{"id":21677,"date":"2014-07-12T00:00:32","date_gmt":"2014-07-12T00:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=21677"},"modified":"2014-09-27T16:24:59","modified_gmt":"2014-09-27T16:24:59","slug":"feature-incantation-07-14","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/feature-incantation-07-14\/","title":{"rendered":"INCANTATION &#8211; Dominant Ethos (July 2014) | Features \/ Interviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"title\"><strong>INCANTATION &#8211; Dominant Ethos<\/strong><\/span><br \/>\n<span class=\"smalltitle\">Anthony Morgan<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-family: arial; font-size: 8pt\">July 2014<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"image floatedleft\">\n<table width=\"100%\" align=\"center\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\" border=\"0\">\n<tr valign=\"top\">\n<td>\n<div align=\"left\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/incantation2013livephoto1.jpg\" border=\"0\"><br \/><span class=\"smalltext\"><\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<td><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-content\/themes\/metalforces\/images\/spacer.gif\" width=\"10\" border=\"0\"><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-content\/themes\/metalforces\/images\/spacer.gif\" width=\"10\" border=\"0\"><br \/>\nOn March 12th, 2014, it was reported that guitarist Alex Bouks had parted ways with Johnstown, Pennsylvania-based death metal outfit Incantation following a six-year tenure. Bouks\u2019 overall studio haul as an Incantation member consists of studio full-lengths eight and nine, specifically <em>Vanquish In Vengeance<\/em> (November 2012) and <a href=\"\/site\/album-review-incantation-dirges-of-elysium\/\"><em>Dirges Of Elysium<\/em><\/a> (June 2014). A replacement was announced a day later.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t know exactly why he quit the band,\u201d admits John McEntee, guitarist and vocalist for Incantation. \u201cHe posted \u2018I quit\u2019 on the internet \u2013 we didn\u2019t have a talk about it. He didn\u2019t say why he left, or what was going on. He just basically told us that he was out, and that was it. It wasn\u2019t really like an argument, or a discussion. It was quite a surprise when he left, but I think he just might\u2019ve felt that he wasn\u2019t able to express himself a 100% with the band. Maybe he felt restricted, or something. I think he just wasn\u2019t happy with the situation, or something like that. I\u2019m not really sure. I really haven\u2019t had a lot of contact with him since it happened, so you would really have to ask him to find out what he thinks about it, but we were definitely shocked about it. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was difficult for us, because I\u2019ve been friends with Alex for about 25 years or something. It was definitely a bummer to have him leave in the middle of recording, but luckily we ended up being able to get our old guitar player back \u2013 Sonny Lombardozzi. He came in and did a great job with everything, so it worked out good. It was definitely a shock for us though, as well as probably other people too.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Alex\u2019s overall demeanour during recording sessions for <em>Dirges Of Elysium<\/em> implied something was amiss. \u201cWe kind of knew that something was a little strange,\u201d the axeman acknowledges. \u201cHe wasn\u2019t really that engaged in the recording process for the album, and that was definitely something that&#8230; We knew that something was wrong, but we just didn\u2019t necessarily think that he was gonna quit the band. We thought that he maybe had personal problems, and that he just wasn\u2019t able to take care of some of his band commitments as well as he normally does. We didn\u2019t realise that it was to the point where he was gonna quit the band, though. We had no idea of that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The March 12th posting on Incantation\u2019s official website which revealed Alex\u2019s departure suggested the group might go on hiatus, although a mere day later the death metallers announced that erstwhile guitarist Sonny Lombardozzi would handle live commitments for <em>Dirges Of Elysium<\/em>. \u201cThat was something that was totally taken the wrong way by the press,\u201d John clarifies. \u201cWe weren\u2019t gonna go on hiatus. What it was was, in fact, basically Alex was gonna go on hiatus \u2013 that was the original thing. We originally thought that Alex was gonna just take some time off from the band, and get some of his personal stuff in order. We didn\u2019t realise that he was gonna quit the band, necessarily. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe were still gonna continue going on, but have a fill-in guitar player for our commitments that were coming up, and let Alex take care of his personal business. Unfortunately Alex quit then though, but the other guitar player we now have \u2013 Sonny \u2013 was already scheduled to fill in. I knew that Alex needed some time off, so it was really easy to replace Alex at that moment. We already had a guitar player that was gonna fill in for him, anyway (laughs).