Photos by Wayne Edwards.
© Wayne Edwards
Photo Gallery: Bassists, Part 5
Incantation
Photo Gallery: Drummers, Part 2
Photos by Wayne Edwards.
© Wayne Edwards
Incantation, Tricennial Of Blasphemy (Relapse 2022)
Incantation releases a massive album of rarities to celebrate more than thirty years of menacing metal, Tricennial Of Blasphemy.
Incantation came together in 1989, formed by John McEntee and Paul Ledney. McEntee has stayed with the band throughout its entire history, seeing a dozen full-length albums come to fruition, along with a rugged smattering of splits and EPs. Along the way, some of the tracks have become rather obscure and hard for fans to find. Tricennial Of Blasphemy solves that problem. It is a three-record / two-CD set that houses thirty-one songs, including a couple that have never been published before.
The unreleased first. “Pest Savagery” is grinding, punishing death metal. Unhallowed growls and charging rhythms reign. “Ordained by Night’s Will” has a good cook and a nice groove. It breaks out periodically into a blitz, and there are downshifted tempo moments, too. There is a lot infused in these four minutes. Either song would have fared well on an Incantation album, so it is a shame they never made it on one – until now.
After these two openers, there is a long list of songs from disparate places, like long gone compilations and the Decibel Magazine flexi-released song “Degeneration,” that would take some time to run down and, without this new album, could easily have been lost in the shuffle. Instead of me just repeating it all here, check out the link below to the Incantation website and there is a complete list there. There are many songs I have never heard, like “Emaciated Holy Figure” from the Corporate Death compilation, for example, and on and on. It is a genuine treasure trove for fans.
The set ends with a few live cuts recorded in Switzerland, France, and Cleveland a decade or so ago. I hadn’t heard these, either, but I have seen Incantation live several times and hearing these recordings takes me back to those experiences. Sometimes rarities records fall short and have a lot of fluff in them. Not this one. This one is the real deal. Recommended.
Tricennial Of Blasphemy is streaming now, with physicals and merch out on Friday, October 7th through Relapse records.
Photos by Wayne Edwards.
Links.
Incantation website, https://www.incantation.com/
Bandcamp, https://incantation666.bandcamp.com/album/tricennial-of-blasphemy
Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/IncantationOfficial/
Relapse Records, https://store.relapse.com/incantation-tricennial-of-blasphemy
© Wayne Edwards
Nile ~ Incantation ~ Sanguisugabogg ~ I Am at Piere’s, March 1, 2022
It was a night of death metal devastation at Piere’s in Fort Wayne, Indiana when Nile, Incantation, Sanguisugabogg, and I Am rattled the rigging of reality for fans from far and wide.
It was my first time at Piere’s Entertainment Center. I think I am going to be there a lot during my residency in the Midwest because so many heavy music acts make this stop in Northern Indiana. It is an excellent venue with plenty of room for fans and it offers an intimate proximity to the stage.
First up was I Am, a band from Texas. They have an EP and a couple albums out, the latest being Hard 2 Kill. They hit several songs from that recent record and it sounded like there were a couple of new ones in there, too. They got the night off to a great start with some heavy-hitting death metal.
Sanguisugabogg comes from Columbus, Ohio. They are currently touring in support of their latest album, Tortured Whole. I had never seen them live before, and I still don’t think I am pronouncing their name right. I can tell you this: they are formidable. Their songs are filled with savagery and the delivery is razor-sharp. Take the chance to see them whenever you get it, even if you don’t know how to say their name.
I have followed Incantation for many years. I can’t even remember the number of times I have seen them play, and I always come back for more. Their newest album is Sect Of Vile Divinities, which we reviewed very positively here at FFMB (link below). Thirty years in and their music and performance is stronger than ever – my favorite set of the evening.
