adg211288 Incurso is the third full-length album by Swedish technical death metal act Spawn of Possession. The album was released in 2012, their first in six years. The band’s line-up has been largely reworked in this time, leaving only two members of the band who performed on their last album Noctambulant (2006) still with the band on Incurso; guitarist Jonas Bryssling and drummer Dennis Röndum, the latter of which has switched to vocals.

Incurso is primarily a technical death metal release, as with the prior albums. It also draws very slightly on progressive death metal influences and, particularly in the closing track Apparition, symphonic death metal. The technical aspect is the main feature here though as the driving force behind the music.

While Incurso does set a very strong first impression because of the band’s excellent technical playing, which really is about as top grade as you’ll likely find, it is something of a double-edged sword in that after the initial good impressions have worn off it does start to feel like the band is using their technical prowess just because they can and while I do still enjoy the songs the band has provided on Incurso, I can’t help but consider it somewhat inferior to some of the other technical death metal releases I’ve encountered in the last couple of years. The musicianship is excellent and honestly unfaultable, and Dennis Röndum provides a strong if rather incomprehensible vocal performance. The real problem is that the songs lack a bit of proper death metal bite where the riffs are concerned for the most part due to the sheer amount of technical playing going on. That said the album doesn’t lack a brutal edge since the growling is deep and powerful.

There are however exceptions among the tracks which allow the album to remain in fairly high scored territory for me though. Apparition with its symphonic elements is about as good a closer for the album as Spawn of Possession could possibly have done and I also enjoy The Evangelist a lot although it does feel a bit overlong at times.

In short, I have enjoyed my experience with Incurso, and I think a praiseworthy score is in order. I don’t think on the other hand it will be a technical death metal album I return to much whenever I feel like hearing something out of the genre, and therein lies the biggest issue with Incurso; so much goes on where the technical playing is concerned that the majority of the tracks ultimately don’t leave much of a lasting impression as songs, and the album comes over as something of an indulgence. It is good, but it could easily have been great or better.

7.4/10

(Originally written for Heavy Metal Haven (http://metaltube.freeforums.org))

UMUR "Incurso" is the 3rd full-length studio album by Swedish technical death metal act Spawn of Possession. The album was released through Relapse Records in March 2012. "Incurso" is the first album by the Swedes since the critically acclaimed "Noctambulant (2006)". Six years is a long time between album releases and quite a few lineup changes have occured in those years. Lead vocalist Jonas Renvaktar has been replaced by Dennis Röndum (who also performed vocals on the band´s debut album "Cabinet (2003)". The latter played the drums on "Noctambulant (2006)". New drummer on "Incurso" is Henrik Schönström. Erlend Caspersen and Christian Müenzner (Defeated Sanity, Necrophagist, Obscura) has also been added to the lineup. Respectively on bass and lead guitar. All the lineup changes mean that guitarist Jonas Bryssling is the only member of the band playing the same thing as he did on "Noctambulant (2006)".

The music on the album is technical and rather brutal death metal. Spawn of Possession are slightly more old school than most other technical brutal death metal acts out there, but "Incurso" does display a more contemporary side of the band´s sound too. Lots of lightning fast fretboard work, tempo- and time signature changes and brutal growling vocals are some of the ingredients of the album. Acts like Obscura, Necrophagist and Gorod come to mind but with an added more old school edge. The vocals are for instance growling all the way through.

The tracks are challenging and extremely well played but also a bit hard to tell apart because memorable hooks are few and far between, ultimately making the album sound a bit one-dimensional (although repeated listens reveal more details and catchy moments). Sometimes it´s like the band stumble over themselves to deliver the most technical playing possible and it doesn´t always work to their advantage (some of the playing on the album is incredibly technical and designed to make your jaw drop). In my book technical playing in death metal should be a means to an end and not just applied to show off your skills and unfortunately the latter sometimes seems to be the case here.

The excessive focus on technical playing is not a huge issue though (and to some it´s probably the greatest asset of the album), and "Incurso" is still a very impressive death metal album with a powerful and detailed sound production, excellent musicianship and intriguing songwriting, and fans of the genre are strongly recommended to give it a listen. A 4 star (80%) rating is fully deserved.

Phonebook Eater 5/10

"Incurso" throws at the listener so many things at once, that none of them end up giving an impact.

Spawn of Possession are a Swedish Technical Death Metal that over the years have been gaining an increase in popularity. But with “Incurso” the band reaches the attention they never really had: they now are generally extremely well respected among Death Metal enthusiasts. This third album of theirs, “Incurso” is being somewhat praised by Metal fans, not really for the songwriting but more for the amazing technical aspects.