\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sonny happened to be the engineer at Subspecies X Studios, where Incantation\u2019s Kyle Severn recorded his drum parts for <em>Dirges Of Elysium<\/em>. \u201cHe just happened to be there, and he was around when things were starting to get a little weird with Alex on some issues,\u201d the frontman shares. \u201cHe basically offered that if we needed help with the band while Alex was gonna go on hiatus for a while. We were like \u2018Okay, that might work out.\u2019 He just offered that he was willing to help out, and so we were really appreciative of the fact that he was willing to do it. Basically, he missed being in the band for the time that he was out, so he\u2019s really appreciative of the opportunity. Originally we thought that he was just gonna be a session member that was gonna maybe do some touring with us until Alex kind of got whatever issues he was having organised and then Alex would\u2019ve eventually came back, but then like I said, Alex just decided to quit. We already had somebody kind of onboard, so it just all worked out. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cOn our end it worked out almost flawlessly, but it was not even expected to work out this way. It just kind of happened, but it\u2019s good because Sonny\u2019s doing a great job. He\u2019s a great guy and he\u2019s a great guitar player, and cool to hang out with. He\u2019s made a really difficult situation really easy for us to deal with, because it definitely wasn\u2019t something that we were happy about, that Alex left. We didn\u2019t want him to leave. We wanted to try to work with him, but he did decide to quit, and we had to deal with that. Just the fact of having somebody else to flawlessly take his position in the band made things a lot smoother though, and the positive vibe that Sonny brings to the band definitely made the whole transition a lot better for us. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe took a really fucking difficult situation, and made it positive. I\u2019m really thankful to Sonny for being available and also bringing up the vibe of the band, because it\u2019s so difficult when a longtime member of the band decides to leave. It\u2019s not just musically a bad thing but emotionally it\u2019s very difficult, because you\u2019ve been friends with this person for so long. It\u2019s sad (laughs).\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"image floatedleft\">\n<table width=\"100%\" align=\"center\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\" border=\"0\">\n<tr valign=\"top\">\n<td>\n<div align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/incantation2012promophoto1.jpg\" border=\"0\"><\/p>\n<table width=\"100%\" align=\"center\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\" border=\"0\">\n<tr valign=\"top\">\n<td>\n<div align=\"left\"><span class=\"smalltext\"><b><em>Incantation 2012 (l-r): Kyle Severn, Chuck Sherwood, Alex Bouks and John <br \/>McEntee<\/em><\/b><\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<td>\n<div align=\"right\"><span class=\"smalltext\"><\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<td><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-content\/themes\/metalforces\/images\/spacer.gif\" width=\"10\" border=\"0\"><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<p>At the time of writing, Sonny\u2019s long-term status as an Incantation member has yet to be decided. \u201cWe\u2019re not trying to rush anything by any means, because we\u2019ve learnt from the past that if we rush anything, it usually backfires on us,\u201d John stresses. \u201cWe\u2019re taking it quite easily. He\u2019s basically officially a session member at the moment I guess, but we\u2019re definitely looking towards working with him as a permanent member. That\u2019s only official as far as we\u2019re totally happy jamming with him though, and I can\u2019t see any problems happening with him in the future. We\u2019re already starting to work with him, and trying to use some of what he brings to the band as far as talent and stuff like that. We\u2019re trying to integrate that with some of the new material, to make the new material even better. He\u2019s pretty much a band member, but we\u2019re just not saying anything officially yet. I don\u2019t know if we\u2019re ever gonna come out and make an official statement, but we know pretty much that he\u2019s in the band because he\u2019ll be on our next album.