Welcome to The Saw’s Butcher Shop! Your Master Butcher is back, again, today to club you over the head with a New Album Review; a new studio release by some OGs of Death Metal, Incantation. Unholy Deification (Relapse Records), the band’s 13th full-length (or 12th studio album), dropped on August 25, 2023. Incantation are famous for darkness and doom, and this new record is no exception. Crunch… Crush… Break-neck… Ultra gutterals… and the conjuring of evil are always the outcome for this band!
Incantation (if you don’t know) are one of the founding bands of the New York Extreme Metal Scene. Formed in 1989, Incantation are part of the “Big Four of NY Death Metal” – along with Suffocation, Mortician, and Immolation. Each of these four bands specialize in differing brutality, and Incantation’s specialty is big, fat doom riffs combined with the areas famous break-neck time changes and nasty vocal gutterals. Talk about a complete lack of evolution, Incantation proudly pummels listeners in the same way they have for 34 years – Crunchy, crushing, groovy riffs, multiple time changes (driven by classic Death Metal drumming), and John McEntee’s (founding member – vocals, guitar) ultra-deep gravel gutterals.
Unholy Deification is not brutal in its technical speed – quite the opposite. It’s Doom Metal that wears the rotting flesh of Death Metal. Incantation, and specifically this album, are horrifyingly slow in pace (with mid-paced tempo changes to break your neck) and a never-ending change-up of pounding riffs. As the album title suggests, the theme of the record is the act of becoming divine, by unholy means. Thus, the sense and feel of every track is creepy, dark, and evil; conjuring shadows of other-worldly entities both musically and vocally. Honestly, this is horror music! And it is horror music done well! I love it!!
Ten songs (strangely named and oddly numbered) in 41 minutes – no fluff and no frills – just devastating, doom-riffs, haunting leads, bashing drum licks, and gravely gutterals. From the opener, “Offerings (The Swarm) IV,” through “Megaron (Sunken Chamber) VI,” to the album closer, “Circle (Eye of Ascension) VII,” Unholy Deification is wickedly unpredictable in structure and composition. It never gets stuck in its own carnage – each song stays in the 3-5minute range [“Invocation (Chthonic Merge) X” is the shortest at 2:52, while “Circle (Eye of Ascension) VII” is the longest at 5:44]. Ya Girl understands that some OG’s love the nostalgia of flat closet recordings, but I love it when a record sounds good, and this new album from Incantation is produced very well; it really sounds great! You can hear, clearly, every terrifying note, hit, and snarl!
Your Master Butcher met John [McEntee] at a Dying Fetus show a couple years ago, and (as usual) he was a super-nice guy. And if you haven’t done so, you really need to check out an Incantation show when you get the chance. You won’t be disappointed, I promise!
Rating: 9/10! Horrifying Doom/Death Metal at its finest!
Favorite Songs: Concordat (The Pact) I, Chalice (Vessel Consanguineous) VIII, Convulse (Words of Power) III
Stay Metal,
THE SAW
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