The life of the unpaid, overworked metal reviewer is not an easy one. The reviewing collective at AMG lurches from one new release to the next, errors and nOObs strewn in our wake. But what if, once in a while, the collective paused to take stock and consider the discography of those bands that shaped many a taste? What if two three aspects of the AMG collective personality shared with the slavering masses their personal rankings of that discography and what if the rest of the personality used a Google sheet some kind of dark magic to produce an official guide to, and all-around definitive aggregated ranking of, that band’s entire discography? Well, if that happened, we imagine it would look something like this…
Incantation took no baby steps, spent no time fumbling for a sound or a mission. The band’s birth cries can be heard on a little album called Onward to Golgotha, and with that debut they set a death metal standard that has been widely imitated but seldom equaled. John McEntee’s creation has endured its share of lineup shuffling and behind-the-scenes agita, but Incantation’s patented recipe of furious death metal fused with menacing doom passages reliably delivers extreme metal excellence. With the act’s twelfth slab Unholy Deification set to drop this week, Incantation remains a vital force some thirty-four years after writing their first riff.1
Incantation spawned a vast and consistently remarkable body of work that you can begin to understand by breaking it down into “early,” “middle,” and “current” eras. It’s a big old job, and the task of ranking their output is both daunting and a true labor of love. Ferox intended to participate, but ultimately ceded the field when a murderer’s row of writing talent answered the Ranking call. I’m glad I bowed out–the trio of esteemed staffers below each makes sense of Incantation’s oeuvre in compelling fashion. You may argue with some of their choices–seriously, please argue with some of their choices—but even then, it’s a cogently-argued sort of wrongheadedness. So mutter a quick hex, down-tune any string instruments you have to hand, and join us for a tour of one of the best fucking catalogs on this or any other plane of existence.
– Ferox
Steel Druhm
In the world of death metal, the name Incantation casts a large shadow. Expertly merging thrashing insanity with ridiculously heavy doom, the sound forged by this legendary act launched a million imitators while creating the whole “cavern-core” aesthetic. Over their 30-plus year career, they’ve experienced an almost comical amount of hardships with endless lineup shuffles but through it all they’ve churned out a stellar collection of groundbreaking, genre-defining classics. In the process, they’ve crafted one of the most respectably consistent catalogs in the history of metal. Incantation are true pioneers who placed the stamp of hideous filth on death forevermore. Hail or leave the Hall.
#9. Profane Nexus (2017). I’ve been a fan of the late-era Incantation albums as all feel surprisingly vibrant for a band in their third decade of existence. Of the newest clutch of releases, the weakest is Profane Nexus by a narrow margin. This may also be their most “accessible” album to newbies. Dan Swanö’s production is too elegant and refined for what Incantation do and that hurts the material’s impact, feeling like some slime has been let out of the Incantainer. The material is generally faster and more urgent with fewer doom segments, which is fine, but some of the songs don’t end up especially memorable and others just don’t sound much like Incantunes. There’s also a wee bit of a Deicide vibe creeping in at times for better or worse. Stellar guitar work and youthful energy help this edge ahead of the others by a skosh.
#8. Decimate Christendom (2004). I’ve had a strange relationship with this one. I was losing interest in really heavy death metal by the time this was released, favoring melodeath flavors and moods. I gave it a listen anyway and it struck me as a copycat of Blasphemy. In the run-up to reviewing 2014s Dirges of Elysium, I revisited it and found it way better than I remembered. Ditto to the run-up to this ranking, and once again, it hit me harder than I remembered. It’s not much different in approach than Primordial but it does everything a little better with more oomph and nastier riffs. It isn’t quite prime Incantation, but it features a bunch of songs I enjoy nonetheless. It’s also the first album with John McEntree handling vocals.
#7. Sect of Vile Divinities (2020). Once again Swanö’s production is way too clean and badly needs more muck and gristle. However, the blend of thrashy urgency and crippling doom is on point and predictably savage. “Propitiation” is one of my favorite Incantation cuts because it’s like a Pentagram song covered by a death act and it just works! It’s also hard to resist “Entrails of the Hag Queen” and “Guardian of the Primeval.” Overall Sect is consistent and solid throughout with some typically ace guitar work. It may not be able to compete with the band’s glory days, but it shows they still have a lot of fire in their bellies and something concrete to offer the metalverse.
#6. Dirges of Elysium (2014). Of all the later-era Incantation platters, this one takes the cake. It’s their trademark sound but the material is extra strong and the ebb and flow of the album is masterful. The presence of second guitarist Alex Bouks fleshes out the sound greatly and the fretwork throughout is inspired. Massive cuts like “Debauchery” and “Carrion Prophesy” can stand with any of their material and show a band comfortable in their decaying skin and still capable of horrid reverberations in the void. Dirges has legs and hits all the sickly sweet spots for me. Swanö managed a proper mastering here too, resulting in one of my favorite sounds on an Incantation opus.
