Incurso

Spawn of Possession is one of those bands that, in my opinion, made tech death more accessible for people who are not fans of the genre. People might get turned off by how crazy and noodly the music sounds, making prog death sound more accessible due to the inclusion of clean vocals and slower, non-metal elements within their sound. While Necrophagist did change people's perceptions towards tech death, some changes were not necessarily for the better, like being overly wanky and noodly while lacking substance. But Spawn of Possession showed that you can go all noodly and flashy while keeping the brutality and musical complexity that fans of older tech death bands like Suffocation could resonate with.

This album from 2012 marks the final release of the band and, in my opinion, their magnum opus. It features a lot of what the purists want in tech death, that being the spiralling riffs, unpredictable songwriting that makes sense after multiple listens, and the blast-heavy and pummeling drums. It has it all and then some. It features a lot of songwriting conventions that were copied en masse soon after this album came out, and unlike At the Gates/Necrophagist, it isn't all bad. Bands inspired by SOP (Archspire, for example) have been generally enjoyable, although it is usually harder to get into them than SOP.

The album begins with a short instrumental intro before catching the listener by surprise with the sudden introduction to the second track, Where Angels Go Demons Follow. This song is what I want in a tech death/melodeath song: powerful riffs accompanied by blast-heavy sections that do not sound gratuitous. While the rest of the album is your usual tech death songs that are quite flashy, two of the songs stand out among the rest by their song lengths and songwriting styles: The Evangelist and Apparition.

The Evangelist is a 9-minute song that shifts between fast and slow sections that let the song breathe and communicate the lyrics through its song structures. One example of the music telling the story instead of the lyrics is at the end of this song, where the mother of the protagonist learns that his mother kept him in the church, fleeing by herself and being subjected to the same treatment that the protagonist went through. The abrupt shift from tech death to a funeral doom outro might sound nonsensical at first, but this section brilliantly symbolises that the protagonist is stunned after knowing the depravity of his own mother valuing herself over her own son, the protagonist being the child of rape from Father Dorian raping his daughter (the protagonist's mom!), and the fact that he was not the only person Father Dorian and his priest brigade laid their dirty hands on. It also has a bonus impact in that what the protagonist of The Evangelist went through is happening every day in real-life Catholic or Christian churches, to the point that the pope had to intervene and tell those priests to stop. Maybe Varg was on to something when he torched the churches.

Apparition, meanwhile, is an 8-minute epic that serves as the album's closer. Unlike other SOP tracks, this is the only song in their entire discography that features a full-on orchestration that runs throughout the song, unlike the brief harp intro in Scorched from their previous album. It is a good example of orchestration that makes the song even heavier since the baroque-sounding orchestration that features a church organ intro sounds imposing and foreboding. The rest of the orchestration is no slouch either; despite not having church organs, the strings are played in a minor key and have a sound similar to the "psycho strings" commonly seen in horror films, which enhance the horror feel of the music (assuming you actually read the lyrics). This song is also long but still follows the conventional song structure of a defined chorus, bridge, and rising or falling action. It is clear that this sort of technical death metal is what non-tech death fans like, as this is by far their most popular song and, for some, their gateway to tech death as a whole. Imagine SOP, a Swedish tech death band, getting their well-deserved recognition because of a fan-made rhythm game being filled by a mostly otaku/weeb audience. If I had a nickel for every case like this, I'd have two nickels. It ain't much, but it sure is weird. (the rhythm game thing, not the Swedish band thing)

The lyrics here have increased in gruesomeness and intensity. As SOP is known for their signature "story in a song" structure, their songs are structured in a way that accommodates their story. But in this album, all these stories are somehow made even more disgusting and appalling. The Evangelist aside, the lyrics in Spiritual Deception are just one wild ride after another. A father is imprisoned after his wife gives birth to a demonic child. He manages to escape the prison and tries to kill the child, being told that his wife got raped by a demon, and then passes out attacking the child, returning to the prison for some reason. It is made clear that this song is actually a sequel to "Uncle Damfee" from their debut album "Cabinet," as Damfee is present in both songs. The rest of the album's lyrics are not that much better either, so better wear your glasses, touch some books, and read those lyrics.

The instruments marked an increase in technicality compared to "Noctambulant", The guitars got more noodly and flashy, courtesy of Christian Muenzner, who was the guitarist for Necrophagist's Epitaph album. The bass also enjoyed a bigger presence here thanks to bass virtuoso Erlend Casperson (who also wrote Sertitude of Souls and Deus Avertat); it is now very noticeable and sounds really heavy. The drums took a step back, however. The blast-heavy sections that I loved from Noctambulant are now massively reduced in frequency; no more insane drum performances like Scorched, just a heavily toned-down version heard in WAGDF. I understand that this is due to the drums being manned by a new member named Henrik Schonstrom, but I miss how Dennis Rondum just blows his drums like there is no tomorrow. While the vocals are pretty generic in how they sound, it is how Dennis delivers them that makes him unique. Before Archspire and Oli's weird amalgamation of death metal growling and rap (not a bad thing; it is still a fresh take on death metal vocals even after so long), there was Dennis Rondum, spitting bars at an inhumanly fast speed that took lots of talent and training to be capable of performing growls at such a speed. When all five of Archspire's members said that their primary influence was SOP, they meant it; every aspect of the band's sound has SOP all over it.

After this album came out, Dennis Rondum and Jonas Bryssling knew that they had reached their peak and disbanded SOP instead of risking tarnishing their reputation with a subpar release. I think they were on the mark with that, as no other tech death album managed to be on par with Incurso in technicality, accessibility, atmosphere, and songwriting. I recommend any death metal fan pick this up; it might or might not get you into tech death, but I am sure that you will like it.

As to why this is not a 100, the drums are a step back compared to Noctambulant, and the production is a little bit too sterile for my liking.

Highlights: Where Angels Go Demons Follow, The Evangelist, Spiritual Deception, Apparition

I owe an apology to technical death metal. For probably around a decade or a bit more I treated it as little more than an overgrown cancer that exaggerated its worst tendencies and tropes before dressing them in a squeaky clean package for modern prog dorks at the expense of the more multifaceted aesthetics of older death metal. The search for more hidden metal obscurities however brought me towards that genre more frequently than it did not and I would even change my tune on few of its practitioners such as Profanity, Ulcerate, debut era StarGagzer, Atheretic, and so on, realizing that while their style did mark an undeniable break from classic genre canon and towards a new contemporary sound they were still capable of evoking the same primordial voice of terror and the inhuman that makes death metal what it is. There's quite a few bands that even if they aren't particularly good did not follow the stereotypes I blanketed the genre with and more than a few proved themselves to be every bit as creative if not on occasion moreso than the titans of old.

Yeah this isn't one of them.

Spawn of Possession are one of the pillars of technical death metal in its modern form, probably a little behind Necrophagist in terms of sheer influence and this album has grown to be quite respected in recent times but pretty much for all the wrong reasons. Is it wanky? Sure, but in a genre with "technical" in its name everything is expected to sound like it's by musicians who could do jazz fusion in their spare time. No, the problem isn't that they're too good with their instruments or that there's too many notes being spewed but the particular kind of technical death metal they play is almost an eerily accurate grab-bag of pretty much everything that can go wrong in the subgenre crammed into an album over-wrought with an excess of ideas of which nearly all of them become tiresome and eyeroll inducing in minutes.

