{"id":19153,"date":"2014-06-10T00:00:20","date_gmt":"2014-06-10T00:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=19153"},"modified":"2014-06-18T20:52:58","modified_gmt":"2014-06-18T20:52:58","slug":"album-review-incantation-dirges-of-elysium","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-incantation-dirges-of-elysium\/","title":{"rendered":"INCANTATION – Dirges Of Elysium (2014) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

INCANTATION
Dirges Of Elysium<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nListenable (2014)<\/span>
Rating: 8.5\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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I\u2019ve never forgotten the dark days of when Pennsylvania\u2019s Incantation raped my ears with their 1992 debut Onward To Golgotha<\/em>. Sure, it may have reeked of that twisted Morbid Angel-style of evilness, but it was another hefty arrow to be added to the genre\u2019s already burgeoning quiver.<\/p>\n

Through thick and thin these guys have trudged on through the decades and trends, believing in their demolition hammer of a sound that has kept death metal fans slobbering in joy. And so now we come to Incantation\u2019s tenth rhapsody in black, emerging just two years on from 2012\u2019s Vanquish In Vengeance<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The album boasts ten tracks, and features the trio of John McEntee (vocals \/ guitar), Chuck Sherwood (bass) and Kyle Severn (drums). Although McEntee is the only original member, Incantation remain a force to be reckoned with in the extreme metal field and refuse to go away, and because their sound is so blistering Incantation is now very much an immovable object.<\/p>\n

After the brief intro, the band hurl themselves into an unholy orgasm of death metal called \u2018Debauchery\u2019, fuelled by raging drums, an avalanche of violent, twisted guitars and McEntee\u2019s effortlessly demented coughs. Just like Morbid Angel \u2013 who it\u2019s only natural that Incantation are often compared to \u2013 the sickness really strikes the flesh in the form of those putrid slower moments which are then sliced in two by the razor wire mayhem of the flailing solos and pacier percussive rushes.<\/p>\n

An Incantation album is always going to be a hellish ride and Dirges Of Elysium<\/em> does not disappoint, because while the band have never been a band to throw in frills, their consistency means that they never fall short on their releases, and one can never be dissatisfied with such devilish derangement.<\/p>\n

The thickness of the sound is one to behold as the pace quickens in soul-destroying fashion for \u2018Bastion Of A Plague Soul\u2019 with its super-quick timing and effortless pattern shifts. Although these guys have shifted into the modern realm with astuteness they now sound like an unkempt marrying of Morbid Angel and Autopsy, which is no bad thing, and as the mournful, dissonant chords leak from the wounds of \u2018Bastion Of A Plague Soul\u2019, such a comparison seems justified.<\/p>\n

Even John McEntee\u2019s throat has taken on to relieving itself via an array of phlegm-coated squawks and burps, and by the time \u2018Carrion Prophecy\u2019 has lumbered into the fray on doom-laden wings, I can only stand agog in awe at the way the band nonchalantly wades through the sickening riffs of gore and injects varying styles of misery. \u2018Carrion Prophecy\u2019 is impure sombre gore-gloom made all the more bony and splintered by those mashing, marching drums as the pace quickens to allow the track to accelerate further.<\/p>\n

\u2018From A Glaciate Womb\u2019 begins with more melancholy as the yawning guitar makes its entrance like a sore-encrusted troll awakening from under its bridge of woe. Again, the track lumbers, creeps and wallows without any other intention except to suffocate. \u2018Portal Consecration\u2019 decides to accompany \u2018From A Glaciate Womb\u2019 in its woeful, graceless tirade, but this time the hook is one of utmost horror before the tune almost grinds to a fiendish halt, only to pivot eventually on bony frame and catapult the listener into a flurry of unexpected maniacal speed.<\/p>\n

And as each track introduces itself, Incantation follow a similar vein \u2013 leading the listener in with a sense of foreboding, only to batter them senseless eventually with those wild chords, perverse beats and McEntee\u2019s vocal murder which ranges from bubbly, ogre-like choke to bloated behemoth rant.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s all ungodly but all so bloody brilliant, and with \u2018Charnel Grounds\u2019 smouldering from the stench of charcoaled flesh and the blustering bluster of \u2018Dominant Ethos\u2019 dragging us into the mud-clogged shredder that is \u2018Elysium (Eternity Is Nigh)\u2019, I hold up my severed stumps in surrender for another harangue of hate from one of death metal\u2019s most criminally underrated bands.<\/p>\n

Neil Arnold<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

INCANTATIONDirges Of Elysium Listenable (2014)Rating: 8.5\/10 I\u2019ve never forgotten the dark days of when Pennsylvania\u2019s Incantation raped my ears with their 1992 debut Onward To Golgotha. Sure, it may have reeked of that twisted Morbid Angel-style of evilness, but it was another hefty arrow to be added to the genre\u2019s already burgeoning quiver. Through thick […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,1250],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-ep-reviews","category-incantation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19153"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19153\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19159,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19153\/revisions\/19159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}