#5. The Infernal Storm (2000). McEntree admitted this album was their least worked out and rehearsed prior to recording due to lineup shuffles, and maybe that actually helped in a way. It’s different than predecessor Diabolical Conquest but it retains enough of that album’s massive spark and raw, primal energy to excite my neurons. This one is close to the level of purgatory where I want Incantation to linger, the nearly ideal happy medium between blasting speed and horrid slogging doom, and the riffs here are just insane. A long-time friend once described this album to me as “killing spree fuel” and I think that’s just peachy keen. This one burns hot from start to finish.
#4. Onward to Golgotha (1992). Yes, I know what you are screaming at your screen. How is this not at #1 or at least #2? or #3?? Just shut up and listen, you freaks. I concede that this is the ugly, slithering monstrosity that launched multiple generations of cargo shorts be-pantsed thugs upon the world, and it stands tall as one of the most loathsome death platters ever recorded. It’s withstood the rigors of time too and to this day, few albums can rival it for oppressive heaviness and raw, nightmarish impact. This primer on death metal was initially too heavy for me on release and it took me a year or so to come back to it and give it a deep listen. Once I did though, the true mass and volume of horror contained within resonated in my ravaged soul. Yet for all its visceral, viscous charms, this is not the Incantation album I reach for first, second, or even third. I do love exposing others to it though to watch them squirm.
#2. Mortal Throne of Nazarene (1994). This is an overdose of pure, unadulterated evil doom designed to terrify and cow the listener into submission. Considered an early standard bearer for death-doom, and rightly so, as its slow, oppressive dirges and hellish blastscapes brought a burgeoning sub-genre into stark focus. The brutally heavy atmosphere steeped in menace feels unsettling and dangerous and the album sounds like it’s broadcasting from Hell itself. The uber-shitty, lo-fi production is almost second-wave bad, but the tinny, muddled sound adds to the atmosphere. The drumming by Jim Roe is absolutely bonkers and the endlessly corkscrewing riffs are things of ghastly brilliance. This is an album that will make you feel on the edge of a panic attack as it piledrives you into the mud. That’s fun, right?
#1. Diabolical Conquest (1998). The least doomy and depressive of the Incantation catalog, Diabolical Conquest is a flaming meteor destroying the Earth with God-like wrath. It’s ironic that their best work came from a time when the band was in full shitshow mode with lineup insanity and internal dissent. Maybe those stresses helped the end product become the golden ticket to the death metal Wonka tour that is it. For the first platter without the one-of-a-kind vocals of Craig Pillard, Incantation recruited The Chasm’s Daniel Corchado and new kit maniac Kyle Severn and both proved genius moves. While it still sounds like Incantation, it’s a different beast with a more furious, punishing, nearly rabid assault and less dependence on slow dirges for atmosphere. Songs like “Desecration (of the Heavenly Graceful)” and “United in Repugnance” are blasting nightmares leaving burned-out hellscapes in their wake. The riffs and arrangements are massive and shockingly complex but roll into your brain effortlessly and cannot be dislodged. This is the high water mark for Incantation and one of the greatest death platters ever recorded. Learn it, live it, lay in it like a grave.
Kenstrosity
Incantation is an institution. For nearly thirty-five uninterrupted years the New Jersey-founded death metal troupe unleashed horde upon horde of murky, cavernous infernality upon unprepared masses. Each wave of the onslaught was consistently devastating, never once truly faltering in its mission to raze the ground in blasphemous flame. Now, with the threat of yet another assault looming just around the corner, we, the undeserving swarm of wretched filth, make a feeble attempt to collate Incantation’s vile atrocities in order of consummate destruction which they hath wrought. May your souls be spared before the might that is and will always be Incantation!
The Ranking:
#9: Profane Nexus (2017). Now we get into the hair-splitting portion of the ranks, as Incantation seemingly refuse to write anything that isn’t at least rock solid death metal with big, dreary swaths of doom. Nonetheless, Profane Nexus falls short because its riffs, while unimpeachable and often deceivingly creative, could not save songwriting which lack the same compelling fire of Incantation’s better works.
#8: Decimate Christendom (2004). What separates Decimate Christendom from Profane Nexus, and therefore putting it a cut above in the ranks, are vicious riffs. You can hear Incantation recycling some ideas from their early days here, and the guitar tone leaves a lot to be desired, but tracks like “Merciless Tyranny” and “Feeble Existence” rule mightily and thus propel the whole beyond Profane Nexus’ limits.
