Album Review: Blood Incantation - Absolute Elsewhere
Reviewed by Richard Oliver
Of all the bands that have risen to renown in recent years, Blood Incantation are certainly leading the charge on that front. The death metal act, having formed back in 2011 out of Colorado, United States, are a textbook example of succeeding slowly but surely as they released one Demo after another, followed by an EP and then a Split alongside Spectral Voice (Comprised most of Blood Incantation’s member roster anyway) before finally unleashing 2016’s Starspawn upon the metal masses. This was an absolutely massive release not merely for the band alone but for general audiences too, for it soon garnered the repute of leading the way for this emerging generation of extreme metal and as Blood Incantation released Hidden History Of The Human Race in 2019, three years later, it became clear their early success was no sheer fluke. Yet the band have continued to surpass expectations, releasing a fully Ambient album, Timewave Zero, in 2022, and have continuously employed songwriting that sees their spacey, near-psychedelic take on cosmic powers massively accentuate conventional ideas on track progression within death metal. Whilst they played with these ideas to some degree on their last record, this upcoming release, due October 4th, and through Century Media Records for the first time in the band’s career, features just two tracks though each surpasses twenty minutes in length and clearly form some two-part structure. I knew I had to try and get my hands on Absolute Elsewhere to ponder where else Blood Incantation could go next, and soon I didn’t have long to wait.
While the band are employing their contemporary riffs and songwriting you’re always on the receiving end of something else being laced into the primary delivery of instrumentation. So, the band may throw riffs and these gradual drum tracks that build upon each other but there’s often something else occurring in the background simultaneously. They’ll be throwing these slabs of riffs your way all the while another guitar wails behind them, or they’ve got these soaring vocals reaching the record’s ceiling and they will be sustained too with healthy control behind them. But Blood Incantation have never gifted us conventionally sounding riffs and they haven’t started doing so herein, for their tone feels misaligned as if their guitar sound is running on some parallel axis against the stream of regular death metal. With other acts it’d be cited as an artistic choice, yet it’s entirely at home with Blood Incantation’s identity so much now it’d feel out of place had the riffs not been applied with such a spacey vibe. No matter where you are throughout Absolute Elsehwere, something big or small is happening to keep you thoroughly engaged and fascinated with where they’re taking you next.
The band aren’t afraid to get a little weird, and that’s often been one of their defining traits. Throughout their career, Blood Incantation have demonstrated their affinity for ambient elements their music and so confident have they been of this approach they write and recorded an entire Ambient record. So in that spirit it’s no surprise we should hear the implementation of keyboards and synthesisers during this listen since it’s not just another instrumental layer the band like to use, but is another avenue by which they deepen the immersion we’re subjected to. Once you’re listening to Absolute Elsewhere there really isn’t any other choice but to experience the record in full given its two-sided structure so you feel compelled every time to see the record through to its end and whilst each track is over twenty minutes in length, you never feel like your time could be spent elsewhere because this record encompasses your entire horizon. The record is able to weave its death metal and weirder, progressive style together so fluidly that it doesn’t feel like the band are simply moving from riffs to ambience to riffs again, rather that the flow of songwriting feels to be the sole organic means by which this record could have come about as. Absolute Elsewhere, if nought else, lays a journey out before you and merely asks whether you’re up to it since you won’t be the same upon returning.
Given how heavy this album is, and the weight Blood Incantation hurl at your senses, I think it’s easy to feel the record as wondrously mixed and produced. I’d say it’s the best realised Blood Incantation soundscape yet, and I mean “soundscape” in its truest extent. Longtime fans understand the band are more than concrete riffs and bellowing vocals by this point; there is the hyperdimensional, psychedelic element that oozes through all their music and being able to convey the flittings in and out of extreme metal with synthesisers and trippy ambience is no small task since the mix needs to accommodate for so many differing resonances, frequencies etc. But experiencing Absolute Elsewhere is no different nor more difficult than hearing birdsong or any tune you’ve ever caught on the radio. The band may berate your senses with these equally huge but searing pieces of instrumentation however they’ve rendered the experience of such a ludicrously straightforward means of doing do. It doesn’t take long for the record to demonstrate it’s taking you far from your current vistas and into alien, unknowable realms and you’ll be completely relaxed and content with such a displacement of being. The band can punch you square in the throat and each guitar chord played carries a fist of tension but singular notes, licks, emit a faint echo detailing the wilder powers Blood Incantation have such an affinity towards.
When we consider how organically the band are able to weave the differing styles of their soundscape together, we must recall to ourselves that music like this isn’t written in an afternoon. It requires time and patience and experimentation to get it down right so both band and audience can be satisfied with it; twenty minute tracks cannot be done overnight for the audience going in needs to be assured their time is being respected and that the band are capable of even writing and performing such lengthy tracks to keep them entertained competently. It’s this kind of planning through songwriting that gives Absolute Elsewhere its sense of internal structure; there is not a single spot throughout their performance where you might be able to escape, or where their sound feels weaker somewhere at all. At any given moment you know what has brought you to this point, what the band are doing in the moment, and how their current sound is propelling you forth into the next or closing piece. It’s even more daunting when you realise these two tracks can easily be performed as one, the band just wished to break it up into two giving it its opening and closing arcs. It’s one incredibly, meticulously planned record.
In conclusion, Absolute Elsewhere is easily Blood Incantation’s finest hour. Over the course of their full length releases they’ve been reducing the number of tracks on record whilst lengthening what they include. I think we’ve reached a point with the band where they know, and we know they know, what they are all about and what they may do in the future. This is a simply incredible record because you know pretty much what to expect yet how that effect is pulled off will always leave you utterly dumbfounded. It’s so equally blunt force and hypnotic that it reinforces the belief I’ve firmly held that Blood Incantation are Pink Floyd’s successors in extreme metal wherein one understands how to astrally project during a record of theirs. If people go into this record fearing there’ll be an over abundance of synthesisers or ambience elements, they can rest assured for they are utilised when the songwriting necessitates them. Absolute Elsewhere manages to be deeply atmospheric without trying to be so owing to its interwoven songwriting that never sees one side of the band stand out for too long before another angle of their identity is blessed with the spotlight. It’s easily their greatest written work to date and is more than likely to dazzle and leave many in a mute state upon its October 4th release. Absolute Elsewhere. Absolute masterclass.