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sonny\u2019s respective guitar style contrasts with that of Alex\u2019s. \u201cHe\u2019s basically a guitar virtuoso, so it\u2019s a lot different,\u201d the mainman judges. \u201cWith Alex, there\u2019s lot more of an old school kind of jam vibe to his playing. Sonny\u2019s lot more of a schooled musician, where he\u2019s really tight. He really knows all of the scales. He knows all of this really technical stuff that I don\u2019t know a lot about myself, but it\u2019s good to have that quality of his playing in the band. He\u2019s really good at picking techniques and really good at just making sure that everything\u2019s tight, and really played properly and stuff. He really brings a lot of positive aspects to the band; just since we\u2019ve been jamming with him, I\u2019ve noticed a lot of technique issues that I might\u2019ve slacked off with over the years. As a guitar player, it\u2019s easy to fall into band habits that you\u2019ve just been doing for so long. He was able to kind of work with me though, and make sure that I\u2019m pulling my weight as far as a guitar player.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI guess in a way, he\u2019s been almost able to come in and really analyse everybody else\u2019s playing, and try to make sure that as a band we\u2019re able to sound as tight as we can live so that we can give people the best rendition of the band possible in a live situation. He\u2019s definitely a great asset to have. This time working with him, he really understands our style a lot better than when he originally played in the band, so he\u2019s able to integrate himself in a really positive way. I think it\u2019s just gonna make the music in the future sound even more interesting. It\u2019ll be a lot more guitar-oriented maybe on the next album, even more than this one, because he just has such an amazing technique that he could contribute to the band.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sonny\u2019s initial jaunt with Incantation was short-lived, lasting from 2002 until 2004. \u201cThat was because he was looking for something different than what we were doing at the time,\u201d John reflects. \u201cHe really wanted to get his name out as a guitar virtuoso, and what we were doing at the time and what he wanted to do at the time were just two different things. He was a tight player and a really great player, but at that time, he wanted a band where he could show off as a guitar player. He wanted it be almost something like Nitro, or a Yngwie Malmsteen kind of band \u2013 something like that \u2013 and it just wasn\u2019t the right place for him. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cNow after 10 years of playing though, he wants to be more a part of a band unit and more writing good songs than just writing good solos and stuff like that. That\u2019s why it\u2019s working out better this time, because he\u2019s more interested in being a part of a band unit. I think he realised after jamming with us for the first time, that his goal of just wanting to be a great solo player will only take you so far as a musician. There\u2019s a certain point where if you can\u2019t write good music, it doesn\u2019t matter how great of a solo player you are.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Much of <em>Dirges Of Elysium<\/em>\u2019s compositions had been authored and demoed even prior to the completion of predecessor <em>Vanquish In Vengeance<\/em>. \u201cThe majority of the song stays the same just from jamming at practice,\u201d the singer discloses. \u201cYou just try to practice the song as much as possible beforehand, so that you\u2019re ready when it\u2019s time to record, there are minor things that change. Maybe some vocal patterns, or some of the lead ideas, or some harmony kind of stuff. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cOnce we hear certain things, we decide \u2018Let\u2019s do what we can to make this one a little more aggressive,\u2019 like with \u2018Debauchery\u2019. Alex wrote the majority of the music for it, but once we listened to it, we realised that it might sound better being more of a faster, aggressive song. When he had it though, it was little more of an abstract, mid-tempo style. We added some faster drum beats to it, and just tried to get more of that old school, aggressive death metal vibe to it. It just kind of worked out very good. It ended up being one of our favourite tracks I guess, especially to play, because it has so much aggression to it. The majority of the main structures are there right before we even enter the studio, though.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAll we had to do pretty much is to try to finalise a few of them, to try to get a better vibe out of them, but then also, there were a bunch of new songs we wrote for the album after <em>Vanquish In Vengeance<\/em> too. Everything just kind of fell together really good. Everybody contributed to the songwriting, and just tried to get the whole vibe and everything. It was a fun experience to work on the album. It was just a good vibe I guess is the best way to put it \u2013 a good vibe between everybody \u2013 and I think it came across in terms of the way the album came out.