Report

Incantation Casts A Spell Over The Underworld In London

It feels like a while since we presented a review of a death metal show on Metal Underground. Of course, some bands from the sub-genre have been covered in the 70000 Tons Of Metal recaps, but as a whole, it's been almost two months since the report on the Frozen Soul show at The Underworld in Camden, London. Speaking of which, the topic of this report comes from the same venue, where only two days before, I was lucky enough to witness a great display of power metal courtesy of Firewind. This time, it was full on death metal, as Pennsylvania based death metal squadron Incantation kicked off their headlining run of the UK and Ireland, following a trek of mainland Europe as main support to Decapitated.

Opening the show was local lads Mutagenic Host. Featuring two members of atmospheric black metal band Archierophant, this outfit is a more straight forward death metal affair. While not winning any points for originality, Mutagenic Host are a decent group, offering old school riffing and grisliness which will get your head moving, even if you try to resist. They wear their influences on their sleeves and it seems the mission statement is to replicate the old school death metal they love, something increasingly common nowadays with the likes of Frozen Soul and Baest. Mutagenic Host needs some work to match the quality of those bands, but the potential is there for sure. A solid opening act.

Up next we had Celestial Sanctuary, who I'd actually caught last year supporting the aforementioned Frozen Soul. I remembered them being quite impressive and while they weren't bad by any stretch of the imagination, there was something not quite there this time. I'm not discounting the possibility, even the probability that it was just me, since there were a good number of people who were really into them. In return, Celestial Sanctuary offered plenty of energy in return and a suitably heavy set given the evening's headliners. A solid set and death metal fans are still encouraged to check them out, but not at their best on this occasion.

Finally, we come to the grand finale. The band we were all here to see and quite notably so given how busier it seemed compared to the crowd numbers for the opening acts. Incantation. Now in their thirty fifth year, the New Jersey born death metal stalwarts are as strong as ever, as demonstrated by their most recent album, "Unholy Deification," released last year through Relapse Records. It should come as no surprise that there were plenty of cuts from the record brought out tonight, with "Concordat (The Pact) I," "Offerings (The Swarm) IV," (which opened the set,) "Chalice (Vessel Consanguineous) VIII" and "Invocation (Chthonic Merge) X" all getting an airing. "Unholy Deification" is an excellent album and the material sounds just as good live as it does from the studio.

Of course, with such a lengthy back catalogue, there's an awful lot to choose from for a set list, and so the evening saw Incantation reach as far back as their debut, "Onward To Golgotha," from which they played "Blasphemous Cremation" and "Unholy Massacre." After "Unholy Deification," it was "Mortal Throne Of Nazarene" which got the most representation with three songs, while "Diabolical Conquest," "Vanquish In Vengeance," "Dirges Of Elysium" and "Sect Of Vile Divinities" also had songs picked from them. Incantation still has a formidable stage presence too, even if it becomes hard not to take "you English fucks" personally after a while. They're every bit as beloved as they've always been and judging by the number of younger fans in the crowd, they'll be just as revered by the next generation too. While not always in the same conversation as genre icons Cannibal Corpse or Obituary, they certainly deserve to be, because for three and a half decades, Incantation has been kicking ass and progressing naturally into one of death metal's greatest veterans.