INCANTATION — Onward to Golgotha (review)

INCANTATION — Onward to Golgotha album cover

Album · 1992 · Death Metal

4/5 · 2017-04-28
siLLy puPPy

Following in the wake of Morbid Angel came a whole drove of old school death metal bands who were driven to outdeath each other and turn up the brutality and gore to 11 and beyond. While the whole world was taking notice and following suit, the New York City area produced some of the most brutal old school death bands of the early 90s with Suffocation and Mortician ratcheting up the shock value manyfold. Likewise other bands were focusing on the evil as fuck sound and bands like Immolation and INCANTATION were the top dogs in this department. INCANTATION was probably the most evil as fuck of all as heard on their blasphemous debut ONWARD TO GOLGOTHA. This Biblical reference points to the location where Jesus was crucified which shows the early as of yet unseparated aspects of black and death metal and this album very much reflects that fluidity between early black metal Satanism with all the anti-Christianity mixed with the macabre imagery wrapped up in a death metal package as down-tuned riffs churn out walls of distorted sound while blastbeat drum rolls threaten to obliterate any eardrums that stray to close for comfort.

INCANTATION really delivered the goods on ONWARD TO GOLGOTHA. This album is the epitome of morbid, muddy and evil death metal. Everything about this one is scary and sounds like a very bad trip through the blackened tubes to the underworld where any attempt at escape is futile. While the guitar and bass predominantly chug along at frenetic paces all muddied together in a swirl of atmospheric despair, INCANTATION were masters at altering the tempos between the frenetic and super slow creeping style that would become the sounds heard in funeral doom metal as heard from bands such as Esoteric where all is slowed down to a brooding dread that fully allows the terrifying din to unfurl its horrific sonic assault all the while accompanied by the totally unintelligible low-pitched growling vocals of Craig Pillard. The unrelenting hellish soundscapes pummel the senses and leave the listener bereft of any sense of song structure as the riffs whizz by in unpredictable packets of distortion with occasional Morbid Angel type guitar squeals culminating in a lightning fast solo.

While Suffocation clearly won the brutality war as they turned up the extremities like none other, INCANTATION were the dominators of deathened doom where the hellish eddies of sound terrified like no other band of this period. ONWARD TO GOLGOTHA remains a death metal classic for achieving all the aspects that make death metal ever so addicting with the technicality of the musicians impressively wailing away while atmospheric bleakness peaks through at rare moments when the distortion ceases. This remains a highly influential album as it was a clear reference point for bands like Nile on their similarly styled “Seeds Of Vengeance” and newer 21st century tech bands like Portal and Mitochondrion who focus on a bleak and unforgiving atmospheric soundscape punctuated by pummeling riffs and periods of frightening contemplation. Perhaps too muddy for some but that is the aspect i really love about INCANTATION at this stage. The blurring of boundaries between the guitar and bass add a unifying element of gloom that when mixed with the sombre atmospherics deliver the most oppressing extreme metal albums of the early 90s.