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"image floatedright\">\n<table width=\"100%\" align=\"center\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\" border=\"0\">\n<tr valign=\"top\">\n<td><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-content\/themes\/metalforces\/images\/spacer.gif\" width=\"10\" border=\"0\"><\/td>\n<td>\n<div align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/incantation_vanquishinvengeancelarge.jpg\" border=\"0\"><\/p>\n<table width=\"100%\" align=\"center\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\" border=\"0\">\n<tr valign=\"top\">\n<td>\n<div align=\"left\"><span class=\"smalltext\"><\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<td>\n<div align=\"right\"><span class=\"smalltext\"><\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<p>Writing numbers doesn\u2019t adhere to a typical pattern for Incantation. \u201cThere\u2019s no real way,\u201d John divulges. \u201cWe don\u2019t really have one way of doing it. Sometimes I\u2019ll write the majority of the song before going to practice, show it to everybody, and then jam it out, but a lot of times things will just change. When we\u2019re at practice, other people will come up with different ideas, or we\u2019ll just realise that the tempo or something isn\u2019t working right. So really, the best way to explain it I guess is just it\u2019s kind of a group effort that we try to pull the best out of everybody. There\u2019s more of an actual band practice vibe instead of just coming to somebody with riffs, and saying \u2018This is how it\u2019s gonna be. Just play it.\u2019 We\u2019re very open to everybody\u2019s input; pretty much everybody writes music in the band too, so everybody comes to the table with stuff, but sometimes we\u2019ll collaborate together too on stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Certain motifs denote each members\u2019 respective songwriting. \u201cDefinitely everybody has their own way of doing things \u2013 kinds of riffs that they normally come up with \u2013 but everybody also is&#8230;,\u201d the axe-slinger begins. \u201cSometimes we\u2019ll surprise you with something that is totally off the wall and different too, but I don\u2019t know. At least for me, I just get in a mindset of what kind of song I\u2019m trying to accomplish, what kind of feeling with the song I\u2019m trying to do. Then I just try to sit there and think about it for a while, and then come up with riffs that express those feelings. Some of the stuff that Alex wrote for the album is a lot more spontaneous as far as&#8230; He\u2019ll just play guitar and come up with some cool stuff, whereas I sit there and really think about the idea beforehand, and then try to create it I guess more from my imagination, and then try to play what I\u2019m thinking on guitar. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe all have different ways of doing it, but we put it all together and analyse everything. We\u2019ll record the stuff at practice, and then listen to it, and try to think \u2018Okay, would this riff sound better slower or faster?,\u2019 or whatever other kinds of analyses a song might need. We definitely try to record this stuff, demo it ourselves first, and listen to it so we can all make sure that the song represents what we\u2019re trying to get across with that song.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u2018Off the wall\u2019 is a description John uses with respect to Alex\u2019s songwriting contributions towards <em>Dirges Of Elysium<\/em>. \u201cReally, a lot of stuff that Alex came up with on the album I was really happy with,\u201d he cites. \u201cSome of the riffs were definitely different than what I was expecting and stuff. It\u2019s hard for me to say for my own riffs, because I know what my own riffs are gonna be (laughs). I can\u2019t really make that judgement call, but definitely Alex on the \u2018Dirges Of Elysium\u2019 song, he came up with some really cool stuff that I wasn\u2019t really expecting from him and what not. So yeah, he definitely came up with some cool stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>Dirges Of Elysium<\/em>\u2019s older compositions were laid down during 2011-12, to be more precise. \u201c\u2018Debauchery\u2019 was only demoed probably three months before we recorded that, so it\u2019s kind of a newer song, but all those songs like \u2018From A Glaciate Womb\u2019, \u2018Dirges Of Elysium\u2019 and stuff like that \u2013 \u2018Portal Consecration\u2019 \u2013 were demoed two to three years ago, something like that,\u201d the vocalist elaborates. \u201cWe changed them since the demos, but we demoed them out just to kind of understand, to try to keep the structures and just look back on them when we had more time. When we originally recorded the <em>Vanquish In Vengeance<\/em> album, we just had too many songs for that recording. We decided to put a few aside, and just work on them more later on. We did the same thing with this album; we wrote too many songs for the album, but because we do that, it gives us more freedom to pick what songs work well together on an album instead of just using everything that we have. That\u2019s a definite plus.