The primary issue with this album is that it lacks any sense of dynamic build-up or sense of being able to halfway coherently explore a single idea because nearly every single moment here is intended to be some kind of mindblowing showstopper and extreme display of dexterous gymnastics. The problem however with the Michael Bay approach to songwriting is that when every scene is something exploding or some dudes yelling while firing their uberhightech sci fi guns in bullet time is that all these normally tolerable tricks of the trade pretty much lose all their taste in the same way trying to finish an entire bucket of Halloween sweets in under an hour does; maybe the arpeggiated-neoclassical-phrygian-sweep-chord-shred-whatever-the-fuck-these-are-supposed-to-be-called was fine for the first few times but when you have a few hundred more essentially interchangeable sections each competing to outdo the other with pure wow factor, the effect is lost quickly and you find yourself reaching for the barf bag. In a time when technical finesse has gone from a skill that was once rare and arcane to the everyday and the mundane (or if you're already big on a lot of jazz fusion and progressive rock where these characteristics are built in rather than external additions), that only dulls the taste even further.

The icing on this diabetes-inducing cake is that they're from the dreaded meedle-weedle "I totally would've been on Shrapnel Records if it was 1987 bro trust me" sweep-maniac school of tek-metal. In other words, the subgenre's equivalent to saccharine dime-a-dozen early to mid 2000's gothen-core that might as well have made a generation of riff-lovers repulsed by the idea of melody itself. There's no real "bite" to this music, nothing that really conveys much in the way of genuine sustained motion other than a few perfunctory moments of welterweight needling riffs that pop up for a few passing moments. This is not long before wild flurries of fretboard dancing blippity-bloopity blink and you miss it shreddy segments pop up. It's like flipping through random snippets of indulgent power metal solos from bands mostly clogging up Russian filesharing site back pages slapped together to form what I guess is supposed to be "riffs".

Continuing a point from the second paragraph, it's not impossible to make memorable high intensity demanding melodies but they have to carry some sort sense of gravitas them. The happy-go-lucky emphasis on every melody leading to a trillion or so other barely related iterations constantly robs it of any kind of staying power whether it's prematurely tension destroying sudden flurries of glittery emptiness capping some sections or the groan-inducing wimpiness of the moments when they try to actually have some bona fide aggression. Yet the latter always boil down to the most trite dialed in chugs or riffs that simply sound like sped up melodeath filtered through Alvin and the Chipmunks pitch shifting.

The songs subsequently never really feel like they go anywhere and serve primarily as receptacles of ideas that at best sound like they were tossed away from countless other styles, most of them perfectly workable by themselves in their respective contexts. However assembled into this tiring mess of painfully forced eclecticism and obnoxiously tuneless attempts to have nearly every possible moment be a blockbuster climax, the album blurs together even moreso than something by Malignancy, Nefas, Akakor, Involuntary Convulsion, or Blasphemer might. Yet where these bands for their shortcomings, excesses, and obsessive intricacy managed to fit ideas that could easily collapse on themselves into music that was far from accessible but had a distinct, alien, but nightmarishly lucid perspectives defined by knowing how to focus on a few core ideas and then using their instrumental skills to violently and precisely execute them. Sure it's far from easy listening but at least it's not the over-wrought hyper-accessibility all but begging for you to accept it that ultimately just takes very normal ideas and bloats them to a self-parodying degree. Technical death metal tends to do best when it's not afraid to be harsh and mystifying even if it's not in a particularly experimental form. All that theory and dexterity is considerably more satisfying if used for purposes that aren't merely taking the ordinary and dressing it up as the extraordinary.

Technical death metal is a subgenre with so much to offer but if you want to see what it's capable of then avoid this. It's ultimately just another exercise in aesthetic indulgence for its own sake. The sound might be fundamentally different but the core flaws it has ultimately mirror those of war metal, "cave man" death, "caverncore", swedeath and so on; it's just there to live up to the expectations of the style and not to actually offer a distinct voice of its own, being little more than an over-glorified participation trophy for a dead end style busy working itself into pointlessly narrow reconfigurations that are offerings to a long since faded glory and relevancy. It might have genuinely capable musicians (which just makes the bland end result all the more disappointing) but all they can really seem to think to do with it is just ultimately a withered husk of a death metal framework over-burdened with carrying the weight of an atlas' worth of shredhead tropes you've heard while awakening and falling asleep in the middle of countless prog/power metal albums. It does accomplish however the impressive task of throwing a record breaking amount of ideas at you and somehow managing to make each new one more forgettable than the last. Hats off.

Whatever type of music you're into, there's undoubtedly the heroes of the genre - the ones that started it all, or, the ones that changed the game to bring the genre into a new direction. Here in technical death metal, Spawn of Possession is just that. Beyond legendary and greatly missed, Spawn of Possession came around when tech death was starting to flatline and, along with other legendary names such as Necrophagist, Anata and Psycroptic, they helped bring the subgenre into a new direction by breathing new life into it. Of the bunch, SoP is my favorite. 3 of the 4 bands are no longer together and the other has been dead to me since they got a new vocalist, so it's quite sad to see this generation of tech death disappear like it did. Of course, I was merely a toddler while all of this took place, but I'm alive in 2021 to appreciate their works now. "Incurso," the third and final full length by Spawn of Possession, is an incredible album that takes the listener on a, err… very technical and destructive journey. With lots of pinch harmonics.

The style of "Incurso" and their previous two albums have often been copied, but very rarely is it done as well as SoP did it. It's some of the most mechanical, labyrinth technical death metal you will ever hear. Each song is like a cornfield maze, with so many twists and turns and dead ends and stop starts that'll leave you absolutely befuddled. Riffs come and go, come back later at an unexpected time and break down into other riffs without notice. It always keeps you guessing and on the tip of your toes of what they're going to throw at you next. The ol' "play that riff again, but don't play that riff again." They'll do the same riff multiple times, but don't expect it to be the same as the first time you heard it - the band adds in minute details each time to freshen up their already used riffs. Spawn of Possession mastered this art with their debut and continued to tweak their craft as they continued to release albums. On "Incurso," this riff formula is at its peak. There's a load of monstrous riffs on this record, chunky, groovy and technical. Don't forget all the great melodies and leads - "Incurso" has all of those too, and they're in every song without fail.

The fretless bass is fucking sick on this album. I don't remember previous SoP albums having fretless but I could be wrong. It sounds magnificent on this record. The bass player has plenty of parts to shine and they make the best of all of it. Super cool bass leads on this album. The drumming is, of course, ridiculous. They hired a new drummer on this album so Dennis could focus more on his vocals. Safe to say he gets the job done with explosive drumming that bangs away and uses quite neat cymbal work. The vocals are definitely better than the previous two albums. He spits, bro. Like, he goes hard in some parts, and I can see where Oliver from Archspire got a good chunk of his influence from. This dude took his vocal only opportunity and ran with it. He sounds fucking sick on this album.

