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INCITE “Savage New Times”
INCITE “Savage New Times”
By Dr. Abner Mality
Phoenix’s INCITE have been around for a few years now, but this is my first run-in with them. They emerge as something of an all-purpose modern metal band that tries to cram a lot of sounds into a basic modern thrash metal framework. There is a variation in sound here that is admirable in intention, but maybe not quite as effective in execution. There’s a battle going on between the ass-kicking and the generic and I’m not sure which side is winning.
This son of a bitch gets off to a high octane start with the thrashing rage of “Lies”. Originality be damned, when you hear a track this fast and angry, a lot can be forgiven. It settles down into more of a groove at the end, but it’s a good groove. An album full of tracks like this I could get behind. They do throw cuts at you like bullets from a machine gun, with only one track going over five minutes and several coming in under three. “Feel This Shit” has got a nice jolt of energy to it and “Just A Rat” is more of a “chugging” tune than an all out thrasher. So far, not brilliant, but not bad
“Chucked Off” tries to throw some melody into the groove but emerges as a cut-rate LAMB OF GOD. “Double and The Fear” has a basic riff, but I’ll be damned if it doesn’t get the head nodding along. The real curve ball is the longest song “Dolores”, which almost qualifies as a ballad. I give credit to INCITE for shaking things up but I don’t know if this is the direction they should go.
After this, things start to get kind of generic and groove metal bordering on nu starts to predominate. There’s a bit of a black metal feel to “Used And Abused” which elevates it, but “Never Die Once” and the title track just come across as standard “tough guy” metal which we’ve heard many times before. But “Savage New Times” is a very listenable album if you don’t mind modern metal and if you’re bombing down the highway, it might be a good companion on the sound system.
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