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBasically, they\u2019re all really good songs \u2013 it\u2019s not like we chose the best songs. All we did was just choose songs that work well together, but I imagine that probably all of them are gonna be used for our next album. What\u2019s gonna happen is that probably for our next album though, we\u2019re gonna have some leftovers again just because we\u2019re always writing so much material. For us, it\u2019s better to have a few extra songs and figure out which work well as a unit rather than not have enough songs, and just have to put everything on an album. So yeah, they\u2019ll definitely be used. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re starting to play some of the leftover songs already, and everything seems to be sounding good. Like I said, they\u2019re not leftovers as far as not being good leftovers. They were just left over because we didn\u2019t wanna do a double-album. We wanted to do a single album, because to do a double-album would be too much damn work (laughs). No, forget that (laughs). We have a hard enough time doing one.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Incantation reaches its 25th anniversary during 2014, having formed in 1989. The ensemble plans to  mark the occasion. \u201cWe are doing some sort of release,\u201d John reveals. \u201cWe don\u2019t really wanna say what it is yet, but we do have a couple of songs that we recorded at sessions for the last album that we\u2019re gonna do for a 25th anniversary special release. We\u2019re basically saving all of the material that we have for another album; we\u2019re not gonna put out another release, except for the 25-year anniversary release. We don\u2019t have a definite date for it, but it\u2019s gonna be out before the end of the year, for sure. We don\u2019t have everything 100% put together just yet, because we\u2019re still trying to organise it. It\u2019ll definitely be released within the next six months; we\u2019ll have it out before the end of 2014.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Just over half of <em>Dirges Of Elysium<\/em>\u2019s tracks emerged from initial ideas the guitarist devised. \u201cLet\u2019s see&#8230; \u2018From A Glaciate Womb\u2019 is a majority song that I wrote,\u201d he submits. \u201cLet\u2019s see&#8230; What else? \u2018Portal Consecration\u2019, \u2018Carrion Prophecy\u2019, \u2018Charnel Grounds\u2019, and \u2018Impalement Of Divinity\u2019. I can\u2019t think of the other title right now, but those are all songs where I came up with the majority of the riffs and stuff like that, or just overall vibe. Then once everybody comes in, it kind of changes. A song like \u2018Debauchery\u2019, Alex came up with the majority of the actual riffs for the song, but once we all got together, it changed a lot from his original version. <\/p>\n<div class=\"image floatedleft\">\n<table width=\"100%\" align=\"center\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\" border=\"0\">\n<tr valign=\"top\">\n<td>\n<div align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/incantationjohnmcentee2013livephoto1.jpg\" border=\"0\"><\/p>\n<table width=\"100%\" align=\"center\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\" border=\"0\">\n<tr valign=\"top\">\n<td>\n<div align=\"left\"><span class=\"smalltext\"><b><em>John McEntee<\/em><\/b><\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<td>\n<div align=\"right\"><span class=\"smalltext\"><\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<td><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-content\/themes\/metalforces\/images\/spacer.gif\" width=\"10\" border=\"0\"><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cIt came out really good, because we were all able to really jam out on it. It\u2019s kind of weird, because the song has a totally different sound than what it originally had when he was originally thinking of the riffs. It came out better though, because we were able to take something that he did and put in a more aggressive vibe, whereas before it was a lot more melodic or something like that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>John described <em>Dirges Of Elysium<\/em>\u2019s material as being more \u2018diverse\u2019 in comparison to <em>Vanquish In Vengeance<\/em>. \u201cI think the doomier parts on it are a little more atmospheric\u2019y doomy than the last album, which was more just really barbaric, I guess \u2013 a doomier album,\u201d he critiques. \u201cI think it has a lot to offer; the fast parts have a really good, aggressive style to them I think, and it just has a good amount of mid-tempo. It has everything you\u2019d expect from an Incantation album. I think it\u2019s just done real well; I think we were able to capture a really good feeling and emotion on the album, which to me is always what helps to make a great album.