By Andrew Bansal
It’s been more than five years since Swedish technical death metal band Spawn Of Possession released their last studio album “Noctambulant”. But the band is finally ready to release their third studio album, and Relapse Records debut “Incurso”. Expectations among fans have naturally risen due to this long gap, and to add further interest and curiosity, the band has undergone as many as four line-up changes since the aforementioned 2nd studio album was released.
Obscura’s Christian Muenzer and Blood Red Throne’s Erlend Caspersen have joined as lead guitarist and bassist respectively, while longtime drummer Dennis Röndum has rejoined, but as vocalist. Henrik Schönström takes his place as the new drummer, and together with original guitarist Jonas Bryssling, this group of musicians has delivered what can be best described as a mind-blowing piece of music.
“Abodement” serves as the intro, an ominous sign of things to come, and leads straight into “Where Angels Go Demons Follow”, which is nothing short of absolute carnage on the listener’s ears. The sheer talent possessed by these musicians is on display right from the outset. This extremely well-rounded tune offers an incredible amount of technical brutality in the 5 minutes and 39 seconds of its duration. But there is no time to recover, as “Bodiless Sleeper” continues the onslaught. It’s a blistering tune, and keeps up with the intensity created by the previous song, but is more riff-oriented with a few pinch harmonics thrown in there, thus having a little more variety. While these first three tracks give the album a great start, “The Evangelist” is really where it starts taking shape. Each of the five members have expressed themselves with complete freedom in this nearly 10-minute long track, and it well and truly represents what this album is all about.
Aside from the intro, “Servitude Of Souls” is the shortest track on the album, and successfully drives its point across with some high-impact songwriting. Caspersen’s bass is outstanding throughout the album, but more so on this particular track. “Deus Avertat” continues along similar lines but just like track #3, it’s more riff-oriented, and as a result, heavier. “Spiritual Deception” on the other hand, offers some slower segments, which serves as a good change up from the rest of the album. Next comes “No Light Spared”, a blistering follow-up tune with a delightfully audible bass. The album comes to a rather theatrical end with the long, drawn out and slightly melancholic “Apparition”.
Talking purely in terms of musicianship, this is just about as good as it gets. It will be nearly impossible for any band in this sub-genre to match the musical quality of this album for the rest of the year, may be even longer. The new line-up has undoubtedly gelled together excellently well, and combined to create a brutally epic album. Besides the actual music, they have done a brilliant job with the final product, as each layer of the sound is crystal clear in the mix. But, in my opinion it falls slightly short of being a perfect album mainly due to its length. At 52 minutes and 35 seconds, it’s a little too long for a technical death metal release. I’m only saying this because the musicianship of this group is so incredible that they don’t need a 52-minute album to express themselves. But looking at it on a song-by-song basis, it’s a stellar effort, and will greatly appease fans of the genre.
Spawn Of Possession’s cult following will grow stronger with the release of “Incurso”. A killer effort, this will certainly end up as one of the best extreme metal releases of 2012.
Rating: 8.5/10
Record Label: Relapse
Release Date: March 13th 2012
Track Listing:
1. Abodement
2. Where Angels Go Demons Follow
3. Bodiless Sleeper
4. The Evangelist
5. Servitude of Souls
6. Deus Avertat
7. Spiritual Deception
8. No Light Spared
9. Apparition