I think we can all agree that Nile has forged an unforgettable place for themselves in the annals of heavy music. There is not a ton of music out there themed around Egyptian mythology at the jump – it might just be Nile. They have honed their presentation to an unswervingly precise delivery, and the music seeps into you like an ancient curse. The band’s most recent album is Vile Nilotic Rites, and in the live show at Piere’s they didn’t miss a beat.
At first pass you might not have thought to put these four bands together on the same ticket, but their music, in fact, worked exceptionally well together. The tour continues through for a few more stops so if you are in their path make sure you catch this show.
All photos by Wayne Edwards.
Links.
Nile, https://www.nile-official.com/
Incantation, https://www.incantation.com/
Review of Sect of Vile Divinities, https://flyingfiddlesticks.com/2020/08/18/incantation-sect-of-vile-divinities-review-relapse-records-2020/
Sanguisugabogg, https://sanguisugabogg.com/
I Am, https://iamtxmusic.bandcamp.com/
© Wayne Edwards. All rights reserved.
Happy New Year’s Eve 2020
I don’t have to tell you about 2020 – you were there, too. Usually, at the end of the year, I spend December choosing some photos to repost for good vibes and great memories, but this year I didn’t take a single photograph of a live show. Yeah. So, I am going to post a few photos from 2019 that did not see that light of day then, just for fun. I am keeping the cameras warm for 2021 because hope springs eternal.
There was a lot of excellent music released this year. We published 188 reviews in 2020, a lot more than we thought we would. There are so many “Best of 2020” lists out there that I decided not to do one for FFMB. Instead, I am throwing up a couple of covers from albums we didn’t review this year that were really good – just couldn’t get to everything. We’ll try to do better in 2021.
Thanks to everybody involved with Flying Fiddlesticks Music Blog and the Shardik Media Cabal. Deep gratitude and thanks to all the bands, record labels, venues, publicists, and promoters keeping music alive for all of us.
We’re still here and we are carrying on in 2021. See you out there.
All live performance photos by Wayne Edwards.
Aftershock
Heavy Montreal
Clubs
Albums
© Wayne Edwards.
Incantation, Sect Of Vile Divinities review (Relapse Records 2020)
Death Metal legends Incantation return with their eleventh studio album, Sect of Vile Divinities.
It would be hard to overestate the impact Incantation has had on heavy music, and on Death Metal in particular. One of the early entries in the field and among the giants of the New York scene, their first album, Onward to Golgotha (1992), was a pivotal moment in music history. Guitarist John McEntee has been there since the beginning, directing the progression of the band and channeling a path that helped shape the landscape of Death Metal today.
There have been many big albums from veteran bands this year like Testament, Vader, Ozzy, Sepultura, My Dying Bride, Cirith Ungol, and others that were highly anticipated. I am every bit as excited about the new Incantation release because the music on Sect Of Vile Divinities shakes the planet.
We are told in advance that each song on the new album is about a different ancient evil from various places in history around the globe. That sounds like a good place to start and it fits in well with the band’s style and legacy. A good example of a representative song from the set is “Entrails of the Hag Queen,” which has the primary elements of musical creation: heavy decadence, massive riffs, driving percussion, and guttural growls flowing in a thick river darkness. The song slows down and speeds up as the story is told and the theme demands. Some songs are dirge-like throughout, like “Ignis Fatuus.” Others establish a blistering pace at the front and never relent, like “Chant of Formless Dread” and “Fury’s Manifesto.” The song I have listened to the most so far is “Shadow-Blade Masters of Tempest and Maelstrom” because of the way the lead guitar acts like a second voice forming a sinister, twisted duet, and because of the relentless nature of the driving momentum in the rhythm. The closer is “Siege Hive,” and it is an all-out assault on your senses that will make you question your place in the universe. This is a great album.
Out on Relapse Records this Friday, August 21, there are many formats and bundles to choose from that you can grab at the Relapse site or Bandcamp, and the band has their own webstore, too. The new music is as fresh and relevant today as their original work was back then. Highly recommended.
Links.
