UMUR McGillroy The Housefly is the 2nd full-length studio album by experimental/ progressive German death metal act Incubator. The album was released in 1992 by West Virginia Records.

Incubator have continued to develop and fine tune their experimental/ progressive death metal style and McGillroy The Housefly is a great step forward from Symphonies of Spiritual Cannibalism (1991). Be prepared for something that sounds like Obituary met up with Voivod and Anacrusis. When lead vocalist Christian Mummelthey growls, he has a vocal style that´s very similar to the brutal vocal style of John Tardy ( Obituary) and some of the groove laden death metal riffing also lead my thoughts in the direction of Obituary. Incubator are definitely not a clone act though. There are lots of experimental/ progressive/ psychadelic elements on the album, which is why Voivod and Anacrusis come up as influences. Christian Mummelthey not only growls on the album, he also sings in various clean vocal styles and his vocal performance on the album is not only varied, it´s also very powerful and adds an extra dimension to the music.

The songs on McGillroy The Housefly are very different in style and one moment you´re treated with brutal death metal sections, which shortly after may be followed by a psychadelic rock/ metal section and then into a beautiful melodic part. This is truly an eclectic death metal album. You don´t really know where the songs are going and I greatly enjoy the adventurous/ unconventional approach to songwriting. Don´t get me wrong though, it doesn´t mean that the album is inconsistent or all over the place in terms of style.

The production is very powerful and the sound suits the music perfectly. It´s just one more thing that has been improved since the debut.

McGillroy The Housefly is a very unique death metal album but unfortunately also a rare find. If I were to mention an album that hasn´t received the praise it should both upon release and now, McGillroy The Housefly would be a serious candidate. A unique release like this of course deserves a 4.5 rating. What a shame it took me almost 20 years to discover it.

UMUR Symphonies of Spiritual Cannibalism is the debut full-length studio album by German death metal act Incubator. The album was released in 1991 by Morbid Music, which is a division of West Virginia Records.

The music on the album is death metal with a slight experimental twist. The basis in the band´s sound is brutal yet catchy death metal with some really powerful growling vocals by lead vocalist Christian Mummelthey. Christian Mummelthey also delivers some clean vocals and talking, but the main vocal style on the album is the growling type vocals. The music, and the vocals for that matter, can be compared to a band like Morgoth but there are hints towards the mid-paced, crushingly brutal and groovy death metal style of Obituary too. The slight experimental twist I mentioned is audible in a few parts here and there on the album. Think Voivod or maybe Anacrusis. Those parts are kept to a minimum on this album though, so Symphonies of Spiritual Cannibalism is first and foremost a brutal and catchy death metal album with some killer growling vocals. Incubator is not your everyday death metal act though and songtitles like Puppenmord, Plants of the Bizarre or the title of the album itself should give you a clue that the lyrics are pretty unconventional too.

The production is not the best out there, but it´s not a distraction and I´m fully able to enjoy the music without thinking too much about the sound quality. And don´t get me wrong here. The production is fully on par with most other death metal releases from 1991.

I´ll level with you here. I´ve never heard of Incubator before very recently. Back in the early nineties when the internet wasn´t something the broad public had access to, the only way to discover new acts was by purchasing magazines and read reviews in the review sections of those magazines. Something I spend a lot of time doing in those years. That´s how I discovered some of the other great German death metal acts like Morgoth and Atrocity. I don´t know if I just didn´t purchase the magazine that reviewed Incubator´s albums or if the band´s albums were simply so badly distributed that my chances of hearing about the band was minimal. The point is that it´s such a shame that it´s taken me almost 20 years to discover such a creative and intriguing act as Incubator. Symphonies of Spiritual Cannibalism is actually a bit of a gem IMO and a 4 star rating is fully deserved. It´s not often you come across death metal albums that really stand out, but this is certainly one of them.