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Incubus: Beyond the unknown

07/11/11 || Habakuk

No, not that Incubus. These here are thrashers from Brazil who renamed their band after this album(smart move) to Opprobrium (not so smart) and turned “Christian” (…). Now before we move to the music – which is good, so stay tuned – let me get this out of the way: How lame is that? It doesn’t matter what you convert into, Christian or Vegan (is there even a band with a carnivorous decidedly agenda?) or whatever, I rarely care what you think and how stupid it is, but I don’t want my metal to be admitting its mistakes and bands changing the lyrics after an album has been released (true story!). What’s with this self-doubt shit? I want my Metal to be right, for fuck’s sake! Wimps and posers leave the hall! Satan-Spawn The Caco-Daemon (repeat)! PERSERVENRERANCE!! Really, I don’t care about the content at all, but that is such a pansy move it hurts. Not cool, band!

Okay, now, let’s pretend none of this ever happened. We have two guys from Brazil, relocating to the US and death/thrashing their way through the late eighties/early nineties. And they’re not a mere copy, mainly because of the death/thrash. Opener “Certain accuracy” makes that clear from the get-go with a few riffs that pretty much cover all the tempos we’ll need in the upcoming half-hour, from not-quite-blasting over standard thrashing to slow, chugging groove with extra drumming support.

Most of the time the band get the song juice flowing nicely, but every so often the song structure relies on the transition “end riff / play new riff without drums / new riff / success!” which isn’t especially inventive, but okay. And actually, over the course of an entire album, they don’t run out of killer riffs to make this work time and time again – in isolation. When listening to the complete album, though, you’ll most definitely get the feeling of being served more of the same. In a nutshell: Riffmasters – yes, definitely; Songmasters – Not really. However, from time to time we get some pretty bad-ass transitions or great drumming around the riffs, so that it’s far from an amateurish tack-on fest either.

Whereas on the first album they had a rather punchy sound, this time around, the guitars especially are much more treblier and sawing, which supports the nasty sound this has, especially since the drums are produced in a way (loud hi-hat, ploppy snare) that makes it sound a bit sloppy and blurry, which it mostly isn’t. Still, the whole deal could actually use a bit more edge, but after all we’re dealing with a 1990 album. Get over some blur. The vocals I shouldn’t forget to mention, but they’re right there in the middle between thrashy rasp and death-y growl that no respectable complaints can be filed.

All things considered, it is ultimately no surprise why nobody has ever heard of Incubus (the metal band), as this clearly lacks behind the greats in the songwriting department, but that does not mean that fans of the style can’t find anything worthy of their attention here. And to them this goes highly recommended, in reasonable doses.

Information
Released: 1990
Label: Nuclear Blast
Website: Incubus / Opprobrium MySpace
Band
Francis M. Howard: vocals, bass, guitars
Moyses M. Howard: drums

Tracklist
01. Certain accuracy
02. The deceived ones
03. Curse of the damned cities
04. Beyond the unknown
05. Freezing torment
06. Massacre of the unborn
07. On the burial ground
08. Mortify

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