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>And as well, the axeman deemed the outing to be a more aggressive affair. \u201cProbably the key to the whole thing was just the fact that we wrote the songs and everything with the same line-up as the last album, so it was really great,\u201d he enthuses. \u201cWe just kind of got tighter as a band, and really let everybody\u2019s strength come out on this album. Definitely on the new one, the bass player (Chuck Sherwood) has a stronger role on the album; not just in the songwriting, but also just with what he\u2019s contributing to the songs and stuff like that. That definitely brings another extra edge to it, but I think just the fact that we just played these songs so much and we just really got a great band vibe on it, I think makes it better than the last one. <em>Vanquish In Vengeance<\/em> is an album I\u2019m really proud of; I think it\u2019s a good album as well, but luckily, this one is doing better and has a little bit of a different vibe, which I think is a good thing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>John musically identifies as a guitarist, first and foremost. \u201cI will always be more of a guitar player than a vocalist, but I\u2019ve taken on the role of vocalist of the band and I feel very comfortable with it now,\u201d he muses. \u201cI like expressing myself as a frontman in the band, but I think no matter how I slice it, I\u2019m always gonna be kind of more of a guitar player and a songwriter than a vocalist. I\u2019m always gonna give everything that I possibly have to doing the best vocals possible though, and fronting the band as strongly as I can.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A variety of lyrical topics surface on <em>Dirges Of Elysium<\/em>. \u201cOne of the songs that I wrote on the record was \u2018Debauchery\u2019, and that one is another anti-Christian kind of song,\u201d the frontman tells. \u201cThat\u2019s just about the fact that unfortunately, there are religious people that are really judgemental about stuff. They don\u2019t want to realise that just because they believe in something&#8230; If other people don\u2019t believe exactly what they believe, they believe they are wrong, stupid, or something like that instead of just being content knowing that people have different views. As long as no-one\u2019s an asshole about anything, it\u2019s fine for different people to have different views on religion and stuff like that. That\u2019s the lyrics that I wrote. Some of the stuff that Chuck wrote is definitely a lot more intricate and a lot more to do with historical kind of stuff than my lyrics are, but they both can work well.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c\u2018Charnel Grounds\u2019, that song has to do with Tibetan monks. Basically, they were put out to die back in&#8230; I can\u2019t remember what the year of that was, but they were basically slaughtered and tortured. Their bodies were cut up and left out to be fed to the vultures, and that was definitely a cool concept that Chuck came up with. \u2018Elysium (Eternity is Nigh)\u2019, that song \u2013 the long one \u2013 is about the rivers of Hades. It\u2019s a Greek mythology kind of thing, where each river represents a different power \u2013 fire and water, and stuff like that. That\u2019s where the bodies would flow down the river, and basically be open for judgement by the Greek gods. That\u2019s a couple of really cool concepts, I think.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>Vanquish In Vengeance<\/em> was cut at Mars Recording Compound in Shalersville, Ohio with engineer Bill Korecky, something that was the case for albums five through eight overall. This wasn\u2019t the case for studio album nine, however. \u201cWe like recording with Bill Korecky, but unfortunately, his studio closed down,\u201d John laments. \u201cI guess he couldn\u2019t afford to keep it open any more. He had an older kind of analogue studio, and he wasn\u2019t getting the same kind of business as he used to back in the day. For the future, we\u2019ll have to end up going to different studios to record our stuff other than Bill\u2019s studio. The newest one we did at a couple of different studios; we did the drums at a studio called Subspecies X, and then we recorded the guitars and vocals mostly at this other studio called Bad Back. It\u2019s a studio where Acheron recorded their last album at, so we had to go there for this one. It worked out good. Yeah though, we like working with Bill, but unfortunately things change over time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Incantation mainman personally accredits Dan Swan\u00f6 as producer for <em>Dirges Of Elysium<\/em>. \u201cDan Swan\u00f6 did the <em>Vanquish In Vengeance<\/em> album too,\u201d he notes. \u201cWe give him an idea of what we\u2019re looking for and he just basically makes it happen, which I think is really good. What happens is after recording it, you just get so caught up in the