What else is sick on this album? These fucking lyrics. That's right - the guy who never talks about lyrics is mentioning the lyrics on this album. I got curious due to the obvious song "The Evangelist," and good God. The lyrics in this track are gross as fuck. I love it! Such a horrible, twisted story and it really makes the song a lot better - I personally think it's the best song on the album, not only because of the lyrics, but the vocal approach and the riffs are just sick. The ending of this song is so Gorguts. I notice a lot of Gorguts influence on this album which I fucking love.

This review is pretty redundant because every tech death fan knows about this album. How could you not? It's often cited as one of the biggest game changers in the genre along with their other two records, and its praise is well deserved - this is one of the best technical death metal albums ever. No questions about it. Every aspect of it is top notch from the songwriting to the lyrics and it really is unparalleled to this day. A real shame that they split up before the follow up album could be released. It's only been 4 years to this point so there's still hope they can get back together one day. Honestly, I think they need a new album more than Necrophagist does. They have a lot more going for them. Until then, this is a great album to end your career off and most certainly a classic despite it being less than a decade old as of writing this. So fucking good.

FFO: Gorguts, Necrophagist, The Faceless
Favorite song: The Evangelist
Final score: 10/10

This is the point where I must apologize to every band whose albums I've reviewed so far on this site. I may have said things like "The drumming/guitars/bass aren't extremely outstanding" even when they were. The reason? I thought for some reason that it would be fair for THIS album to be the standard I judge other releases by. I've now come to understand that few other bands are, ever were, or ever will be as technical as Spawn of Possession were on what would turn out to be their final release: Incurso, the perfect technical death metal album.

Spawn of Possession is of the Necrophagist school of techdeath, meaning they utilize extremely fast, brutal drums, bass, and guitars with chromatic riffs that one might call "unmelodic." What makes Incurso stand out here is that despite the melodies seeming almost randomly generated they have this uncanny catchiness to them. They don't sound pleasant but they will get stuck in your head for days. And when I say they're technical, damn do I mean it. To the point where I feel entirely unqualified to describe them. The only words I have are: "Complete tonal insanity."

The drums match this absolute craziness. Even though bands like Fleshgod Apocalypse get faster than anything on Incurso, the drumming here feels just so there, so present. Rhythmically and speed-wise on a level that I, as a drummer with 6 years experience, am still unable to even comprehend.

And the bassist isn't relaxing either. Matching the drummer in every spout of rhythmical absurdity, as well as going completely ham tonally, the bass was immediately one of the standout attractions of this album, best exemplified perhaps by the intro to the track "Servitude of Souls." While this is the only time the bass takes center stage over the course of the entire album, all of the basslines share the level of technicality of this short passage.

Last (and kind of least, in this case): The vocals. They are exactly what you would expect from this corner of death metal and nothing less. Harsh, mostly unintelligible, but on point every time and partially (especially towards the climax of "Apparition") extremely fast.

It was a sad day when I opened the band page in the hopes of maybe seeing a follow-up to Incurso and instead saw those dreaded red letters in the status column: Split-up. This album was truly a one of a kind release and an absolute behemoth to follow up on so maybe it is best to have this as Spawn of Possessions ultimate album, in both the modern and original meaning of the word.

Though I had heard of Spawn of Possession of quite some time before the release of this album, they hadn't really struck to me. Noctambulant was a solid release, albeit a fairly repetitive one. Fast-forward to the year 2012, where I decided to check the album out to see if I would be impressed, and oh man, was I in a surprise. Incurso is very technical, even by TDM standards.

One of the strong points of this album is far more memorable and varying: The main issue that I had with Noctambulant was that the songs meshed together a little too well. Now I can't say anything for Cabinet, but this was a drawback for that album. This one, on the other hand, has more variety in songs due to more tempo changes and different atmospheres in each song. The bass is relevant as well, thanks to the superb work of Erland Caspersen, the increase of lead bass work is increased. A problem with many bassists these days is the lack of credit that they get, generally being the sidekick to the guitarist. Such an example of said bass lead is in the beginning of Servitude of Souls.

It's brutal, yet atmospheric: From the dark riffs to Rondum's Motor Mouth that are also deep enough, on top of insanely fast music that also has atmosphere, they also focus on capturing a sense of unease through countless amounts of riffs.

The one drawback to this album, I'd say would be shiny production: Now I'm not one for gritty production nor am I one who gets disgusted by clean production, but man is this slick, even for tech death standards. Now I understand that technical death metal needs some good production, but this is pretty much overkill on that part. But despite the personal con, I thoroughly enjoyed this album, and it is, for a lack of better term, an almost flawless masterpiece.

We're slightly halfway into the 2010-2019 era, and I feel that this will be the death metal album of the decade. When I got this album back in 2012, that was my opinion back then. It's been 5 years and only a few albums since then have came close No album is perfect, but this comes close. Grab if you love some tech-death, and even if it's not your cup of tea. They show that even "wank-masters" can show a sign of emotion and/or atmosphere.

Originally written for TVTropes, rewritten to meet standards.

Since we last saw Spawn of Possession in 2006 with Noctambulant, the landscape of death metal has seen a drastic change. Let's step into the Way-Back Machine, to a different era with a different sound. It's not quite the TARDIS, but it will do.

When Spawn of Possession were in their heyday during the early part of the century, death metal was a genre where pushing the limits of speed, technicality and tempo were the standard, not the exception. Bands like Necrophagist, Augury, Lykathea Aflame and Anata were the modern Titans, and most death metal fans (at least the ones I knew) worshiped at the altars of Suffocation, Gorguts, Atheist and Cryptopsy. Death metal didn't just flirt with jazz and classical music, they were starting to become attached at the hip. Rampant experimentation was commonplace, and the sheer technical prowess of the musicians in these bands rivaled musicians in any genre. Death metal was becoming a bit of a thinking man's genre, much to the chagrin of old-school purists, who quickly and loudly decried the end of death metal.

But the times have changed, or perhaps more accurately reverted. Those temples to the likes of Suffocation and Gorguts have long been sacked and torn asunder. Now the land is once again filled with monuments to Incantation, Angelcorpse and Entombed, and death metal has largely returned to the sounds of the late 80's and early 90's. Experimentation still exists, but even these bands have roots in classic, well worn sounds long ago established by a group of aging musicians, whose bands now seem to be reforming left and right (Purtenance, Dominus Xul and Uncanny have all returned from the grave very recently).

Now, I'm not going to argue about whether this is a good or a bad thing (in this writers opinion, it's both), but it is the reality of the current death metal scene. And needless to say, it's strange timing for Spawn of Possession to return with their first new material in six long years. It begs the question: does anyone care anymore? Recent forays by many current technical death metal band closer to the sound Spawn of Possession helped establish have been at best sub-par. Artists like Obscura, Anomalous and Archspire have not done much to help set up Spawn of Possession's glorious return to the realm, and with Old-School death metal now so trendy, how could these members of the Old-New-Guard do much to make an impact?

