I remember when INCANTATION Onwards to Golgotha first came out, the local radio show would play these guys a bit, and I remember sitting there late at night in bed thinking “Fuck, these guys are evil!” This first album of theirs has a very deep bass heavy sound with some kick ass drumming making probably one of the more intense death metal album released from that time.
While the sound is instantly heavy and brutal there’s enough variation to keep things interesting and hold the listener for the length of the album. This genre does suffer from what I’d call a lack of variation but thankfully this album is not one of them. Generally speaking I don’t think the New York death metal scene had quite the same flair as the Florida scene but this one is heads and shoulders above most of it, trading punches quite well with Suffocation and early Cannibal Corpse releases from the same time.
This is hard-core death metal with a very underground feeling. The sound is dark and menacing. Even though the drumming and guitars reach some break neck speeds it has a very doomed slow feel to it. I’d say I find this a level of obscure-ness beyond the Florida scene. Whilst Incantation came along a little while after the founders of the genre there’s some great pedigree that had worked with the band in the early years and later onwards as well. This album to me feels similar to early Autopsy (But more focused) and the first Dark Throne album.
The band state they were a little “Inexperienced” in the studio and still honing their craft, but regardless sometimes there’s a magic that happens when a young band gets in the studio for the first time and this is definitely a testament to that. Whatever the band was doing, they did it right and produced what is an absolutely crushing debut album that is held in high regards amongst the underground metal scene to this day!
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