Album Review: Incite - Savage New Times
Reviewed by Dan Barnes
Formed in Phoenix, AZ, back in 2004, by Richie Cavalera, Incite have been releasing groove-infused thrash metal for almost two-decades, starting with the Murder and Divided We Fall EPs of 2006 and 2008 respectively, before The Slaughter and All Out War full-length albums in ’09 and 2012.
2013 saw the recruitment of Christopher ‘El’ Elsten on bass and drummer Derek Lennon Lopez to stabilize the rhythm section, both of whom are still plying their trade with the band, while Savage New Times is the first recorded outing for newly recruited, ex-Becomes Astral, six-stringer, Layne Richardson.
It’s been three years since the last record, Wake Up Dead, and the intervening years does not appear to have blunted the band’s cutting edge. Album opener, Lies, fires out of the blocks like a statement of intent, no dalliances wending introductory passages, rather an immediate punch in the face. Pummelling drums and chugging guitars are the order of the day, with Richie barking over the top of them. Savage thrashing and a fist-pumping chorus, with some Pantera-style grooves solidify the unbridled energy of this commencement, though the aethereal end section came as something of a shocker. With Doubts and the Fear being built around harsh grooves, you might he fooled into thinking Savage New Times was an effort to ape Pantera’s sound, but it categorically ain’t.
Richie didn’t grow up in the same household as Max without learning a thing or two about how to thrash. Feel This Shit (I’m Fired Up) has screaming guitars and pummelling aggression and its bridges could have been an outtake from The Haunted; No Mercy, No Forgiveness, the album’s second promo video, follows in much the same direction, and Chucked Off takes its old school thrash credentials and adds a skipping progression to give it a thoroughly modern make-over.
The album’s closing trio lean heavily into the genre of metallic hardcore: Used and Abused has a fat and modern grooving riff, played with whirlwind speed in the vein of Hatebreed; similarly, the closing title-track busts out the big breakdown before the record’s conclusion, and Never Die Once takes us further back into Hardcore territory with some statement making defiance.
Two of Savage New Times more unexpected moments come in the shape of first single, Just a Rat, which takes its fat chugs and gives them a discordant, stuttering sound, a hip-hop heart and a Nu metal approach.
On an album of three-minute screamers, the five-minutes-plus Dolores, sitting at the centre of the record, is completely out of leftfield. A slow, gothic piano creates the atmosphere, joined by a frenzied guitar to create something stylistically wholly at odds with the other nine tracks on offer. But Dolores is a necessary diversion into the over-blown that makes the rest of Savage New Times carry its abrasive intent and means those aggressive moments hit as hard by the end as they did at the beginning. It also shows the breadth of creativity of the band, just brimming with ideas.
I was genuinely impressed with every aspect of Savage New Times, from the songwriting and musicianship to the delivery and execution. I imagine the Cavalera name to be something of a double-edged sword for Richie: on the one hand it can open doors, on the other there’s a weight of expectation loaded into it. Luckily, Incite are no flashes in the pan, trading on a name, but rather have something meaningful to add and the talent to realise that vision.
