INCANTATION - Sect of Vile Divinities
Relapse Records
If you were to ask me what my favorite INCANTATION album is I'd say "well that last one they put out was pretty damm good". Yeah I'm a fan and to me when comparing past releases by INCANTATION they're either damm good or fucking great. Of course I have my favorites, Diabolical Conquest from 1998 would be my number one pick. The three before that I'd also count as being damm good as well as 2006's Primordial Domination. Not only was that one fuckin great but Vanquish in Vengeance from 2012 was even better.
So Sect of Vile Divinities is the band's second full length release since returning to Relapse Records a few years ago. 2017's Profane Nexus was a good release in my not so humble biased opinion. For the life of me I just can't remember that one getting as much marketing hype as this one has received. Never saw that when they were on Listenable Records. But anyways what you have here is another good release by the band. If that sounds lackluster praise then I'll explain.
Remember when around a decade ago you had a slew of new bands all influenced by old school death metal. One camp went the route of old school Swede death while the others went total early INCANTATION worship. You can take a guess to which ones I liked the most. Anyways in 2012 these guys, well basically John McEntee and whoever was with him at the time, came out with Vanquish in Vengeance and literally blew away the young ones in the room.
The thing was that John McEntee didn't go back in time to repeat himself, which he couldn't do anyway. Instead he just showed that INCANTATION is still heavy as fuck and a part of the modern era of death metal. Now with that said, the past two albums along with this one haven't changed much from that pattern. There's some amazing stuff on those and this album but it's not perfect from start to finish. And on here this one finishes better than it starts.
"Ritual Impurity" is a good enough opener but it's a dirge up until new lead guitarist, Luke Shively, dives in with a solo worthy of ripping your face to pieces. "Propitiation" is murky death doom reminiscent of past efforts but lacking in that bestial filth. And that's pretty much how this album flows in pattern. The heavy, wannabe suffocating cuts are fine and ironically what this band is known for but the real meat comes in on the faster or mid tempo ones.
Some of this album's best moments are on songs like "Black Fathom’s Fire", "Chant of Formless Dread", "Shadow-Blade Masters of Tempest and Maelstrom" and pretty much the last four songs especially "Fury’s Manifesto" which closes this release out. John's vocals are the epitome of death doom dirge. His riffs run from painful to aggressive. Long time drummer Kyle Severn still has a militaristic pounding style going for him. Bass work by another long time member, Chuck Sherwood, just keeps things heavy. Newest guitarist, Luke Shively, is as good as his predecessor. But then to play lead guitar in INCANTATION you must remember the revolving door.
The bottom line, and probably the shortest paragraph, is that Sect of Vile Divinities is definitely (bias point) a good album as far as the last batch of albums by this band go (bias point). I've listened to this album so many fucking times and I just have to repeat the obvious. The latter half is better than the beginning. Actually it's better than some other band's whole full lengths.
LISTEN HERE:
https://incantation666.bandcamp.com/
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