LIVE REVIEW: Incantation @ Audio, Glasgow

Old school death metal veterans INCANTATION return for another Glasgow live show. Audio hosts tonight’s welcomed blasphemies, celebrating the release of the band’s new 13th studio album Unholy Deification. Last year, the American death metal icons did a UK tour that managed to dodge Glasgow, so it’s fantastic to see them come back to hit the city so soon. Glasgow is a confirmed death metal metropolis, and the hordes of metallers fill out the busy venue with beer-swilling anticipation. Rounding out line-up are new UK acts CELESTIAL SANCTUARY and TEMPERED.

Opening band TEMPERED lead the storm with thrash metal attack, rather than death metal. Formed in 2017, they are a local collective armed with an EP and demo bearing their moniker. Performing classic thrash metal with the evident DNA of SLAYER, KREATOR, DEATH ANGEL and EXODUS, the quintet certainly aren’t reinventing any wheels, but their enthusiasm and headbangable riffs brand them as a fun and engaging live spectacle. Aggressive tremolo picking, broad basslines and vocalist Craig Hewett‘s strained barks secure warm responses from the home crowd. The most enthused attendees mirror the band members’ on stage headbanging, providing a meat-and-potatoes thrash metal experience. This is a promising show for an emerging act.

Rating: 7/10

Second on stage are CELESTIAL SANCTUARY from Cambridge. This four-piece breathed life in 2019 and tellingly borrowed their name from a BOLT THROWER song. Like many new bands paving the way for the retro death metal movement, they are heavily inspired by AUTOPSY. Guitar riffs are putrid and uncompromising, alternating between rapid and crawling tempos, and there are even some solid solos scattered throughout the set. While the musicianship is fair and CELESTIAL SANCTUARY‘s on-stage presence maintains momentum, the songs themselves contribute nothing fresh in a microgenre that’s been consistently conquering the subterranean death metal realm for around a full decade now. The songs bleed into each other with little surprise or innovation. Maybe they’ll become more inspired as they develop, but for now, there’s little to draw them ahead of the remainder of the old school death metal revival.

Rating: 7/10

Despite going for around 35 years and playing hundreds of shows worldwide, headliners INCANTATION really seem genuinely excited to be performing live still. They’re certainly not going through the motions or just persisting for a reliable pay cheque. The band ignites their show with the new song Offerings (The Swarm) IV from  Unholy Deification. Their signature sound is simultaneously suffocating, quietly atmospheric and sinister. It’s truly remarkable how most musicians picking up instruments to play contemporary old school death metal directly trace their sound’s lineage to INCANTATION. There’s absolutely no way mainman John McEntee and his bandmates could have anticipated the enduring impact they’d have on the subgenre.

Thankfully, the Audio‘s sound is merciful to the Americans, sharpening their blunt-force sonic attack. With such an elongated career without hiatuses or album breaks, they have an almost endless amount of material to pull from their back catalogue. Naturally, they can’t play a song from every album, so they democratically draw from throughout their career, with a weighting towards the oldest material, but also promote Unholy Deification. Chalice (Vessel Consanguineous) VII, Concordat (The Pact) I and Invocation (Chthonic Merge) X represent the new full-length. Blasphemous Creation, Unholy Massacre, Ibex Moon, Impending Diabolical Conquest and Blissful Bloodshower are excellent highlights that recall the band’s early career. INCANTATION‘s enthusiastic stage presence is all the audience needs to stir up continuous mosh pits and an onslaught of stage divers.

After His Dark Hand, it appears to be the end of the music. However, McEntee and company aren’t finished. They treat the audience to a cover of the death metal anthem from DEATH, Evil Dead. A final extra spasm of fury erupts from the audience, showing their appreciation for this iconic track. After the song ends, McEntee checks to see if they can play one more song, but the staff at Audio put down their request unfortunately. After the show, McEntee says that he wants to meet folks and take pictures by the merch stand, which he dutifully does. Such an attitude and appreciation of death metal and the fans is undeniably central to INCANTATION‘s impressive unwavering staying power in the genre. Here’s hoping the band returns to Glasgow soon.

Rating: 8/10

Check out our photo gallery of the night’s action in Glasgow from Duncan McCall here: 

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