INCANTATION
INCANTATION “Unholy Deification”
By Dr. Abner Mality
If any band has earned the right to shrug off innovation, it’s INCANTATION. With “Unholy Deification” we continue to get the classic INCANTATION sound...so much so that I could basically reprint my review of their last album “Sect of Vile Divinities” and leave it at that.
Since that record has been released, a peculiar thing has happened. There were already quite a few bands mining the “cavernous” death metal sound pioneered by INCANTATION, but now some of these bands are becoming really successful, like FROZEN SOUL, SANGUISUGABOGG and SKELETAL REMAINS, all of whom owe a big debt to INCANTATION. It’s only fair that there should also be an uptick in popularity for John McEntee and company, similar to the boost OBITUARY has recently gotten.
On “Unholy Deification”, the band sticks to the shorter, faster, punchier death metal they ground out on “Sect Of Vile Divinities”. There are some occasional drops to sickening death-doom, but they are pretty rare. Cuts like “Concordat”, “Homunculus” and “Exile” bang it out in basic but satisfying fashion. The production is swampy and murky just the way we like it and McEntee’s gruesome vocal tones are more repulsive than ever...pretty impressive for a guy who didn’t even sing in the first 20 years of the band.
No, you’re not going to get any eye-opening diversion from the classic INCANTATION style here, but like I said before, no band has a better right to give new ideas a stiff middle finger.