Incurso does make and impact though. Boy does it ever, mostly by reminding everyone that the "death metal" part is still more important than the "technical" part, no matter how brain-meltingly technical an album is. And trust me, Incurso is just that: inhumanly precise, jazzy and wonderfully complex. Tempos and riffs shift at light-speed, tearing across a galaxy of immeasurable complexity, eviscerating quasars and spewing their luminescence across the galactic horizon. The bass work is, as to be expected, is beyond compare: Erland Caspersen dominates this record, and the intro to "Spiritual Deception" is just incredibly awesome thanks to his effortlessly technical style. The rest of the instruments follow suit, and there is little doubt that the members of Spawn of Possession are some of the finest musicians on the planet.

Still, there are a lot of amazing musicians out there, and just because you can play doesn't mean you can write. But it's the writing on Incurso that makes stand head and shoulders above many of the bands modern contemporaries within this style of Death Metal. For starters, Incurso stays brutal, heavy and aggressive through-out. Sure, things get jazzy and melodic, but the album never stops being heavy and nasty from a song-writing perspective. Spawn of Possession also find a way to keep things drenched in a layer of atmosphere, effectively using dissonance, melody and even the rare electronic or keyboard segment to give the entire album an air of cosmic creepiness. "Apparition" makes the most effective use of these elements, and it proves to be one of the most atmospheric and creepy songs on the album, evoking a chorus of alien horrors in a chapel made from the dead husks of ancient moons. From a technical and song-writing perspective, Incurso delivers where releases from bands like Obscura and Fleshgod Apocalypse have failed miserably.

The same issue I had with the unquestionably brilliant Noctambulant rears it's head once again on Incurso however: an obnoxiously clean guitar sound that takes more from the album than it gives back. I understand why this happens: if you work this hard and this long on writing some of the most complex riffs in existence, you want people to able to make out each note without losing any in a sea of reverb or distortion. But some of the very best technical death metal albums in history, if not the best, featured a filthy and nasty production sound: Nespithe, None So Vile, Effigy of the Forgotten, Onset of Putrefaction. Even Spawn of Possession's first full length album Cabinet was no where near so clean or sterile sounding. Thankfully, Incurso is not quite as slick sounding as Noctambulant and the drum triggers are far less obnoxious, but Incurso is clean enough to be occasionally annoying

That said, beyond the guitar sound and the ugly cover art (I really cannot stand these Dan Seagrave-inspired covers so many tech death and brutal death metal bands use), Incurso is a wonderful return to form for Spawn of Possession. Death metal as a scene has no doubt changed since they left, but quality death metal will always be the rule that we all go by. Without a doubt, Incurso is an album of unquestionable quality, brutality and complexity.

Rating: 9/10

originally posted at http://curseofthegreatwhiteelephant.blogspot.com/

I always liked Spawn of Possession. Really good band. Good technical death metal.

This is not that band.

Good bands go south; bands disappoint. Sometimes not so good bands get a bit better. But here, you have a rare thing: a really good band, getting a lot better. In fact, I don't know that I've ever been this blind-sided by a band's overwhelming skill and artistic prowess.

To get the mandatory description out of the way: strangely understandable vocals with awesomely demented lyrics; tight, technical drumming; dark, grand classical-inspired riffs, great basslines. The most technically demanding technical death metal you will ever hear.

That says little about why I love this album so much. One reason is that it feels fresh although it draws heavily from a style of music that is hundreds of years old: classical music.

Allow me to be a music snob for a second:

In the modern vernacular of uneducated persons talking about music, "neo-classical" generally means a rock or heavy metal framework with fast guitar work favoring the harmonic minor scale. This is a misnomer, as in almost any regard this music bares little resemblance to classical music, save for some aspects of the tonality of baroque music.

*End snobbery*

Having said that, what this album is, is truly the reincarnation of classical music. When most people think of classical music, aside from the above, they think of the instrumentation (violins, timpani, flute, etc.). Neither is it's defining feature. What makes classical what it is, is every part of the music moving together and yet in it's own direction. That there are many ideas, many things being said all at once, while the greater idea is kept in tact. That, is what this album is. Complex harmonies, multiple rhythms occuring at once, ideas manifesting in many ways. All while painting a broader picture. That is classical music, and that is this album.

The darkness, the uniqueness, of this album, are also place it very high up to me. It's something hard to define. I've listened to a great deal of dark music in my life, but it is rare to come across an album so profoundly dark, it just fucking oozes atmosphere. For all it's insane technicality to still have so much emotional depth? That is truly a feat unmatched.

Because of the mind-numbing complexity of the music, it allows for extremely high number of listens. It's difficult to get worn out on a song, when you hear something new every time you listen to it. Which again, is something I normally only experience with classical music.

Other than the renowned technical death metal guitarist Christian Munzner joining the band, I'm not sure how they managed to ascend to such a height. In order for music to remain alive, it must be pushed into new directions, and that is why this album is needed. Maybe it's just me personally, but it sure feels like music as a whole needed this album to be made.

I could go on, and on, about how this music is more like classical than anything, about how richly complex it is, about everything that makes it special and remarkable, etc., but I really don't want to gush - I legitimately have more to say, but I'll keep it short, because I know these words are lost on countless idiots who will never be able to appreciate more advanced music - and leave with this:

This is the highest form of music being produced today, the only music truly pushing into any new territory. A masterpiece.

Spawn of Possession were already quite revered in the tech death underground for their innovative releases Cabinet and Noctambulant, incredibly strong albums that somehow failed to net them the attention of larger international markets. This is all about to change, however, with the release of Incurso. I will not beat around the bush here: You have never experienced technical death metal of this nature. Not ever. And with the addition of Obscura riff-crafter Christian Munzner on guitars, the lips and pants of the tech faithful are sure to be dripping with appreciative hunger.

Well fear not, as the Spawn have not only blasted their previous efforts straight off the planet with the force of an 8 Megaton nuclear missile, but crafted an immensely creepy, satisfying, and musically mind-blowing album that practically rewrites the playbook for what is expected of a technical death metal band. While at first the unrepentantly flippant, twiddling nature of Incurso might not seem so far outside the proverbial bag of severed extremities, I urge you with excitement and severity to dig deeper, as the decrepit treasures buried within this richly layered madhouse are some of the tastiest you’re likely to find this year; and beyond that, in the entire tech death lexicon.

Incurso starts innocently enough, inoculating your feeble mind with a fragile, creeping precursor of what’s to come with the short, calm Abodement, before ripping right into your torso with the archangelic bonesaw of Where Angels Go, Demons Follow. It’s at this point I must humbly decree that the accompaniment of lyrics is of the utmost importance to gaining the full experience from Incurso, as even though the brunt of the musical force is in its own way spectacular, the evolution of seemingly erratic riffing is a perfect companion to these stories of gripping darkness and psychotic, spiritual sickness.

Every track tells its own abominable tale, every spidery riff or hostile harmony driving the force of the tale in question deeper into your dark, dusty little heart. Bodiless Sleeper is a depraved, spiraling psychotic jaunt through the machinations of decapitation and madness. Evangelist is disturbing and dissonant, a truly unsettling tale of incestuous evil slathered in foul priestly semen and bountiful leads. By far the longest song on the album, at nearly 10 minutes, it’s also thoroughly engaging in its musical and lyrical narrative, a hideous mutation of the concept of goodliness and godliness. The cosmic spider web of needling leads and warm, bulbous bass lines creep into the brain and splatter this sickening story with forceful precision right into your memory.

