Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Incantation - Deliverance of Horrific Prophecies (1991)


Released in 1991, Deliverance of Horrific Prophecies is the second E.P. from Incantation. Right from the start, this comes across as a monstrous recording of primitive and evil Death Metal. It retains all of the elements from Entrantment of Evil, yet somehow the band comes across as more confident and determined.

On this recording, the guitar tone is thicker, the vocals are deeper and the overall sound is heavy as lead. The slow passages are even slower and the drumming hearkens back to the heaviness of the first Candlemass record. There are fast-paced sections with blasting drums and wicked tremolo riffs, but they are in the minority this time around. The doomier parts seem to define the sound, here, especially with the title track. "Profanation" is rather mid-paced as well, though fails to convey the same sense of dread. The vocals suit the music well enough, though a raspier approach (such as that heard on the Profanatica material) would have sounded more appropriate and added to the evil atmosphere.

Though Death Metal is better suited to having a more raw production with sharper guitars and not so much of a bottom-end, in my opinion, it sort of works here since there is such a doom influence and just the overall heaviness of the sound. Incantation was never the greatest Death Metal band to come out of the states, but they certainly were one of the most consistent and one of the few that didn't stray into foreign territory as various new trends came along. Deliverance of Horrific Prophecies is certainly worth listening to.