9th Order Extinct

This album covers so many aspects of Swedish death metal it’s almost too much without being too much, it’s right in the sweet spot. From brutal to melodic traits and emotional to groovy riffs it’s all right here. This is partially accomplished by grabbing members from different bands.

I was introduced to this band a couple years ago, I loved death metal and did like what I head, but I thought I heard this all before. So I put them on the backburner. Almost two years later I heard the track “Grand Future Disease” again. I noticed that that song along had a wide variety of music ideas, especially for death metal. I was hooked. I picked up the vinyl version of this release and am enjoying every second of it.

The songs themselves vary enough to make each one unique. The album’s speed ranges from quite thrashy and mid-paced to your typical speed (older school) death metal song. As said before there is a huge variety of death and thrash metal elements used throughout the album. The guitars are really great on this one, and give proof to my statement about variation. Just listen to the track “Grand Future Disease” (You can actually download it from their official web page http://www.incapacity.tk ), the super heavy/groovy buzz-saw like rhythm guitar lures me in on the main riff and at the same time the lead guitar has a unique melody going on that you might heard in some melo-death band. I can’t say I’ve heard many guitar combinations like that, if I have, it certainly wasn’t as catchy as this. The guitars on this album have lots of melody in some cases too (listen to track “File Under Torture”). Unfortunately, I can’t share the same feelings about the bass, where in the hell is it (Sorry Anders Edlund, maybe it’s just me)? The vocals on 9th Order Extinct are excellent death metal growls, nice and traditional death metal style. The way the lyrics are belted out remind me of Bloodbath’s approach. Andreas Axelsson’s performance is raw yet comprehensible. The drums are excellent; loud and clear. In fact, things get a little technical such as on the track “A Plague of Their Own”.

If you like thrashy death metal, or just about any Swedish death metal band, listen to this album. You can’t get much more Swedish than this. These guys incorporate elements of every death metal oriented band from their country into one smashing album.

Incapacity delivers a lightning storm of charred death metal that will overpower you with its weightiness. “9th Order Extinct” is given a dark touch by the raspy guttural vocals of Andreas Axelsson, who reaches deep from within to pull out some completely possessed invocations on “Winged With Fire” and “Shadows Of The Watcher”.

From a six string perspective, axe grinders Robert Ivarsson and Christian Alvestam pull off unsettling mixtures of melodic licks and furies of riffing that make for a black wall of distorted aural hammering. Moving between tommy gun blasts and solid deathly thrashing, drummer Henrik Schonstrom provides a plethora of pummeling poundage on tracks like the throttling “Cross-fixed”

The rhythms of the group are sometimes loose, yet always provide an ample bleak background for Axelsson’s deep and demonic vox. Oftentimes the band opts for a straight ahead thrash metal attack and with the growling of the vocalist providing a feeling that is devoid of light, the rest of the band continues bashing through song parts relentlessly.

Every track on this record is well-executed, leaving the entirety of “9th Order Extinct” to be exactly what fans expect from a death metal ensemble these days. Incapacity mix things up, but never deviate from darkness and in doing so, provide a musical atmosphere akin to a blasphemous death-ride headed straight for the front gate of Hell.

While many don't put much stock in the idea of a supergroup, when you get some Swedeath masters together who have been in more bands than you can count, it seems to me there's a good chance they will be awesome.

And sure enough, that is the case with Incapacity. They sound like Bloodbath's "Resurrection Through Carnage" should have - catchy, but retaining that old crunchy Swedish sound that brings delight to the ears of its minions. Not that I can talk much trash about "Resurrection," I like that album a lot, but the way the guitars sounded made it pretty murky. Not the case with "9th Order Extinct," where you can hear everything that the hairy Swedes in Incapacity were attempting.

The vocals are growled in a blunt, upfront and IN YOUR FACE fashion that varies very little but gets the job done, the drums don't fuck around, and the guitars pump out one Stockholm riff after the next, with the notable addition of some nice melodic bits here and there to get things stuck in your cranium. And the bass, ahhh, it rounds out the low end. Yeah, that sounds right. Sure there are songs that just don't manage to stand out and others that are missing some integral element or are repetitive, but what metal album doesn't have songs like this? I'm sure you are thinking of one now, but let me just say that most of them have a song or two worthy of the skip button. "9th Order Extict" has a few, like "Christless Ways," but the highlights far outweigh them.

There are a LOT of highlights on here - "Winged With Fire" has a tremendous, fist pumping chorus, "File Under Torture" (always a good idea in any office setting, by the way) incorporates a memorable melody, "Cross Fixed" is fast and VICIOUS - don't blink or you'll miss it, and "A Plague of Their Own" (take that Madonna) and "Overdose on Purity" both kick your ass using that wonoderous Swedeath methodology. My favorite has to be "Shadows of the Watcher," slow, rhythmic, brutal. Whenever one of these old school bands decides to slow it down and pummel the listener ("Eaten," anyone?), the results are magic.

So for everyone out there who likes GRAVE (can't wait to get their new album in the mail, already preordered from Century Media), BLOODBATH, RIBSPREADER, etc., check em out. You won't be sorry.