#7: Sect of Vile Divinities (2020). Similar to The Infernal Storm in the sense that Incantation nailed the balance between fast, pummeling death and dreary, lumbering doom, Sect of Vile Divinities is undoubtedly a solid record. What brings it down to the middle tier of the lot is simply the fact that superior records, like The Infernal Storm, exist in the catalog. Consistent, with no lowlights, but few blinding highlights.
#5: Mortal Throne of Nazarene (1994). A pioneer record in the annals of death doom, Mortal Throne of Nazarene—and, by extension, its reworked counterpart Upon the Throne of Apocalypse—is a legend all on its own. Back in 2019, I made the premature claim that it was also my favorite Incantation release. Well, times change and I changed with them. Today, even though Mortal Throne of Nazarene is undeniably awesome, I’m no longer as infatuated with its doomy charm as I once was, and find myself preferring the four competitors ahead.
#4: The Infernal Storm (2000). This record is just damn cool. With some of the most creative riffs and most well-balanced songwriting in the band’s catalog, The Infernal Storm manages to strike the sweet spot between the untamed fury of Diabolical Conquest and the suffocating mass of Mortal Throne of Nazarene. It takes its sweet time getting going at the start, which holds it back from higher placement, but once it finally gets its claws into you, you’re done-zo.
#3: Dirges of Elysium (2014). Lightning in a bottle. Who would ever expect that, 25 years into the band’s career, Incantation would pull out a monstrosity like this. A nonstop barrage of excellent death riffs, bone-shattering doom stomps, and a newfound sense of swaggering groove, Dirges of Elysium is a testament to killer death metal from a group that defined this particular cavernous sound. If it were only five minutes tighter (the closer is a little bloated in its midsection), this could pose a serious threat to the crown.
#2: Onward to Golgotha (1992). A record that established an entire subset of death metal, hitherto unknown, Onward to Golgotha shattered all understanding of what the genre sounded like in the early nineties. Boasting the discography’s best and filthiest production, standard-setting riffs, and an unquenchable thirst for blood, Incantation’s debut remains to this day an essential record. Untold numbers of death metal bands across the decades have tried to recreate its tectonic impact, but to no avail. There is just no substitution. And yet, somehow, there’s one album that’s even MOAR awesomerER!
#1: Diabolical Conquest (1998) – As I sit here typing these mini-blurbs out in earnest, I struggle to find the right words to express the demonic insanity that is Diabolical Conquest. It’s as if all of Hell’s most grotesque and violent creatures collectively contracted the worst ever case of rabies, devoured a cluster of warehouses each filled to the brim with PCP, and descended upon humanity with hunger and lust unmatched. Aggressive beyond belief and filled with pummeling riffs, blackened flourishes, groovy rhythms, and enough pinch harmonics to give a whale a seizure, Diabolical Conquest is a clinic of evil, a bastion of bastardry, and a flayer of minds. Incantation set standard after standard after standard, and this unholy creation is without a doubt their crowning achievement. Simply put, it is death metal in peak form.
Cherd
Incantation is a band I first became familiar with not through their own work, but through the countless bands they’ve influenced since exploding onto the scene with their 1992 full length debut Onward to Golgotha. For folks like me who prefer their death metal on the doomy side, they represent a sinister, miasmic strain of decidedly American death-doom that stands as an alternative to the gothic, elegiac leanings of the Peaceville Three and their adherents. The famously grimy production job on their early records combined with their oscillating tempos and low rumbling vocals helped launch what’s come to be called “cavern-core.” It seems a solid half of all Bandcamp death metal demos fall into this category these days. Sometimes on purpose. Once I decided to stop dicking around and go straight to the source, I began with Mortal Throne of Nazarene, and they instantly became my favorite old school death metal band.2
The Ranking
#10: Decimate Christendom (2004). A slight improvement over its immediate predecessor, this is the first album guitarist and only consistent band member John McEntee took over on vocals, becoming the fifth growler in six outings. He’d eventually settle into the role admirably, but here he’s in the neighborhood of “good enough.” From a songwriting perspective, monstrous cuts like “Oath of Armageddon” and “Horns of Eradication” are a return to form. That said, the driest, cleanest production job of any album up to that point does the material no favors. Whether Incantation is in scorching or lurching mode, they always sound better under some grime and murk.
#9: The Infernal Storm (2000). After the air-tight barn burner that was Diabolical Conquest, The Infernal Storm is a much more loose-limbed creature. McEntee himself has put this record last in his own ranking, citing the turmoil and turnover the band went through just prior to recording. Of course, he also lists Blasphemy as his favorite, so grains of salt and whatnot. I’d agree with him that the front half feels undercooked, but man, does it go out with a thunderous roar. The trifecta of “Heaven Departed/Apocalyptic Destroyer of Angels/Nocturnal Kingdom of Demonic Enlightenment” seem cut from the same cloth as anything on Mortal Throne of Nazarene.