Servitude of souls is a serial killer manifesto, one of the more overtly traditional death metal numbers, though it becomes aroused by its murderous tendencies about halfway through and starts dancing and slicing through a technical madhouse of twirling melodics like a homicidal robotic knife-fighter. Deus Avertat is an acrobatic, bloody story of possession that whirls along with epileptic fury and near classical grace as it stop-starts its way through about 1,000 different tempos and riffing patterns, never relenting its twiddling, burly, needle-gun ferocity for a moment.

Spiritual Deception, a crack-addled revenge opera, is my favorite track on the record due to the pure, unbridled glory of the dueling lead guitars as they spiral out, spitting, dancing, and intertwining like cosmic, plasmatic snakes, deftly maneuvering through hostile, terrifying cosmos. No Light Spared is one of the most frantic tracks, starting off like a blinding wintry gale, then descending deeper and deeper into a ruinous, filthy hole full of unspeakable horrors. As the lyrics wind their way, the music keeps perfect pace to craft the most tangibly dark, inhospitable atmosphere possible, the audible approximation of suffocating fear. The closer, Apparition is a demented carnival of suspense and classical pomp, utilizing tasteful keys to create a beautifully alien atmosphere, as if you’re summoning the unfeasible entity from the cover art, every needling lead a bolt of lightning slicing out of this savage cosmic storm.

It goes without saying that all the musicians are in top form, but it bears mentioning. It often seems like the band succumb to the tech death wormhole of style over substance, which I admittedly thought was the case at first, but after a number of listens with the lyrics on hand, its true nature gradually dawned on me, and each seemingly random, ridiculous note took its place in this grand, brutal puzzle. Guitarists Bryssling and Munzner cut and buzz around each other like laser-wielding hornets, whirling through passages of choppy aggression and classical grace with practiced ease, while the rhythm section brings you to your knees in envy. Drummer Henrik probably isn’t human, such is his level of stamina and creativity, and though I don’t know what kind of bass Caspersen uses, the tone reminds me heavily of Obscura, very warm and full, playing its own distinct patterns while still serving the song. In fact, the overall result is very redolent of Obscura, if even more frenzied and decrepit. More technical, and less progressive, if you will, though both elements certainly prevail.

Make no mistake, this is technical death metal, overtly and unrepentantly so. Every single note progression is a dexterous and impressive musical flourish, with often jarring, discordant change-ups and winding, challenging passages abound. What sets Incurso apart from the immense tech death flock, however, is the atmosphere is conjures so naturally and beautifully. To put it bluntly, this album has fucking soul, and even though it unashamedly wanks off virtually the entire time, there is a legitimate, tangible feeling of evil here; a decrepit, overwhelmingly unsettling feeling conjured through the interplay of composition and lyrics that is the hallmark of the very best death metal. Tech death records almost never feel like truly emotional, volatile works, but Incurso is the exception to the rule, without a doubt one of the most interesting releases this year.

Complaints? At first the sheer compositional madness is a bit much to take in, and though it impresses, it will certainly take some time to get accustomed to, and there aren’t so many individual passages that are instantly memorable. Also, in truth, even after a number of listens I have trouble recalling all but the most impressive moments, but this is more a comment on the pure density of the record than the quality of the riffing itself. The songwriting is incredibly strong and engaging, but due to the complexity, I wouldn’t call them memorable, if that makes sense. Truly, though, if you have the patience, Incurso is one of the most rewarding death metal albums in recent history, with a mind-blowing array of virulent songs, stuffed to bursting with talent, ideas, and straight up heart. These guys fucking love metal, and Incurso is a grandiose labor of love.

-Left Hand of Dog
http://reaperdivision.blogspot.com/

Spawn of Possession is a well known tech death band from Sweden and 2012 sees the birth of their third full lenght album, Incurso, six years after their previous work, the (in my opinion) flawed Noctambulant. In six years a lot of things change: Dennis Rondum decided to focus solely on his vocals, while Jonas Bryssling mantains his role as the rhytm guitarist. The rest of the line-up is totally changed: Henrik Schönström is the new drummer, Erlend Caspersen is in charge of the bass guitar and the famous Christian Muezner is now the lead guitarist. With musicians of this caliber, my expectations were high: Noctambulant didn't really satisfy me, so I couldn't wait to know if SoP would have been returned to the level of their debut, Cainet, or not. Let me say that: this record is far beyond my highest hopes, it simply is not from this world.

Everything in Incurso creates a dark feeling which reminds me of the works of H.P. Lovecraft or, anyway, of some mysterious and occult force. Just look to the beautiful cover art: Incurso is just like this, a terrifying, yet majestic demon being summoned here from another dimension. The lyrics also contribute to the obscure atmosphere of this album: they're really well written and one truly enjoys to read them. For example, the text of Servitude of Souls is about a man who seeks the secret of life in the souls of men and abducts people in order to extract their very spirit: that's absolutely perfect for the kind of music that SoP plays and it's entertaining to read, thanks to the wide and suitable lexicon. Every song is more like a small story than an ordinary tech death text. I don't want to be tedious, we're here for the music, aren't we? I just wanted to point out that Incurso is an intelligent work in which the music is supported by every other element in order to achieve an exquisit mood.

The muscianship in this record is top-notch; however, you don't listen to Incurso and think "Hey, this or that guy is SO good", forgetting everything else, but you'll probably think "Hey, these guys' amazing skills really add something to the music". Yeah, that's it, because other than the musical capabilities, the song writing is also top-notch, maybe even better. The guitar work is very tight and also very musical: it's like Muezner contributed to the compositions with the darkest side of his virtuosistic style, his touch is clearly identifiable but it amalgamates with the typical SoP songwriting. The result is an elegance that the band never achieved before, especially in the guitar solos that are one of the main highlights of Incurso (maybe the best one is on Spiritual Deception, but everyone is just damn good). Another thing that really shines on this record is the bass guitar. Caspersen is not just a fast and technical player, that's the standard in technical death, he also has a particular taste in his arrangements that few bass players can boast. The bass does not simply follow the guitar but has a plethora of epic moments, like the final part of Apparition or the beginning of Spiritual Deception, just to name a few. To be honest, it's costantly at crazy levels, really really satisfying. Schonstrom's drums are really fast, yet varied and interesting: forget your average death metal band, this guy is far from just blasting, he's more like a scrupulous architect building up a structure the best way he can, because he knows that his work is essential in order to not let the building collapse. Rondum's vocals are probably the weak point in Incurso, for they are well done but very standard for this genre: nothing impressive. He is mad good at writing lyrics but when it comes to sing them he does his work and that is all. It has got no real importance though, is more like a matter of tastes.

Every track on Incurso is great, even the intro, Abodement, in which the instruments are backed up from symphonic arrangements, like in the final, colossal track, Apparition. This song is my favourite: an 8 minutes long composition that spouts epicness from every second, thanks to superb orchestrations that accompanies every musician while he gives the maximum. Here the songwriting reaches its absolute peak, it's like Fleshgod Apocalypse's Agony should have been. Not that the other songs are bad or doesn't match up: The Evangelist is another long and epic composition full of ideas, while Servitude of Souls is maybe the most straightforward track featuring a great bass work, and so on. I recommend a global listen only if you know every track pretty well: Incurso is a though album and taking it on one occasion is not easy.

