Into the Exposed Abyss

It would be completely impossible to describe this EP without referencing Malignancy a dozen or so times, so I'm not even going to try. Incarrion's only full release sounds a great deal like 'Motivated By Hunger'-era Malignancy- you know, right on the border where songs end and complete insanity begins. 'Into The Exposed Abyss' sits on that same fence but falls off on either side extremely frequently, making for a listen that could hardly be described as relaxed in any sense. An extra dose of chaos comes in the form of a tinge of Mindly Rotten to the music, making songs that would otherwise be just very, very technical death/grind into bizarre, too-fast abominations of guitar shred and buckshot drumming.

If you listen to Malignancy, you know they're excellent musicians and clearly extremely well rehearsed. If you listen to Incarrion, you know they're excellent musicians but this might just be the first time they've ever actually played together. They're all playing the right things (aren't they?) but everyone seems to be vaguely off time from one another. Honestly, the production is so dry and boxy it's hard to tell what the fuck is going on at any given moment, and the volume of the instruments seems to go up and down constantly, with a convoluted sweep riff covering everything at one moment just to get smeared across the soundscape by a seemingly random blast beat. Occasionally the band will fall into step for a section of more 'normal' death metal with palm-muted riffs and double bass before getting frustrated and diving back into the abyss of technical insanity.

As one would expect, no single musical idea seems to last for more than ten seconds, but as opposed to Malignancy's discrete parts lined up one after the other, Incarrion has a perhaps unintentionally more narrative and atmospheric style. The themes of the band seem to be abstract and vaguely Lovecraftian in nature, and the music fits this, always in a state of sinister flux, with its precise nature unknowable to human ears. The sudden shifts between chugging, logical riffs and sudden bursts of mistimed technicality seem almost ominous, like the band is trying to hide something much more horrible than you could imagine just under the nest of guitars and drums. It's abstract, yes, but it's a lot of fun along the way.

It's sort of nice to hear an unknown CD like this, since its style (the ultra-chaotic, ultra-technical death metal band) was never very popular to begin with and has only gotten scarcer as time has passed. If you can track this one down, I recommend it; Malignancy fans will of course want to pick it up, as well as most tech death fans. Those who would instantly dismiss this sort of thing as soulless technicality need not apply and should go listen to Darkthrone to make themselves feel better.

Here we have a three piece death/grind band from Greenville, South Carolina U.S.A. From my point of view there is getting to be too many bands like this although they definitely are talented, I’m sure you’ve heard it all before.

The thing that makes these guys stand out from most other grind/death metal bands spewing out of the USA, is their technicality , although the production could be better, it is actually very technical through most tracks. The opening track “The Creature Experiment” is a fine example of what they can do. With this being my second listen of this EP, a ”sounds like” album that comes to mind; is believe it or not; Cryptopsy’s “Blasphemy Made Flesh”. The mix could have made the album sound a bit less buried but isn’t bad enough to scare anyone.

The vocals are done by all three members but mainly the bassist. The vocals are “guttural” like anyone would expect, except with a bit of high pitch nuances; again reminding me of Blasphemy Made Flesh. One weird thing is a high pitch girly scream on the track “untangled from the Flesh”, it almost sounds funny, yet it works. The bass is there, and audible. The guitar is enjoyable, quite technical and fast. Some good slamming riffs as well as odd solos. And last but not least, the drumming. It still amazes me that anyone can drum to the caliber/speed of any death metal band and the drummer here doesn’t kill this trend. Very technical and well fit with the guitars. Blast beats, and the whole bottle of wax. The album is definitely worth it for any fan of brutal death metal or deathgrind. If you see this around, obtain it!