Blood Incantation "Interdimensional Extinction" Cassette

Cover art by Bruce Pennington, known for his many sf-novel covers. Original is in colour.

The first EP Interdimensional Instinction from 2015, both full lengths albums Starspawn (2016) and Hidden History Of The Human Race (2019, already released on tape by DSR in another version) and the last critically acclaimed ambient album Timewave Zero (2022) from US-based cosmic death metal travelers BLOOD INCANTATION finally back on limited (333 each) music cassette.
Hailing from the heart of the Rocky Mountains, this Colorado death metal group have made a hell of an impact with these four relatively short songs. The EP's briefness is definitely to their advantage, as this is completely devoid of filler and chalked full of ass kicking riffs and face-melting solos. While they are hardly reinventing anything, Blood Incantation is a band that really understands their chosen style of metal. This grabs from a wide variety of death metal stylings. You have a fair amount of rambunctious tech riffs, lots of OSDM badassery, some (thankfully tasteful) prog sections, some doomier passages - you get the idea. Everyone in this band is very technically adept, yet this never devolves into a garish display of technical showmanship. More than anything, Interdimensional Extinction shows that innovation isn't always necessary to make some really solid music.
I've seen this band be discussed most frequently as a technical death metal band, and I suppose if it had to be pigeonholed into one style of death metal I suppose that would be it, but at the end of the day this doesn't really feel like a tech death band. Besides completely lacking the wankery many tech death bands unfortunately find themselves succumbing to, technicality is hardly the purpose here and there really are a lot of styles at play. It feels like Blood Incantation has the heart of an OSDM band and uses that base to bounce different ideas off of. You've got some of the undisputed classics like Morbid Angel and Demilich forming the foundation, as well as some cult favourites such as Timeghoul. The music has a somewhat dirty, cavernous old school style. Honestly, I don't know why everyone is saying these guys are a spacey death metal. Actually, I do - the EP is about space. But c'mon, guys . . . just because it's thematically about space doesn't mean it sonically evokes it. That's just people hearing what they want to hear. This really doesn't have an atmosphere that far removed from the next death metal band. It is the riffs, the solos and the musicianship which makes this awesome.
The riffs here are pretty diverse. There's definitely some tech stuff going down, but these riffs still feel like meaty fucking riffs rather than technical rhythmic guitar parts that don't really feel like riffs. They have staying power, and they kick ass. There's lots of old school awesomeness pummelling about as well as some mid-paced tremolo stuff. My favourite riff is actually when they slow it down - in "Subterranean Aeon" there's this awesome Wagnerian doom riff which excellently evokes this overwhelming feeling of impending war. The riffs shouldn't get all the glory though; the leads fucking kill on this one. Although there are some really good suspenseful evocative leads, shit really starts getting real when things speed up. The soloing is not a far cry away from classic-era Morbid Angel: a frenzy of technically proficient but intentionally sloppy guitar swirling and tumbling over itself with astonishing speed. The bass here is decently high in the mix and quite intricate at times. It especially shines through on the brief proggy breaks. I often find myself noticing something new in the bass work with each listen, with it twisting around under some meaty and straightforward riff. The drumming is just as awesome. There's lots of speedy assault type stuff going on, but he also produces some sweet fills and mixes up the tempo rather frequently.
Overall, this checks all the boxes for a good death metal release. This wouldn't be much without good riffs, and thankfully this has heaps of them. The musicianship is great, the production is pretty good for a young band that has yet to release a debut album and this has held up after multiple listens. This band has a great sense of dynamics and are very good at making transitions feel natural. The only thing that wasn't particularly spectacular about this was the middle-of-the-road death growls, but they were well enough executed and it works with their sound. Like their sister band Spectral Voice, Blood Incantation shows a lot of promise (however, Blood Incantation is a level above Spectral Voice). The debut album is sure to be a beast. Interdimensional Extinction is quality death metal that should appeal to fans of the genre across the spectrum.

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