Like
free jazz,
gangsta rap, and
techno,
death metal is certainly an acquired taste. Some people love it, while others flat-out detest it -- and quite often, those who love it are glad that others don't share their enthusiasm because they like being a part of something that is underground and far removed from the mainstream. Critics of extreme
metal will argue that much of it is one-dimensional, and in some cases, they're right -- bands who favor an ultra-fast tempo 100 percent of the time can be exhilarating, but they're also limited.
Blasphemy, however, isn't as predictable as other discs that came from the
death metal/
black metal field in the early 2000s. This CD has all of
death metal's trademarks -- fast tempos; lyrics dealing with Satanism and the Occult; and a choked, grunting, evil-sounding vocal style. But while some
death metal bands have nothing but fast tempos,
Incantation likes to change tempos frequently. Parts of
Blasphemy are fast, although the disc has more than its share of slow-tempo moments; in fact, it's safe to say that
Blasphemy has more slow passages than 95 percent of the
death metal releases that came out in the early 2000s. But fast or slow,
Blasphemy is unrelenting in its brutality. Producer/engineer
Bill Korecky favors a very dense sound, and that density makes for a brutally heavy CD. Density is the thing that makes the blistering
free jazz of
Charles Gayle and post-1964
John Coltrane much harsher than
Anthony Braxton's AACM explorations, and it's the thing that can make
Slayer a lot more punishing than
Judas Priest or
Black Sabbath. Density gives the listener very little breathing room, which is why
Blasphemy is as harsh and claustrophobic as it is. Whether the tempo is fast, slow, or medium,
Incantation takes no prisoners on this above-average
death metal release. ~ Alex Henderson