Metal is a funny thing. There
are fans who seemingly want their favorite bands to never change, and just as
many others who want to see the next new thing. Metal has been sub-divided into
so many subgenres that, if you're like me, you just throw up your hands and
separate it into good metal and bad metal. I'm not a big fan of all the
subgenres but it would be hard to describe this album without at least
scratching the surface of all that. So here goes.
Blood Incantation have
dropped a really amazing album on us with “Starspawn”. The music takes the
listener in so many directions that it would be pointless to try to describe
them or their music as this or that genre. At their roots, I would say they are
a technical death metal band, but that would be like saying Beethoven was a
piano player. When the opening track on your album is a thirteen and a half
minute epic that covers every death metal subgenre that I can think of, plus
black metal and even some doomy sounding stuff, and it all sounds seamless, and
you just want to play that track again, right away, I think its safe to say
that these guys have something pretty unique going on. What impresses me the
most is that they have taken a style of music that many people, even fans of
the style, consider to be done, used up, that nothing new will ever come of it,
and really invigorated it with this album.They have shown that with enough
talent and chops and straight up ballsiness to try new things and put them
together in ways that no one else has, you can breathe new life into a
well-rotted corpse.
All of these songs work. You
hear one by itself and as I noted above, you want to listen to it again, right
away. You hear the entire album, and everything fits, everything feels as though
it tells you a story, takes you on a journey, and you want to hear it again.
There is a lot in death metal that is tried and true and traditional and you
can find those bands that do exactly that. They are a dime a dozen, as the
saying goes. But bands that want to rip death metal a new one, not just the
music itself but its fans as well, that is something new. It is exciting for me
to listen to this and know that a type of music I have loved for a long time
can still have something new.
We're supposed to tell you what
these bands and music sound like in these reviews. Its not a cop out to say, I
can't do that with this band. They definitely have their own take on things,
and they combine so many different styles of metal that it is hard to pin it down.
They are just a metal band, and if there is any style of metal at all that you
like, you will dig these guys. Unless you are so far up your own ass with being
“kvlt” and “troo” that you can't see a good thing when it appears in front of
you.
I know I say this a lot, but
part of what we do here is write about what we really dig. Buy this album. It's
out now on Dark Descent. Just do it. Trust me on this. You're going to really
like it, maybe even love it. Go see these guys live. Support things like this.
It is what will keep our great metal community going.
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