Incurso is the album of the year, so far. Every flaw of Noctambulant is like a faded memory and Spawn of Possession delivers an amazing album in which musicianship, writing skills and even the most secondaries elements merge themselves into a colossal entity from another space and time. For those who seek a complete record which excels in everything: brutality, sophistication, musicianship. This album is ready to steal your soul.

I always find the demise of a trend-sending faction at the hands of one of their pupils to be an interesting phenomena. Germany's Necrophagist instituted a very appealing approach to technical death metal back when the band was shuffling out one whole release per decade, and lots of folks were running into the streets naked, screaming about the glories of Necrophagist. Personally, I hated the fuss and hype, but soon, groups started popping up that did exactly what Necrophagist was doing, yet infinitely better than Necrophagist; spacey shredders Obscura in particular served them an epitaph of their own recipe with a slew of cool records, hence I dub the proper term being "Obscuraed." Aren't I the cleverest ass you ever did see?

Fellow algorithmic hackers Spawn of Possession fall into this native jigsaw because they too are among a plethora of projects going above and beyond the standards of pedestrian-level technical death metal which has unfortunately become an acceptable status for production. Like Obscura and other mechanics of their kin, "Incurso" follows the scientific, space-like montage of a thousand guitar parts stitched together with quick precision and pinpoint execution; also joining frantic bass work which probably grinded Erlend Caspersen's fingers down to stubs, and percussion chugging at an equally rhythmic rate of blasphemy as the remaining instruments. One could look at the band and yelp, "Jesus tap-dancing Christ, they're just like the other brain-melting groups I listen to!" Good observation Watson, but that's no cause for concern because "Incurso" is equally thrilling and algebraic no matter how you dice it.

You pretty much get nine tracks of totally insane, mathematical death metal sliding between musical dimensions as if Spawn of Possession found the remains of the Event Horizon and applied its gift to their slaughtering sound. The way these dudes showcase technical death metal is technical (obviously) and maddening, but not without sense or a tint of clarity. Nope, "Incurso" boasts an infinite array of nifty riffs and patterns around every corner, almost to the point of insanity. In fact, there's so much displayed that a few of the tracks run fairly close to the ten-minute mark, and the album could've reached an hour in length quite easily—they have a lot to say and, more importantly, know how to say it. My favorite song is "The Evangelist," which roils on for nearly ten minutes and leaves nothing left to mutilate after its intergalactic cyclone allows its nihilistic offspring to devour the holy.

"No Light Spared" produces a fair amount of fantastic guitar work, and the ending "Apparition" fornicates with strange keyboard notes and orchestral elements, creating something totally idiosyncratic and it makes for a prime conclusion to an exquisitely volatile release. Spawn of Possession avoids falling into a pit of typecasting based on their specific abilities to forge substantial anthems and makes their listeners absolutely stunned at the overall product, yet without losing sight of coherent, flexible songwriting. Coming from a critic of most technical death metal, that should mean at least an ounce of credibility. Fans of the technical death metal sub-genre will undoubtedly love this album to the grave, as will the average metal fan looking to be perplexed by this boat-rocking group debatably at the top of their habitual hill.

This review was written for: www.Thrashpit.com

Spawn of Possession’s Incurso is a rare breed of music, and an especially rare death metal record; it fuses the brutality of the genre with the beauty of classical music without eschewing either. From top to bottom, this record evokes the sound of Baroque era music and the highly ornamented pieces birthed from composers such as Bach or Handel – sharing in equal parts the harsh, abrupt movements from death metal and the homophonic styles of this music.

What’s even more surprising about this record is that it is technical death metal with substance. Each passage resonates as a meaningful evolution of the previous riff (2:46 of “Spiritual Deception”) or simply catchy as fuck (Intro to: “Deus Avertat”), and the resulting tracks are actual songs. Guitarist and lead songwriter Jonas Bryssling is in top form here, throwing on to tape every ounce of virtuosity he has in his bones and backing it up with stellar performances from the whole cast. His rhythm work is of course fantastic – he recorded all rhythm guitar tracks - and as I said his writing is incredible on this album.

But, one of the real stars of the show is of course Christian Münzner. Although a part of a dreadful band in Obscura, here he only takes part by adding solos to the songs and Jesus H. Christ does he deliver. Take for instance, the two solos on “Where Angels Go Demons Follow”, where he expounds the intensity of the music with obtuse sweeping segments before belting out the tension release in a highly melodic but still incredibly fast solo. Throughout the album his work just highlights the very melodic portions of Spawn of Possession’s music without erupting into purely inane wankery.

And the guitar tone! On this record the guitars are incredibly cutting, most likely due to the hard panning and mid heavy crunch, and they strike deep into the sound space creating very attractive melodies and punishingly brutal riffs. What’s more is that this very strong tone allows the bottom end from Erlend Caspersen to shine, and brightly does this star shine. He weaves eerie counterpoints and plays follow the leader when the music calls for it, all the while maintaining a very full sound.

Let’s not forget that tying this melodious chaos together requires the rhythmic backbone that Henrik Schönström provides in spades. His blasting is precise, his fills exquisite without being entirely invasive, and his tone excellent. On top of all of this, previous drummer and vocalist Dennis Röndum has stepped into full on vocal duties and as chief lyricist.

His vocals are very strong if a little generic, but his patterns and lyrics more than make up for his more run-of-the-mill vocals themselves. Even the 10 minute epic “The Evangelist” is incredibly catchy at points and the bouncy, simpler tune “Deus Avertat” steam rolls in with just as much fluidity and strength from Röndum’s vocal patterns. Like I said, his lyrics on this record are really exceptional; spreading the gamut from tales of Armageddon to buried heads of wizards, to the conversational tone of a few tracks, this album has truly great lyrics. The album’s highlight track, “Where Angels Go Demon’s Follow” has especially good lyrics:

Fair angels demons follow, where there is grace they shall nest
To smear their loathing and put them to rest
Wings of gold ripped off cold left dead without a soul
Upon dethroning their glory, a bleeding fest

Bereft of life indeed
Ripe and sweet, birth out of grain
Rotting meat all that remains, sin may bring relief

Witness in awe the sight of celebration
Plow through it all, find nothing but deception

Another highlight is the isolationist horror inspired “No Light Spared”, breathing life into what would be considered a filler track otherwise. It takes a truly remarkable death metal lyricist to actually contribute to the atmosphere of a record rather than writing lyrics to fill space in the band.

But the grand prize of it all goes out to the final track “Apparition”. Other than being a tale that we have heard before, lyrically, it takes the already frenetic pacing of the album and throws orchestral accompaniments on top for good measure. It takes a brilliant composer to add symphonies to metal without creating utter garbage, and Jonas Bryssling again packs just the right punch for the job. The rhythmic swells and atmospheric undercurrents serve as perfect compliments - an addition to the already chaotic riffery rather than becoming the leading voice for the melodies. Every minute of this epic is nurtured to its proper conclusion, with the perfect amalgamation of classical inspired death metal.

