By Seth Metoyer, The Metal Crawlspace - Blood Incantation’s Absolute Elsewhere is nothing short of a sonic voyage. Atmospheric death metal has never felt so immersive, and this album’s blend of genres and influences is downright transcendental.
Think of a cocktail made from The Faceless, Insision, Nile, and Opeth, spiced up with splashes of Tool, Rush, Jethro Tull, Pink Floyd, and even Electric Light Orchestra. It sounds like the recipe for primordial chaos, yet Blood Incantation has brewed it into a masterpiece of mathematical order, a testament to the beauty of intelligent design through sound.
Inching out Nile’s The Underworld Awaits for the best extreme metal album of 2024 (so far), Absolute Elsewhere carves its own space in the ether. Its six-track opus, crafted for extreme headbangers with a deep appreciation for music theory and eclecticism, demands not just a listen, but an experience. Don’t make the mistake of isolating tracks here—this is an album built for full immersion. At just over 45 minutes, it’s a journey that transports you to otherworldly realms of sound, and anything less than a full listen would feel sacrilegious.
I cranked it through my Bose sound system, and Absolute Elsewhere took me to a celestial space in my mind that I hadn't visited in years. I miss that place. It’s rare for an album to evoke such a visceral connection, but this one does. The intricate layering of guitars, the ebb and flow of death metal brutality against moments of atmospheric calm—it’s a journey worth taking again and again. Blood Incantation has crafted a gem, and it’s already staking its claim as a modern classic in the extreme metal landscape.