Blood Incantation
Starspawn
(Dark Descent Records)
Space is a definite favorite topic of metal bands, somewhere behind Satan and blood, but few bands have conjured the feeling of being in space like Colorado-probably-by-way-of-
It doesn’t hurt that, much like their fellow labelmates Horrendous, Blood Incantation is able to take old techniques (like recording in analog) and retro death metal stylings and bring them into something that feels fresh and new. Starspawn recalls Gorguts, Morbid Angel, and Demilich, sure; however, their sound never feels like a re-hash. It’s more of a sense of sonic touchstones from which an alien race studied to craft a nearly perfect set of harrowing death metal. In that way, the record is an absolute success. It’s quick (at 34-ish minutes), blazing, and dazzlingly technical. The band had the guts to put a 13-minute doozy first, and it’s a great display of everything the band does well. The fact that some of the rest of the album doesn’t quite measure up is more of a compliment to how excellent “Vitrification of Blood (Part 1)” is than any complaints of utter disappointment at the rest of the record.
