Album Review

Incarna – Spires Deceased

• 5th Mar 2008

Modern metal is a term seemingly at odds with itself: basing most of its productive period several years ago and constantly reverting back to old trends, vying to get closer to its purist form; maybe even music itself-with its circulatory motion is in a similar groove-but then metals been an unpredictable animal from the beginning, an interesting, intelligent, provocative and above all, compelling work has been produced under it’s moniker.

Incarna produce the chest beating attack that’s a signature for heavy music-but within that occasionally you find yourself rapping your head too-intelligent thrash?, well it certainly picks its fights with a strong degree of lucidity and it is unquestionably modern in its stance.

Taut and determined from the outset it’s ‘Crystal deity’ ‘s superbly dense main riff that splits your chest in two the main body of the songs sheer weight hitting you-as if Kill switch engage had created a mechanical version of itself and it turned on its creator.

Positioning itself just on the right side of complex to be technically adept and similarly aurally punishing, ‘Hallowed plague’s Slayer- falling-apart main theme is as haunting as any Alice in chains melody-and it’s these departures that raise the e.p-moments when a little risk pay dividend; letting the drums breathe in ‘Hallowed’ being a noticeable departure from the genres expectations.

Both guitarists Kiloran and Woodward are only beginning to work together, finding spaces and moving within their own circles as well as playing together-Church states’ moments of technical insanity showing their synergic possibilities.

There is a feel of experimentation-that some of these ideas are in a gestation period, but there’s no doubting that the creations born are running amok within the lab. Most reviews will claim they storm and blast through their ideas but in reality they are as clinical as a surgeon with a gun to his head.