Mavericks from the start, Blood Incantation never gave the impression that death metal was the be all and end all. On their debut album, Starspawn, they announced their widescreen vision. Complex, cerebral and cosmic, the Colorado quartet were tricky to pin down, and all the more thrilling as a result. 2019’s Hidden History Of The Human Race took their brutal, psychedelic and prog-inspired indulgences deeper into uncharted territory, and the only sensible response was to gaze on in awe.
Death metal’s chief lysergic professors took an extraordinary detour in 2022, releasing the ambient space rock monolith Timewave Zero, and confounding most people’s notions of what Blood Incantation were capable of in the process. And now there’s this: a 45-minute, two-song exploration of what happens when death metal and progressive rock reach an exquisite state of symbiosis. This is not progressive death metal in the traditional sense. Instead, Blood Incantation have imagined and made real a world where extreme metal becomes just one of many vital threads in a kaleidoscopic, mind-bending tapestry.
Absolute Elsewhere refuses to be consumed in easily digestible chunks. Blood Incantation have harnessed the bold spirit of late 60s and early 70s progressive rock and applied it to their own eccentric, intermittently visceral ideas. Divided into two sprawling epics – The Stargate and The Message – this is heavy music at its most immersive and fascinating, and a proud salute to the very concept of the album itself. The Stargate begins with the first of several forays into out-and-out death metal, and it feels good to be reminded what a phenomenal death metal band they are.
But nothing is forever on Absolute Elsewhere; after noisily announcing their arrival, Blood Incantation embark on a wild, meandering journey through languid, 70s-influenced dream rock, skittering sequenced synths – courtesy of Tangerine Dream’s Thorsten Quaeschning – disembodied, sampled dialogue, dubbed-out production quirks and blissful acoustic guitar reveries, with frequent stop-offs for more artful brutality and guttural sermonising. Every transition on The Stargate is seamless, every stylistic switch makes sense, and the avalanche of mischievous embellishments, from wistful flute to frantic bongos, brings yet more lysergic colour to the party.
Miraculously, The Message is even more impressive. After slamming down another dose of death metal that would give Immolation sleepless nights, the band take another circuitous route to prog metal nirvana, taking in swathes of frosty post-metal mirages, knotty tangles of riffs and grooves, glistening lakes of Pink Floydian serenity, shiver- inducing vocal harmonies, and a particularly wonderful passage of somnambulant folk rock that suddenly erupts into epic metal splendour. One final deluge of shimmering synths and the sound of a biblical storm later, this fantastic voyage is over.
Throughout it all, every element contributes to the majesty of the whole, and Blood Incantation are audibly exhilarated by their own creative madness, riding waves of inspiration to destinations unknown, and steadily stretching away from any and all competition. Absolute Elsewhere is a mind- blowing masterpiece.
Absolute Elsewhere is out this Friday, October 4, via Century Media