Morbid Angel, Watain, and Incantation on Friday the 13th at the Webster Theater in Hartford, CT
The Webster Theater is on the corner of Crown and Webster Streets in Hartford, Connecticut. It is a long-standing home of heavy music, and on December 13, 2019 – Friday the 13th – there was a perfect storm when Incantation, Watain, and Morbid Angel gathered for a night of Death and Black Metal.
Incantation opened, leading the crowd through warm-up exercises and showing that the band is here to stay. One of the things they are known for is speed and precision, and original band member John McEntree was flawless on guitar and microphone. Long-time drummer Kyle Severn and bassist Chuck Sherwood hit the grooves with John, and lead guitarist Sonny Lombardozzi played like he has been with the band forever. The technical difficulty of the music was matched by the obvious enthusiasm of the band and Incantation turned out to be the perfect veteran group to break the ice during this tour of iconic bands.
The first thing you notice about Watain, long before the band takes the stage, if the creeping stench. You can see the crowd reacting in a slow rolling wave as the odor flows toward the back of the room. It is the smell of rotting fish, and seems to be coming from the skinned heads set on spiked tridents along the front of the stage. They appear to be heads of sheep and perhaps other animals, and they are real, not plastic or props. I was standing in the pit and I can attest – they are real. The stage is dressed with bones and metal, crowded from left to right, front to back. From the audience you could hear intermittent cries of “Hail Satan!” Droning intro music began playing and the atmosphere started to crackle. Something really different was about to happen, and no mistake.
Many of the people in the crowd were clearly huge Watain fans, but this tour almost didn’t happen for the band. Guitarist Pelle Forsberg was detained at the border when he tried to the return to the US from Mexico. Border agents apparently did not like the look of him, and after searching his phone and social media (apparently they can just do that without reason or warrant to non-US citizens at the border), Forsberg was denied entry, his valid working visas was revoked, and he was deported, despite the fact that he had been in the US many times on tours. The remaining members – vocalist Erik Danielsson, bassist Alvaro Lillo, guitarist Hampus Eriksson, and drummer Emil Svensson – eventually were able to enter the US and they embarked on the current tour as a four-piece.
The presence of Pelle Forsberg was, of course, missed on stage but the band gave an exceptional performance. The crowd got the hear the songs they wanted to hear, see the powerful presence of the band, and experience the mystical aura of their one-of-a-kind sound. Watain is as strong as ever, and this tour is seeing peak performances from them, even with Forsberg sidelined.
The stage was cleared once Watain finished and then set up for Morbid Angel. The headliner’s show had a stripped-down look compared to the middle act, and they channeled the extra space into their thundering sound. Morbid Angel is one of the most important and influential thrash bands of all time, and they have evolved over the years into death metal mainstays. I still listen to their classic 1989 album Altars of Madness every couple of months. Founding member Trey Azagthoth continues to play guitar with the sharpest enthusiasm, and long-time front-man and bassists Steve Tucker is truly a force to be reckoned with. For the last couple of years drums have been handled by Scott Fuller and the guitar sound is rounded out by Dan Vadim Von. Together they are a unified vanguard of heavy music.
The band stands mostly in place and roars one monstrous song after another. They opened with a few new songs off the latest release, then thumbed through their extensive catalogue and performed many of their classics. They played thirteen songs (if I counted right) on Friday the Thirteenth. How’s that for on brand? I have seen Morbid Angel before, and they are always great. This Hartford show stands for me, nevertheless, and it is the one I will think about every time I listen to band from now on.
The Webster Theater is a place where metalheads can gather and bands, new and old, can play to appreciative fans. The show last Friday night with Morbid Angel, Watain, and Incantation was a fantastic experience, one for the ages. There are just a few dates remaining on the current tour, and if you can get out to see these three bands perform together, definitely do it. You don’t want to be sitting around moping in the new year sorry you missed out. Highly recommended.
All photos by Wayne Edwards.
© Wayne Edwards.
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