### Incantation: Decimate christendom

#### 07/01/11 || Daemonomania

##### Introduction

It’s too early for an album recorded in 2004 to be considered a Class 6(66) entry. But in the interest of turning all that is conventional on its head, embracing blasphemy, defacing the holy sepulcher of the Lord, and punching Yahweh right in the sac – I’m gonna present this regular review in the Class format anyway! Quickly, press your hands against the sides of your head to stop your brain from BLOWING APART! “Decimate” will undoubtedly be considered a classic when the proper amount of time has elapsed, so this review is a pre-emptive strike fuckers.

So Incantation. Yeah. If you like your death metal evil, injected with healthy doses of doom, and kvlt as bvlls then you’ve already come across the tuffest dudes outta Pennsylvania since Dunder Mifflin. They’ve been around a thousand years. They’ve had a thousand people cycle in and out of the band. Their grim goats spawn a thousand young, guaranteed. The ‘Can is steady as a rock and rarely disappoints. 2004 was no exception, friends.

##### Songwriting

8. McEntee and Co. have a very set songwriting formula. Either it is a slow part then a fast part then a slow part, the opposite, just fast or just slow. But I’ll be goddamned (which they would appreciate) if Formula 1 don’t race to the finish line. “Decimate” has a lot more speed than their most recent full-length “Primordial domination”. Some of the faster tunes work quite well, like the in-your-face title track, but others have a bit less going on. Looking at you, “Merciless tyranny”. Another songwriting fail is the first short instrumental dud, which features a name longer than its boring duration. “Unholy empowerment of righteous deprivation”? Someone’s been smoking that Nile crack again.

Enough complaints, the rest is fantastic. “Blaspheme the sacraments” is like a DM rollercoaster ride straight to the fiery depths. “Horns…” and “Oath…” are of the slow-burning stomping format and take zero prisoners. No reason to keep on rehashing the track listing. Piles and piles of decimated Christmasdom. YESSSS.

##### Production

8.5. While I love the clearer production on “Primordial”, there’s no doubt that a grittier tone gives this disc a more obscure, malicious atmosphere. Drums that oft conjure the image of a bag of crockery being tossed down a set of stairs. The fuzz surrounding the guitars and bass. McEntee’s awesome vocals gurgling and screaming away slightly behind a wall of noise, only to emerge and attack at the right times. The pope evacuated his bowels upon hearing it, and requested that a team of fat ninja priests (“I kick ass for the Lord!”) hunt down and exterminate these heretics. Not one of the rolly-poly-holy martial artist assassins returned to the Vatican alive.

##### Guitars

8.5. A twisting sacrilegious journey into having your ass handed to you, buddy. John Boy sounds like he’s three different guitarists at once – a king of classic death metal mayhem, a drooling black metal tremolo-ho, and a archaic doomster. Almost every track has a bit of each, and the transitions between them are breathtaking to behold. Something is just so fucken right about the prototype slow Incantation riff, to be found in abundance on tracks like “Oath…”. As if some non-divine being determined that a branch of brutal music must be this way, and then gave the ability to conjure those mighty sounds to one man alone. If you’ve got a few Mancanstation albums then you’ve heard it all before. But it is deeply pleasurable to hear it all again. Mickey must also have a trademark on that “twisting” riff that evokes a feeling of being sucked into a gaping hole in the earth.

##### Vocals

9. McEntee’s first outing on the mic, and he steps up bigtime. His high pitched, shredded-throat rasp is good enough to give me mini-assgasms. Reminds me a bit of Mr. Hedlund of Unleashed fame (kinda, maybe not), and that’s quality indeed. Plus his low growls, which are gravel-filled and ace. I feel he’s pushed back from time to time in the mix, but that’s a minor issue. Not like he’s reciting beautiful poetry anyway. Clearly J.M. writes the riffs and knows exactly how his howls ‘n growls should be phrased. Wonderful stuff.

##### Bass

7. The bass works to add punch to the heaving, churning guitarwork. It has moments to shine, but mostly supports the behemoth (not Behemoth) riffery. Without Lombard-o the teeth-gnashing swagger of “Decimate’s” slow sections would be lost.

##### Drums

8. Sometimes the dude appears to be sloppy as fuck, other times totally on-the-money. Severn also has a style all his own, and one I’ve never heard replicated. If I were more of a drum person I’d be able to tell you specifically what that style is, but since the notion of scissor kicks/blasts makes me think of someone with shears attached to their shoes – sorry. For Incantation’s style no one else would be suitable.

##### Lyrics

7. Pretty basic. Almost like Satanic haiku, if such a thing exists. A sample:

Crucified, beheaded Thrown to the Beast Lost in obscurity Devoured

How do you do tha metal thing with just text? Uh…? /m/. That’s a forward-facing devil horn salute. How about the claw? &///? {3}? Got me. Anyway, each and every song focuses on blaming it on god and killing his disciples and all that cuddly stuff we metalheads know and love. Most of the time the song titles are longer than the words in ‘em.

##### Cover art

6. Hah, I think this is the guy you fight at the end of Soul Caliber. Watch out, he could bust out Astaroth’s axe at any moment!

##### Logo

9. Gotta love the Incantation logo. Looks like a tree root that has become empowered by an oath of merciless dying feeble eradication of righteous Christendom. Of Armageddon-hungry… time to eat a sandwich.

##### Booklet

8. It is a booklet. It features lyrics. It features other information. It does not offer any sort of practical method to achieve the commands implied in many of the song titles. My copy came with a black bible insert that turns the whole apartment dark when opened, and makes a faint but persistent whispering noise when left closed too long. I frequently find that it has moved on its own in the night, and might be drinking the beer out of my fridge.

##### Overall and ending rant

Like I said before, it is Incantation, therefore it is good. Or bad, as in diabolically bad. Few bands really give the sense of impending horrors and dastardly rituals quite like these fellas. So if you claim death/doom OG status and don’t have “Decimate christendumbass” in your collection, terrible terrible things just might happen to you. Shit could get ugly. Uglier than the dudes in this band, even. Rush out and get a copy before the shadow people eat your soul. Hurry!

- Information
- Released: 2004
- Label: Listenable Records
- Website: www.incantation.com
- Band
- John McEntee: vocals, guitars
- Joe Lombard: bass
- Kyle Severn: drums

- Tracklist
- 01. Decimate Christendom
- 02. Dying Divinity
- 03. Oath Of Armageddon
- 04. Blaspheme The Sacraments
- 05. Merciless Tyranny
- 06. Horns Of Eradication
- 07. Unholy Empowerment Of Righteous Deprivation
- 08. Thorns Of Everlasting Persecution
- 09. No Paradise Awaits
- 10. Eternal Darkness Under Conquered Skies
- 11. Feeble Existence
- 12. Exiling Righteousness (Bonus Track)