Incantation "Profane Nexus"

In the past decade, Death Metal has sort of gotten the brunt treatment while Deathcore rose to the forefront of aggressive metal. There's a huge misunderstanding regarding what actually differentiates the two genres, and although there's countless subgenres (Technical Brutal Death Metal and Grindcore being two of them), it's crucial to pinpoint when an outstanding classic Death Metal record lands on the shelf, and how it impacts the scene and its ability to differentiate itself from the competition.

     Incantation comes from the same school of thought as Dying Fetus and Kreator, where the sound isn't so brutally guttural that the approach seems foolish. The sound does cater to more modest metalheads where classic building blocks are foundational rock build ups. Just check "Visceral Hexahedron," where after two tracks of pounding brings back to mind Kataklysm's classy approach to lingering riffage. Now this isn't to say the band doesn't shred, it's just more of a Kreator to a Testament, then it is an Aborted to a Slayer. 

     What does all of this even mean? To understand where things began and how they've evolved so drastically in terms of sheer force and brutality, it's crucial to perch up to Incantation and connect with a classic Relapse act that didn't know how to emulate anything, besides pioneering their own approach. In 2017, it's astounding to hear such an effective record from a legacy act. Not much could've been said about Suffocation's contributions earlier in the year.