All in all, this record is magnificent. It takes all the fretboard acrobatics of Noctambulant and ups the ante by adding better production, memorable and wildly punishing song structures, all the while maintaining fantastic lyrics and lyrical concepts throughout. The production fits astoundingly well, letting the bass and drums be the rhythmic spine for the insane guitar pyrotechnics from Bryssling and Münzner. And on top of all of that, Röndum performs exceptionally both vocally and lyrically.

I would recommend this to anyone who is remotely into either classical music or heavy metal. I am an ardent hater of all that is technical death metal, but this is a work of exceptional songwriting through and through. There is no doubt in my mind that in twenty years people will remember this and not the debut or Noctambulant. Buy this album and join me in hoping that the next release will not be in 2018.

I love death metal. Throughout my time on this Earth I have gotten into all types of death metal that I won’t even begin to list off, because they are just too numerous. But, I have always had some trouble when it came to technical death metal. Not because I don’t think it’s any good, but just because a lot of bands in the sub-genre tend to think that showing off their amazing technical prowess is a good substitute for writing coherent music. I have only found a handful of technical death metal bands that are able to incorporate both stellar musicianship with ridiculously good song-writing, and Spawn of Possession is one of them. The band has been displaying their flurry of technical wizardry for about 15 years, with nothing slowing them down yet. It has been almost six years since their release of the highly-acclaimed album “Noctambulant,” and with some line-up changes over the years, it seems that Spawn of Possession had finally been able to record their long-awaited return album, “Incurso.” After such a lengthy amount of time having gone by, I’m very interested to see if “Incurso” is able to keep up with or even improve on their technical/brutal death metal style that has taken the heavy metal world by storm.

After a short instrumental introduction in ‘Abodement,’ you are thrown into the fray of ‘Where Angels Go Demons Follow.’ It has the lull of a short melodic opening before descending into a controlled chaos of technical brutal death metal. It is exactly what one would expect to hear from Spawn of Possession; lots of sweep picking, tapping, blastbeats, rapid vocal cadences, and stellar melodic guitar solos that never seem to be wasted. With their being nine tracks and almost an hour of material, it amazes me how this band is able to keep the stamina and where-with-all throughout a lot of the music. This can only tell me that “Incurso” is going to be a technically thrilling beast.

Spawn of Possession has always been good at throwing an odd-sounding melody into their music. It is one of the defining traits of the band, and there is no shortage of it on “Incurso.” ‘Bodiless Sleeper’ has some really nice melodic passages in the middle of the song, as well as keeping it a bit ‘bouncy,’ if you will. ‘The Evangelist’ is an epic track that lasts nearly 10 minutes, and while I found it a little odd to put the longest song right in the half-way point of “Incurso,” but the continuous scaling immediately brought flashbacks to ‘Ubiquitous’ by Origin, so that immediately gets points from me. The addition of Erland Caspersen (bass; ex-Blood Red Throne) pays off big time since he makes quite an impact on “Incurso,” as his lightening-fast fingers travel up and down the fretboard, particularly on ‘Servitude of Souls’ and ‘Apparition.’ Dennis Röndum’s vocals are still here and he sounds very good on this album, although he seems to be slightly lower in the mix, but it works. Spawn of Possession are definitely at the top of their game musically, but I found that once you get later into the album things sort of begin to run together.

‘Deus Avertat,’ ‘Spiritual Deception,’ and ‘No Light Spared’ are good tracks, but they feel like more of the same, and found my attention span beginning to wander. I was getting that familiar feeling of technical prowess overtaking the importance of song-writing. Again, the band is more than technically thrilling, but it can be a bit much at times, and I know it is my fault for thinking that maybe every once in a while they would play something a little more straight-forward, especially from a band like Spawn of Possession. There are moments where that does happen, but the endless fretboard acrobatics and wacky time signatures get to be a bit tiresome. Despite these pitfalls, the final track, ‘Apparition,’ is a god damned masterpiece. To call this song epic would be a severe understatement, as it is backed up with synth keyboards throughout their onslaught of technical brutal death metal. Spawn of Possession decided to throw everything at the listener, and I am amazed at how great ‘Apparition’ came out. This may very well be the greatest ending track of an album so far in 2012, in that it gives me chills down my spine in the same way that ‘Any Kind Of Magic Or Miracle’ by Anata has throughout the years. I will just leave it at that.

The production of “Incurso” is done in the same vein as “Noctambulant,” but with a much more pronounced bass guitar, which is always a wonderful thing. Everything is very clear and crisp, making this album very nice to listen to. The only thing that I wish was higher in the mix were Henrik Schönström’s cymbals, because I can tell he is doing some great fills, but they are a little difficult to make out at times; this would really help the slower breaks in the music where Henrik tends to show off his technical chops. Christian Müenzner’s and Jonas Bryssling’s guitars sound perfect for the technical brutal death metal that Spawn of Possession is known for. As I mentioned above, their guitar solos never felt wasted or put in odd places, and really gave much needed flare to the music when it was called for.

With last two albums being what they were, I have to say that “Incurso” stands up very well next to its ancestors. Everything on “Incurso” is presented in a highly skilled and technical fashion, but with the music sometimes getting to be a bit stale at times, I would say that this album is slightly better than both “Cabinet” and “Noctambulant.” This is definitely a Spawn of Possession album, there is no doubt about it, but I think there were a couple things that could have been done to make everything sound a little fresher than it ended up being. Of course, that is just due to my personal preference, so everybody else may feel much differently about it than I do. Regardless, I really enjoyed “Incurso” as a whole, and I believe it is worth purchasing when the album comes out next week.

Originally written for Metal Blast: http://www.metalblast.net/2012/03/spawn-of-possession-incurso/

First things first, that's some cool album artwork right there. It looks like Gyorg from Majora's Mask is being summoned via your typical necronomicon wielding nutter, awesome. This is Spawn of Possession's third full-length and their first with Obscura shredder Christian Münzner in tow (trust me, it shows). Technical death metal fans should find something to catch the waterfall of saliva pouring over their chins.

Yes this is some rather masturbatory technical death metal, and is similar to Obscura's latest album. Obviously I'm not the biggest fan of this style, but this isn't as bad as I was expecting. Whilst it is very wanky, there is a good share of actual riffs that hit their mark well enough. At least they don't take things to the extent of acts such as Braindrill or Necrophagist. The mix is pristine as per the genre, and everything you'd expect from said genre is here.

Those who are going to want to listen to this will know exactly who they are, and in all fairness to Spawn of Possession there are some good ideas to be had here, as well as some good riffs. I'd much rather listen to this than the latest Gorod wreck. For those curious I'd recommend checking out "Deus Avertat" which is certainly the finest number on the album. Fans of technical death metal need this, for anyone else I'd avoid.

Originally written for http://www.metalcrypt.com

Finally, I have this baby between my hands. Ok, I admit I cheated a bit and downloaded it before getting it, but I rarely buy without knowing what I'm getting into. So, 6 years after the excellent Noctambulant, Spawn of Possession are back with Incurso, and boy are they back.