recording that it\u2019s nice to have somebody else kind of mix it afterwards and not involve us quite as much, because you get too caught up in everything. Being a musician on it, it\u2019s better to have an outside perspective and someone to be able to capture what you\u2019re looking for. Basically, what we do is we record it. We\u2019ll then send it to Dan, and Dan will mix it at his studio. He\u2019ll send us mixes, and let us know. He\u2019ll get our feedback, and see what we like, what we don\u2019t like. <\/p>\n<div class=\"image floatedright\">\n<table width=\"100%\" align=\"center\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\" border=\"0\">\n<tr valign=\"top\">\n<td><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-content\/themes\/metalforces\/images\/spacer.gif\" width=\"10\" border=\"0\"><\/td>\n<td>\n<div align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/incantation_dirgesofelysiumlarge.jpg\" border=\"0\"><\/p>\n<table width=\"100%\" align=\"center\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\" border=\"0\">\n<tr valign=\"top\">\n<td>\n<div align=\"left\"><span class=\"smalltext\"><\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<td>\n<div align=\"right\"><span class=\"smalltext\"><\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s better that way, because in the past we used to be there for the whole time of recording it, and be there for the whole time of mixing it. It\u2019s so easy to kind of get tunnel vision that way. It\u2019s better to have somebody come in that you can trust \u2013 that can do a good job for you \u2013 and take care of the mixing aspect of it. I think Dan does an amazing job. We like working with him, because he comes from our old school death metal era. He really understands what we\u2019re looking for, our sound, and our style. He\u2019s not trying to make it too modern sounding; he still keeps that traditional death metal vibe to it, which is really important to us.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Such comments suggest that <em>Dirges Of Elysium<\/em> was a self-production, although John insists that \u201cDan produced it. Yeah, pretty much he did the production work for it. We gave him the okay on everything, but he was the man behind the board.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A sole credit as mixer would arguably be more accurate. \u201cI guess he mixed it and produced,\u201d the singer ponders. \u201cIt\u2019s a little complicated, because we kind of produced it and he produced it too. I guess we both worked on the production aspect of it, but he was in the charge of the mix. The best way to describe it is that both Dan Swan\u00f6 and ourselves produced it. That would be the proper way of putting it I guess, now that I think about.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Eliran Kantor handled cover artwork duties for <em>Dirges Of Elysium<\/em>. \u201cThe basic concept was the dirge of Elysium, the kind of idea of the song with the Greek mythology,\u201d John informs. \u201cHe came up with the idea of the body giving birth, and I guess that\u2019s supposed to represent the rebirth of the souls after they came to Elysium. They have the the serpent-head, and the wolf-head. That\u2019s all kind of based around the dirge of Elysium concept. He definitely did a really good job. I think he definitely did a great job with the artwork \u2013 he came up with this great piece of art. I think it looks really dark. I think it fits the band, and also the concept, the dirge of Elysium, and stuff like that. I think he did a really good job with it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>Dirges Of Elysium<\/em>\u2019s cover artwork is arguably superior to that of predecessor <em>Vanquish In Vengeance<\/em>, whose design Will Kuberski was responsible for. \u201cThe other one I thought was good too, but it was just a totally different kind of vibe,\u201d the axe-slinger evaluates.<\/p>\n<p><em>Dirges Of Elysium<\/em> was released on June 10th, 2014 via Listenable Records.<\/p>\n<p><em>Interview published in July 2014.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>INCANTATION &#8211; Dominant Ethos Anthony Morgan July 2014 On March 12th, 2014, it was reported that guitarist Alex Bouks had parted ways with Johnstown, Pennsylvania-based death metal outfit Incantation following a six-year tenure. Bouks\u2019 overall studio haul as an Incantation member consists of studio full-lengths eight and nine, specifically Vanquish In Vengeance (November 2012) and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1250],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-incantation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21677","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=21677"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21677\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21716,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21677\/revisions\/21716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}