Label - Century Media
Release Date - 25th February 2022
Words - Tony Bliss
As much as Blood Incantation are at the very forefront of a thriving death metal scene, the band have always been about so much more than just gutturals and blast-beats. We need look no further than their 2019 LP ‘Hidden History Of The Human Race’ for evidence that the Colorado quartet are all but delighted to bask in their own cosmic diversity, and whilst that album included generous fistfuls of freewheeling, progged out intent, ‘Timewave Zero’ rockets even further into orbit with a wholly ambient, none-less-metal but no less interesting forty minutes, delivering an experience that affirms the bands creative potency equally as well as any metal record could manage.
At just two - nigh on and just shy of - twenty minute tracks in length, these cuts inch unhurriedly across a constantly mutating soundscape, where synths, Moogs, Hammond organ and all manner of classically prog-rock minded toys collide, pooled together and spread across a sonic canvas akin to a steady drift through space aboard the Nostromo. The band have pointed towards the likes of Tangerine Dream and Lustmord as inspiration, and it is indeed difficult to look past these touchstones as ‘IO’s bubbling atmospherics begin to swell and burst and a decidedly bumper sized synth refrain takes over, and ‘EA’ glides in with more 80’s led cinematic pulsing before bowing out in fully fledged, Pink Floyd high-drama mode.
In truth, it’s a record that makes perfect sense from Blood Incantation, and beyond their iron-clad death metal credentials points to one of many reasons why the band have garnered such a rabid fanbase throughout their career; a wilful desire to make music entirely on their own terms and, most importantly, pulling it off with the self evident skill and purpose of a group of musicians fully invested in their craft, no matter what sphere they may be working in. In that sense, ‘Timewave Zero’ is metal as fuck, and demands respect. Apparently no one can hear you scream in space anyway...
8/10
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