It’s good to see that Incinerate is still hanging in there.  Releasing only their 3rd album since a 2000 demo.  Incinerate drop albums just after the brain cell crushing, wearers of unreadable band shirts have stopped wondering, “whatever happened to them”, snapping their necks back in place with Eradicating Terrestrial Species.  

Considering their recent activity, including a European tour supporting Internal Suffering, the band is experiencing a most fruitful period of its 15 year run.  Sometime after the release of 2008’s Anatomize, Scott Ellingboe, founding guitar player and songwriter, left the band.  This would generally be the death blow for any band and vocalist Jesse Watson was set to let nature take its course for the group.  Instead, current bass player Sash Wilczynski inspired him to continue, finding a new guitar player in Ted Isac, and drummer Darren Cesca.  That there’s even a 3rd album out is made even more remarkable when each member is scattered across the US and Canada.  You have to appreciate that level of effort.

Incinerate is brutal death metal.  That’s brooootal; Four “o”s.  In my expert opinion they have maybe the last kick ass one word band name in death metal.  “INCINERATE”, it’s even phonetically brutal.  When I was 19 and rabidly exploring the extreme metal realm their name, logo design, and cover art for the Dissecting The Angels album had my eyes distort like Spiderman villain Venoms.   Exactly my kind of evil lookin’ shit.  That said, I’m glad that the original logo is back in use for this release, being absent from the cover of Anatomize.

Harsh, distorted death rays begin firing upon the masses.  Distant sounds of chaos hum; People screaming, trampling, and dying.   Massive tripedal machines towering ominously no matter where you look.  I’m not saying it’s aliens…but it’s ALIENS!   Then the floor drops and the sound effect laden intro is translated to a barrage of skin frying riffs, snare blasts, and forceful gurgling.   Vocally, I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s what these aliens actually sound like.  Jesse Watson lyrically has written a concept record of alien invasion.  Aliens have been on Earth for ages, stripping us of resources secretly.   Discovery of the alien presence triggers their immediate plan of “Eradicating The Indigenous”.  The religions of Earth are losing grip because this calls into question everything they consider true now facing that they are “Unable To Ascend (loss of faith)”.  Humans are used as a power resource by the aliens, and those still free form resistance groups.  Finally world powers develop “The Berserker”, and gain ground in this extraterrestrial conflict.   Will Smith never makes an appearance so I’m not so sure it’ll end in favor of the human race.

My soft spot for Incinerate aside, the point here is to inform our metal consuming readers how this record holds up amongst the boiling blood sea of current brutal death metal releases.  To be fair, I have to admit it’s in the middle.  While perhaps a new height for the band, it doesn’t quite register on a number of levels.  Each player technically kills it, but overall, as a complete record it is a solidly executed blur.  The production, which for me is an additional but invisible player on any album, is midrange and doesn’t accentuate the songs.  I was quickly reminded of a few earlier Pathology albums, like Surgically Hacked, having a surgical theme and sound to match.   By this I mean it lacks a major heft and intangible aural atmosphere that might elevate such an album above the rest, for which I would hold up Defeated Sanity Passages Into Deformity as a throne to aspire for.  For such a narrowly confined genre where hearing songs requires some work by the listener, and most albums contend on sheer blunt force, production makes a great difference.

The album ends on a few odd notes.  Firstly, a rerecorded version of   “Fucking a Rotting Nun” is included, having originally appeared on the debut, Dissescting The Angels.  I don’t get the point of this as it isn’t in line with the alien invasion theme and lyrical concept.   Dissecting The Angels is readily available for purchase or listen for fans that would want it.  Secondly, I’m just not a fan of including covers on an album.   Leave it in practice for fun, or drop in your live set.  I do appreciate covers when they are reinterpreted, and given a new twist by the players.    Here they provide their version of Severed Savior’s “One by One”, which can’t be far off from the original, if not note for note, so I don’t see the value in tacking it on the end.  Eradicating Terrestrial Species isn’t going to blow minds of brutal death metal fans, but when I’m suddenly alerted to their next album, it’ll have my ears, curious as to how they progress.

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