Hailing from Denver, Colorado Blood Incantation return with their sophomore album Hidden History of the Human Race, the follow-up to the monstrous 2016 debut, Starspawn, which I reviewed on this very site.

In their existence since 2011 Blood Incantation has garnered a well-deserved reputation for their raging live show and yes live, they’re one of the best out there folks. How could they top Starspawn??? An album that broke through the death metal glass ceiling with respect to how creative and innovative they are. Through their constant touring, and as you’re reading this they just wrapped up a super long tour with Immolation, the band has continued to hone their craft and Hidden History of the Human Race may just very well be their best effort. With Jeff Barrett on bass, Morris Kolontyrsky on guitar, Isaac Faulk on drums and the brain child Paul Riedl, behind the band, on guitars and vox,

Blood Incantation are taking death metal to new and exciting heights and actually help to further this great genre. As with their previous album, there are not many songs on this album, only 4, with one being an instrumental, in the form of “Inner Paths (To Outer Space)” and while Antti Boman of Demilich fame lays a nice ending growl to the instrumental, I have and will continue to not be a fan of death metal instrumentals. Just my proclivity, but this one actually captures my interest and I do like it.

“Slave Species of the Gods” opens with some raging blasting and soloing and the first thing popping out is the production. Nothing beats the true organic nature of this analogue recording. You can feel the warmth and heaviness of the bass and the drums sound monstrous. Multiple pinch harmonics permeate the listeners’ head at the 90 second mark. The powerful rhythm section has only tightened over the last several years. The blasting 30 seconds later with Paul’s deep and powerful cavernous vocals and then the slow down with the guitar phase shifter effect is utterly mind-blowing. The blasting and slow down with the guitar effect comes right back before the mid paced ferocious and pummeling music lops off your pathetic head and goes right into a vortex blast. Nice other worldly guitar solo towards the end of the song too. One of the best opening songs I’ve ever heard. “The Giza Power Plant” has a great opening with the guitars, bass and pinch harmonics that will slice apples from here to the Crab Nebula with one snap of your fingers. The song begins slow with some atmospheric effects and I love the isolated guitar part at the 1 minute mark before the guitar solo comes in and the song picks up speed. Some excellent signature time changes going on and then a mid-eastern guitar section comes in as the song gets into a more epic and dreamlike sequence. This section with the various instrumentation and bass guitar strumming and a little spoken word beneath the growls-well christ almighty, just a real amazing part that B.I. must further expand upon on future releases. Nice emotive and epic feel and cool ending with some blasting and stop and start blasting that crushes.

Ending with the 18 minute “Awakening from the Dream of Existence to the Multidimensional Nature of Our Reality (Mirror of the Soul)” this is only the second time I have debuted my format of Anatomy of a Song, which highlights an extraordinary song and this song is monumental. From the frightening blasts to some of Paul’s finest vocal work the song has a lot of time changes early on with insane guitar riffing which may have some Incantation/Immolation nods and even some Gorguts. The bending of the chords and there are many Holy Shit moments. One of them is at the 3.23 section with Paul’s grunt and then the song blasting away with death metal riffing that is rarely seen to this level in terms of originality. The song gets into some atmospheric cavernous slower paced moments before a monstrous blasting section with swirling rhythms and great soloing and the blast time changes are some of the best I’ve heard in recent memory. The ambiance at the 5.30 section will transport you and fido into outer space, if you’re not already there and this is a very tranquil, calming new age moment. The guitar riffing at the 7.20 moment brings the music out with some awesome drumming where I think every piece of the drum kit is being used all at once, I swear. Then more soloing over the blazing vortex grind blasting. The slower moments return towards the end of the 12 minute marker and this grinding crawl almost has a bit of a European flair to it, from the 90’s and the song gradually gets slower before the ambiance of the earlier section returns to close out this wonderful album.

The album cover is the classic 1970s artwork by Sci-Fi artist Bruce Pennington and mixed in with the green Blood Incantation logo is perfect. The band could not have selected a better piece of art for Hidden History of the Human Race. Blood Incantation deserve all the praise they continue to get. Live, they are outstanding-they blow the majority of bands out there out the fucking door. As people, since I’ve met them a few times and conversed with Paul he and the rest of the band are down to earth and super nice guys.

And then let’s talk about their actual recordings-dark lord almighty-so much music crammed into these songs, but still memorable and played by aliens-because that’s how crazy their music is. They take their music seriously and once again toppling the death metal genre and turning it upside down and actually bettering the genre. I think I own more Blood Incantation merch then any other band out there. Head on over to Dark Descent and hope some of the awesome new shirts are still in stock and obviously buy Hidden History of the Human Race, in the format of your choice.

Easily one of the best albums of 2019, by easily one of the most remarkable and best bands in the underground. Yes, I predict Blood Incantation’s popularity to only grow stronger and farther reaching. Simply put Hidden History of the Human Race is godly. Buy or Die!

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