#7: Sect of Vile Divinities (2020). Most bands don’t put out a record as good as Sect of Vile Divinities 31 years into their existence. Many don’t put one out ever. That it landed four records into a rock solid “modern era” run for Incantation that began with Vanquished in Vengeance is ridiculous. Sure, there were no surprises and little experimentation in that eight-year stretch, but the band has continued to defy the law of diminishing returns. This shaggy beast is big and doomy and I believe our esteemed Ferrous Bueller underrated it a tich back in 2020.
#6: Profane Nexus (2017). “Muse” is one of my favorite Incantation album openers. It sets an appropriately malevolent tone for the slow-moving punishment that follows. So slow in fact that for the first time in their long career, the band make like fellow New Jersey natives Evoken and go full funeral doom on “Incorporeal Despair.” Of course, they immediately follow this up with the almost death grind “Xipe Totec,” as if a transporter accident fully separated their two metal personalities and now they have to learn to work together to thwart a Romulan plot to commandeer the Enterprise before they can be put back into the same body at the end of the episode.
#5: Diabolical Conquest (1998). The fact that arguably the least doom focused record lands this high on my personal list is a testament to the efficient nastiness of Diabolical Conquest. There’s a sharpness to their third outing Onward and Mortal Throne lacked thanks to a series of factors. The production was far less murky, they perfected “Style: Incantation, Subcategory: Fast,” and Craig Pillard’s sudden absence was filled by less guttural vocalist Daniel Corchado. The material is insanely tight, and the massive “Unto Infinite Twilight/Majesty of Infernal Damnation” is the band’s finest closing track to date.
#3: Dirges of Elysium (2014). One could sort this band’s output into three eras, roughly by decade. This is the cream of the “modern” era crop. It’s brutal, balanced and benefits from extra crunchy guitar production and McEntee’s ragged vocal performance. Often a trio, when Incantation stretches into a four piece, they make that extra guitar count. That’s especially true here, as they play with harmonized passages more than ever. This added wrinkle elevates their well-worn, perfectly executed sound to something damn near transcendent. In nearly any other band’s catalogue, this would be the crown jewel. Then again, other bands don’t have a pair of bonafide classics to their name.
#2: Onward to Golgotha (1992). Incantation erupted onto the scene in 1992 fully formed like Athena blasting out of Zeus’ forehead and immediately put out a genre defining record in Onward to Golgotha. Then they did it again the next go round. Then they kicked ass pretty much up until right now. Onward is pure nastiness delivered in electrifying tremolo riffs, tectonic chugs and Craig Pillard’s trend-setting beastly growls. The bow on top of this gift to death metal fans is a production job that leaves all the pulp and seeds in so you’re consuming it the way nature and Satan intended.
#1: Mortal Throne of Nazarene (1994). How do you improve upon greatness? Add more doom! By beefing up the low and slow part of their death metal without sacrificing the scorching tremolos, Incantation plopped a big ol’ dollop of whipped wretchedness on top of their perfectly baked misery pie. Bands that write amazing fast riffs usually don’t write good slow ones and vice versa. Starting with Mortal Throne, McEntee and crew made “Why not both?” their foundational ethos. “Demonic Incarnate,” “Nocturnal Dominium,” “Ibex Moon,” this thing is wall to wall classics. And that production? Half of metal Bandcamp wishes they could sound this bad.
Official AMG Ranking
The writers’ votes have been cast and counted. This Ranking came together late when Ferox realized: “Holy shit! There’s a new Incantation coming out in two weeks!” Timing precluded us from taking a tally of the full staff; the below is an aggregate of the Rankings above and Ferox’s own take on the Incantation catalog.
Here, suitable for carving into stone tablets, is the AMG Ranking for Incantation:
#11. Blasphemy (2002), with 5 points out of a possible 443.
#10. Primordial Domination (2006), with 11 points out of a possible 44.
#9. Decimate Christianity (2004), with 12 points out of a possible 44.
#8. Profane Nexus (2017), with 15 points out of a possible 44.
#7. Sect of Vile Divinities (2020), with 20 points out of a possible 44.
#6. The Infernal Storm (2000), with 24 points out of a possible 44.
#5. Vanquish in Vengeance (2012), with 30 points out of a possible 44.
#4. Dirges of Elysium (2014), with 34 points out of a possible 44.
#3. Mortal Throne of Nazarene (1994), with 36 points out of a possible 44.
#2. Diabolical Conquest (1998), with 37 points out of a possible 44.
#1. Onward to Golgotha (1992), with 39 points out of a possible 44.
If you don’t know Incantation, shame, ever shame, and an eternity of frosty exile from the Hall. Spare yourself that fate by listening to this primer assembled by the Rankers and Ferox:
