Antediluvian- Revelations In ExcrementAs if there was never another Death Metal band to ever exist in the genres history, Incantation have become the most imitated band in Death Metal over the past few years. Spewed forth form the mighty loins of a New York scene in the early 90's that also spawned to more infamous -ations, Incantation were doing something just a little bit different from their peers in 1992 when they unleashed their magnum opus Onward to Golgotha: excruciatingly thick with distortion, choked into Doom-laden grooves and crusty with blackend, blasphemous filth, Onward to Golgotha was for its time the most extreme Metal album ever. While Suffocation mastered their brutality and Immolation implemented the discordant, Incantation sought only to drown you in suffering and death. This aesthetic has been the driving force behind the Old School Death Metal Revival that stared around 2005-06 and kicked into high gear in 2009, with Incantation, or more accurately their various immitators(and a few innovators), have been the flag-bearer of this movement.
Antediluvian are another in an increasingly large group of Golgotha's, or newer artists adhearing to the sounds of Incantation, who are making waves in the Death Metal scene. Last years compilation CD Watcher's Reign got the hype train rolling for these corrupted Canadian cadavers, whose aesthetic(this has been coming up a lot lately) is spot on and whose sound is a dead ringer for Golgotha style Incantation. Revelations In Excrement is the bands new EP, and it is 3 tracks of Antediluvian doing what they do: play Incantation.
Revelations In Excrememnt is short, no non-sense worship of New York's reviled blasphemers, as well a less than subtle wink-and-a-nods to earlier purveyours of the sound before it became popular, like Dominus Xul and Molested(one of the few classic bands who were able to match Incantation atrocity for atrocity without mindlessly imitating them). Cavernous, demonic ritual Death Metal with hints of Doom Metal groove and Black Metal imagery, textbook style for a soild A+ on the grading scale. If the scale was merely getting the sound and style right anyway. Revelations In Excrement is, for lack of a better phrase, well worn and played out. These tracks have the smell of "been-there, heard-that," delivered with a deadly serious attitude and as little joy or exploration as possible. With bands like Mitochondrion, Witchrist and Adversarial doing so much with the basic concepts and expanding them into something new and exciting, it is hard to get up and feel the evil here. There are only so many cavernous, Lovecraftian static-fests with Craig Pillard impersonators one can absorb before the whole thing grows a bit stale.
I am a huge Incantation fan, and the inherent enjoyment I get from that sound rubs off on me with Revelations In Excrement. Despite my somewhat tired stance, I still got up for this one and still found some primal comfort in the bands brutal and primitive style. If you are a hardcore fan of this sound, I would recommend Revelations In Excrement to you in a flash. The rest may be better off with the original, while we of less discerning taste deploy our cookie cutters and shape our own little piece of Golgotha.
Rating: 6.5/10
