‘All life is temporary, what lasts is consciousness’. So goes a line from Blood Incantation’s epic song “The Stargate” from their mind-boggling new LP Absolute Elsewhere. Here, the band has totally left the confines of Earth in order to explore the beyond, and this new record is their documentation of their discoveries.
Melding atramentous death metal with cosmic progressive rock seems to be the most unlikely of bedfellows at first look, but this is exactly what Blood Incantation has achieved through their unorthodox crossbreeding of genres. It’s no secret that the band has been influenced by Death as much as Tangerine Dream, and this time around, they proudly wore their influences onto their sleeves. First half “The Stargate” explodes out of the black hole with their own brand of cosmic death metal, but just when things are about to get more sonically punishing, the band threw a curveball into krautrock territory, complete with a masterful synthesizer solo from Tangerine Dream’s very own Thorsten Quaeschning; transporting the listener to the 70s, replete with cannabis smoke and cosmic musings about the origin of life. The Stargate even has a 20-minute short film that’s nothing short of magnificent, the music perfectly soundtracks the journey of the band from medieval times to interstellar travel with the discovery of an ancient bloodstone. The song deftly morphs into Blood Incantation’s neck breaking death metal oeuvre, taking flight as the rest of the tune shoots straight for dark matter.
“The Message” starts out in disorienting fashion but quickly morphs into Blood Incantation’s expert genre-fusion. Soaring solos, pneumatic drumming, echoing vocals from some forgotten, ancient gateway speaking cosmic truths. BI manages to confuse at first with how adept they are at changing styles in the course of a single song, and Absolute Elsewhere feels like the culmination of everything that Blood Incantation has been driving towards. They left microgenre behind for the freedom to explore any style they want. “Tablet II” of The Message is some serious mindfuck of a masterpiece, and at one point I had to make sure if somehow David Gilmour’s vocals suddenly made a guest appearance. It’s that good. And when the echoing vocals urge you to wake up, BI rapidly explodes into full-on cosmic death metal before a final, grandiose closer of memorable synth lines and serene guitars.
Without a doubt, this is Blood Incantation’s finest moment. It absolutely pays to not be confined to the trappings of a specific musical style and to experiment with the melding of seemingly disparate genres because, if anything, Absolute Elsewhere proves that nothing is exactly new but the only thing you can do to push the envelope is to fearlessly explore the possibilities when artists come up with something that has never been done before. Enjoy the ride towards the Hellish cosmos and come back in one piece, if possible. Blood Incantation will guide the way through the Stargate.