Noctambulant has always been a favorite among fans of the genre, but I sometimes felt a little something was missing without really being able to pinpoint what it was. Anyway, with the new album everything feels at its righteous place, and this change is probably not unrelated to the lineup changes the band had during the last few years. Christian Münzner, of Necrophagist and Obscura fame, as well as the magician bassist Erlend Caspersen join the ranks to impose a technical clinic on the ears of the listeners.

The duo Bryssling/Münzner on the guitars is simply grandiose. You'll be treated with extreme technical riffs, but most importantly, these riffs actually have a consistency. What I can't stand with some bands is how very thin they sound. That, plus the fact their guits are wanking away without even caring a second about how it sounds out of place. It's not a problem here, because Spawn of Possession have a soul actually, as you can hear everything gel in place perfectly. The solos on the album are handled by Münzner, which should be self-explanatory, but just to say: it's complex, fast, intriguing and all around magnificient. You recognize the impact of his style, not only in the solos, but also in a lot of the riffs. Also new to the lineup is bassist Erlend Caspersen. He is very noticeable in the mix, and will blow your mind with how technical is his playing. Just listen to the beggining of the fourth song, The Evangelist, and if that does not convince you I fear you may be deaf. He really is one of the highlights of this album. The drummer knows how to play to this type of music. Lots of time changes, rarely stagnating in one place for too long which keeps the record very alive, as if it wasn't already.

Vocalist Dennis Röndum has a standard death growl. There's not a lot of variation in it, but it fits very well, so no complaint here.

Incurso is a complete, grade A record for anyone seeking good technical death metal. It gives more than the customer asks for and is highly addicitve. You will find yourself going back to it as soon as it's over to get yet another dose. A must own for every self-respecting metalhead.

Spawn of Possession...what can I say? They're one of those genre-defining bands that does a good job in being unique and having their own sound. This point is made no more clear than with their new album, Incurso.

I myself like to describe this album as having "the song composition of Noctambulant with the brutality of Cabinet"; all the songs are fairly complex, as per usual with SOP, but unlike their second album, the production and the phrasing does not detract from the heaviness of the music. Instead, I like to compare it to Obscura's Omnivium album by saying by saying the brutality and the technicality of the music both coexist, mutually benefiting each other in a way that amplifies both aspects of the music.

In the beginning, we're greeted with an eerie sounding instrumental intro track, in accord to SOP tradition. This time, however, it serves as a nice prelude to the ensuing madness. In songs like "Where Angels Go Demons Follow" and "The Evangelist", we're greeted with extremely brutal riffs akin to SOP's trademark style of riffage, loaded with all sorts of avante-garde, classical-inspired guitar melodies. The vocals are also some of the best ever put out by SOP, with Dennis Rondum doing a wonderful combination of growls and scream/growl harmonies that sound more brutal than ever. The drums sound nice and punchy, and often vary from being ridiculously fast blast beats (The Evangelist, Deus Avertat, No Light Spared) to simple and catchy grooves (Servitude of Souls).

The instrument section is stronger than ever before on this album. With new bassist Erlend Caspersen, the bass has a much larger presence than on previous albums, made possible by Caspersen's strong finger-picking style and the utilization of both 5 string-fretted and 6 string-fretless bass. The bass lines also vary more than simple isolated bass riffs, so the bass actually stands out in a creative way ("Spiritual Deception" is a superb example of this) that doesn't sound forced just for the sake of having the bass be noticed. The guitar work is also catchy, as usual, and even does a few creative things here and there. For example, "Deus Avertat" includes a djent-style riff, which is accompanied by single-note arpeggios to accompany the chug riffing. Even better, the closing track "Apparition" includes a symphonic-sounding synthesizer that sounds very akin to something like Born of Osiris.

And how could I ever forget Christian Muenzner, who is very easily this album's best feature? Although he only recorded guitar solos on this album, they blend wonderfully with the SOP universe. With all sorts of melodic lines in songs like "Deus Avertat" and "Where Angels Go Demons Follow", and of course a boatload of awesome shredding, his guitar work is the cherry on the sundae. Without him, this album would not have the definitive, badass sound it does.

Favorite song: Where Angels Go Demons Follow
Other favorites: All of them!

For most brutal death metal folks, Spawn of Possession's Incurso is a highly-anticipated release. And it's with good reason. Fans have been waiting nearly six years for a follow-up to Spawn of Possession's last technical death metal opus, Noctambulant. To top it all off, drastic lineup shifts made me concerned that the new album might not sound much like the Spawn of Possession of old. The drummer / vocalist, Dennis Rondum, has shifted to full-time frontman duties. So of course a new skin basher has taken over the drum throne. The band has also added a new bassist and a new second guitarist (none other than Obscura's Christian Muenzener). Luckily, the only two remaining original members are the principal songwriters and the core of the band (guitarist Jonas Bryssling and the previously mentioned Rondum). Since the "main constants" remain intact, Incurso sounds like Noctambulant with all of its best features magnified. Also, there's just enough new blood to make the band feel revitalized and fresh. Thanks to this combination, Spawn of Possession sounds like the same band, only better.

On Incurso, Spawn of Possession uses the same framework it has in the past. The songs are still a mish-mash of dense, choppy ADHD riffs that are sure to cause anxiety in any household pets within earshot. The songs do open up and breathe upon occasion like during the slow semi-clean ending of "The Evangelist" or the more straight-forward tune, "Deus Avertat." (Take note that the term "straight-forward" is relative.) Besides the trademark spastic guitars, there are some new tools at work as well. Spawn of Possession now has both a sense of melody and guitar solos that are reminiscent of Obscura. One can only assume that this is due to Muenzener's presence. The guitars are also peppered with some eerie clean parts, volume swells, and occasional natural harmonics. These are a nice addition to the band's already broad pallet. Plus, Erlend Caspersen's bass guitar is a fairly dominant presence. There's tons of chunky bass parts and fretboard noodling throughout the album. The bass on Incurso definitely plays more than a supporting role. As with past Spawn of Possession albums, the drums stop on a dime and shift constantly. Henrik Schonstrom fills the drummer position nicely. With all of these instruments fighting for attention, Incurso is controlled chaos. The only respite for the listener comes in the form of the aforementioned "Deus Avertat" and a few brief chunky grooves in other songs like "Bodiless Sleeper" and "The Evangelist." Incurso is loaded with hyper energy, sweet harmonies, and unsettling dissonance that should please any fan of Spawn of Possession or technical death metal in general. The only major curve ball on Incurso is the album's final track, "Apparition." The song has a dense orchestral feel and is loaded down with horror movie keyboards. This tune is out of character for the band and is all the more awesome for it. It makes for an epic album closer. However, it's a good thing that Spawn of Possession only tried this experiment on one track. It makes for an interesting anomaly in the band's catalog, but it certainly wouldn't be an advisable new direction for the band.

With Incurso, Spawn of Possession has basically recorded a new and improved version of the jaw-dropping Noctambulant. The songs are just as complicated, but they are much more memorable and have more character. Even the band's album artwork has improved. (Check out the sinister Lovecraftian worm writhing forth from realms unknown.) Many people might just hear a big mess when they listen to this album. For technical death metal fans, Incurso will be a masterpiece. I sure hope we don't have to wait six years for another one of these.

Originally written for http://www.metalpsalter.com