, and the much praised Timewave Zero, which moves away from their eclectic spacey death vibes. It is basically an ethereal ambient journey of analogue drone and dark synths, which is like a classical opus that evokes thought and meditation but may not be for the pure metalheads. Check it out and make up your own minds.
Blood Incantation’s latest release is a ’12’’ maxi single. I’m not sure what that means these days, but anyway…… the 12” has two tracks and both tracks couldn’t be more different.
The First track ‘Obliquity Of The Ecliptic ‘ is eight and a half minutes of metal adventures that had me from the start. It’s got fast heavy riffs, and I especially like the second riff. The vocals are roar evilness with some nice echo effects that give a foggy forrest vibe. The drums are complex and furious with a great production. Perhaps the mastering of Arthur Rizk (Kreator, Cavalera Conspiracy) has a lot to do with the quality of the mix and mastering as it sounds top notch, even on crappy ear buds. I guess there is bass somewhere, but it’s hard for me to make out. Maybe it’s just holding the rhythm tight, and maybe on better headphones it will be more prominent.
The track is segmented into three parts. The first part of the track is what you might expect from a death metal band: aggressive, dark, heavy, fast paced and moody with soul-eating echoing vocals and chunky biting guitars that makes you feel like running with wolves. Then there is the mid-section, a beautiful, mellow, eerie transition piece that leads into what I can only describe as a Candlemass-like ‘Epicus Doomicus’ piece of instrumentation that is full of doom, passion, and depth. It is slightly slower paced than the first part of the track but delivers such power and grace and melody. There has obviously been a lot of thought that went into creating this track. It is a very impressive piece of work.
The second track ‘Luminescent Bridge‘ could be from a different band. I think this says a lot about how metalheads are perhaps more openminded than people may think. Yes, even metalheads have a mellow side! I’ve been wondering how to describe ‘Luminescent Bridge‘. There is a lot of analogue electronic stuff with a clean guitar sound and some very trippy sounds going on indeed. It kind of keeps you waiting for the riff or the drums to kick in, and they do a little, but then there is piano and some nice gentle guitar semi-soloing with cymbal splashes, and even what sounds like some horns and something that sounds like Tibetan chanting. It simply takes you on a journey that is cosmic, mystical and you have no idea where you may be going but it seems to be a little ominous.
I think with bands like Ghost, the world of metal is becoming ever more diverse, which is great for the art. It wouldn’t surprise me if Blood Incantation were fans of Jean-Michel Jarre or some other electronic musicians. I’m very impressed by these two tracks. The production and composition is second to none. I hope there is more to come from these guys. Well done!
Bood Incantation are:
Paul Riedl – guitars, vocals
Morris Kolontyrsky – guitars
Jeff Barrett – bass
Isaac Faulk – drums
Catch them on tour in October in North America if you can.