Like the vast majority of modern Technical Death Metal, “Incurso” has no sense of melody whatsoever: everything is focused on are flashy guitar riffs, extremely fast-paced and complex rhythms, everlastingly changing hooks. But the thing about Spawn Of Possession is that in their music these technicalities are done extremely well: each and all of these musicians play like musical demons, especially the drummer, Henrik Schonstrom, who many times delivers truly amazing fills. The bass played by Erlend Caspersen is wild and virtuous as well, with all of it’s slappings and slidings. Of course the music is very hard to follow because of all the things that are coming and going at once, and that is one of the main problems I seem to have concerning modern Technical Death Metal.

The lyrics, like many Death Metal lyrics of the early days, are graphic and violent. But what makes them especially gruesome is that most of them are stories: some include hints to necrophilia (“Bodiless Sleeper”), possession and Satanism (“Deus Avertat”), demonic raping and futile revenge (“Spiritual Deception”), sadistic surgeons (“Servitude Of Souls”). But the most twisted story of all is possibly the explicit one narrated in “The Evangelist”, where a man remembers being dialy raped by a priest, and finds out, sitting next to his sickly mother, that she too was daily raped by the same priest and that the protagonist is actually the son of the priest.

The album as a whole, because of it’s style, is one that drags on and on, and since there are no sort of melodies or stand-out moments, it feels like a huge, lengthy song that never ends. This impression is strengthened even more with the fact that all of the songs use pretty much the same formulas, almost never there are any moments that somehow differ from the rest. A slight exception is the last track, “Apparition”, where there is much more instrumentation--mostly orchestral--, a slower passage, and an overall more varied feel. But the rest of the tracks, even though they are constantly changing hooks and rhythms, feel monotonous anyhow, which is the last thing that should happen in this kind of music.

“Incurso” has an excellent production, amazing musicianship, and disturbing themes in the lyrics, but there is no natural flow from song to song: no matter how flashy everything is, there are really few moments worth remembering. But maybe this is just me.

J-Man If you've been blown away by the killer technical death metal from newer bands like Obscura or Abysmal Dawn, Relapse Records now has another band on their roster to satisfy that itch for brutal, semi-melodic, and inhumanly technical death metal. Enter Spawn of Possession, a Swedish five-piece that has made their major label debut, and third album overall, with the masterful Incurso. I was, ashamedly, unfamiliar with these Swedes before a promotional copy of this album rolled into my inbox, but 'better late than never' certainly applies here. Incurso is Spawn of Possession's first album since 2006's Noctambulant, and although there have been a few lineup changes over the past five-plus years, the band's technical-edged extreme metal sound remains fully in-tact.

Technical death metal is known by most people as a genre focused on blinding guitar leads, frantic drum patterns, and brutally challenging composition styles, and while this all certainly applies to Spawn of Possession, they take the dizzying sound of technical death metal and showcase the genre at its highest potential. Very much like their labelmates in Obscura, Spawn of Possession is not afraid to sneak some memorable hooks into their otherwise punishing tech-death sound, and I think this versatility and modern-sounding approach in terms of songwriting is what sets Spawn of Possession apart from the hordes of bands that are still trying to relive the classic days of Cryptopsy, Atheist, and Death. Incurso shows the result of a forward-thinking, talented band taking the very best of technical death metal and updating it for the modern age.

After the ominous intro in the form of "Abodement", the band dives head-first into brutal, technical death metal in "Where Angels Go Demons Follow". For the most part, technical death metal is the name of the game throughout Incurso, but frequent changes within riff structures, a monstrous rhythm section, and rather dynamic songwriting keeps the album from ever feeling one-dimensional. The copious amounts of keyboards in "Apparition" even brings 2011's Agony from Fleshgod Apocalypse to mind, with its symphonic flirtations over-top of brutal tech-death working like a charm.

With the musicianship also remaining impeccable across the board (I especially have to give a nod to Henrik Schönström - few drummers manage to kill my self esteem as much as this guy!), it's really tough to find any complaints when we're talking about a technical death metal album of this caliber. Incurso secures Spawn of Possession's place among the elite modern tech-death acts, and I'd recommend this within a heartbeat to anyone who enjoys music from the likes of Obscura, Abysmal Dawn, Fleshgod Apocalypse, Atheist, or late-period Death. In short, Incurso is a modern death metal masterpiece and a landmark album for extreme metal in 2012 - don't miss it!