Review Summary: Death/ Doom pioneers intend on showing Christianity how blasphemy is really done.
"If God be for us, who can be against us?"
- Romans 8:31
If Pennsylvania’s Incantation had anything to do with putting up an argument against this, I would say they’ve won with their under-appreciated and savagely brutal sophomore effort
Mortal Thrones of Nazarene. Incantation are all about the middle finger to Jesus Christ and spraying blasphemous intentions to the Christian youth. To put it bluntly to all you death metal fanatics, Incantation are everything great about death/ doom metal and have been proving this from 1992s
Onward to Golgotha all the way through to 2006s
Primordial Domination. This unique take of the two styles may have come years before them, but they still remain unmatched in their given territory and continue to pump out quality releases today. However, going through Incantations discography,
Mortal Thrones of Nazarene seems to stand out amongst their quality outputs in terms of musical diversity and overall thematic concept.
Not to sound like a broken record, but Incantation play up old school death metal better than most brutal death metal bands (past and present) and know how to spin some variation into the mix with doomy passages that seem to make the listening experience satisfyingly agonizing. Opening crusher “Demonic Incarnate” demonstrates this contrast perfectly, attacking the listener on a multitude of tempo changes, varying from a speedy guitar prance intro to a gapping cavern of darkness when they decide to slow things down to halt. What’s also great about these sudden contrasts in tempo is that it offers many surprises in song variation, never allowing themselves to just play a million miles a second that so many death metal bands relied upon during this time period. From here on in, each song utilizes a great combination of these elements and mixes them up to a point where every song can be distinguished from one another, yet they somehow manage to stay cohesive as a whole listening experience. When the focus is taken away from the drop-of-a-hat tempo changes and face smashing riffs that are full of beefy muscle and filthy leads, it’s the lyrics of Incantation founder John McEntee and vocalist Craig Pillard who know how to bring hell to your listening pleasure. Crucifying Jesus several times over with a razor sharp mind to lyrics, their concept roughly outlines the downfall of religion and the pain to those who worship the Son of God Himself. Lyrical excerpts can’t do this evil album justice, but here is great example of why they shine (burn in hell) over most death metal vocalists intent on summoning Satan:
”Trembling diabolic possession of the now extracted, dreary soul/ Chaotic inhibition, eternal visions of blasphemy real./ Ancient tongues recite northward/ Infernal praise as thunderous tides enshroud/ Apocalyptic threshold/ Demons in my flesh/ I am now reborn”
If only most satanic death metal bands could write lyrical passages as well as these guys (once again, lyrical excerpts do this band no justice, just read the lyrics for yourself), maybe one day Satanism could be taken a bit more seriously and thus, a serious war between heaven and hell could be fought. Up until then, I will be satisfied with this masterpiece; truly one of the greatest death/ doom metal albums ever created. Incantation have only grown more mature with time and
Mortal Thrones of Nazarene really showcases their progressing song-writing capabilities. Hail Satan and wave your middle finger to Jesus because Incantation wouldn’t have it any other way.
