Music: Insult: Abysmal Incantations
Our Take
Sweden death metal band Insult may not be an act that you’re familiar with, but this is due to the fact that they have only released two independent demos to date. However, the band recently inked a deal with Daemon Worship Productions who has reissued both of their demos on one disk under the title Abysmal Incantations. And despite the fact that the group wears their influences on their sleeves they certainly have potential and could be one to watch in the months to come.
As both of the demos that make up Abysmal Incantations are from different time periods, the production values of the songs tend to vary quite significantly. It is clear that Insult wanted to make a strong first impression though, as they put the tracks from their most recent demo Axiom at the beginning of the album in order to showcase their current production values and styles. This was a good decision on the band’s part, as the Axiom demo has heavy hitting riffs that are a mix of American and Swedish styles and the songs have been mastered in such a way that everything sounds really intense and heavy. While the tracks from the 2005 Decree demo aren’t bad either, they have a lower budget sound and showcase that in this point and time the instrumentalists were still trying to discover which direction they wanted to go in. Overall, listeners will enjoy the Axiom tracks a lot more but will still find that these guys showcase promise on all of their material.The vocals on Abysmal Incantations are fairly typical for a death metal band as they consist of the standard low pitched growls, but Insult’s vocalist is able to hold his own with some of the better singers out there so listeners are still likely to appreciate what he has to offer. Although he doesn’t vary his pitch that much, the growls are often very powerful and add even more brutality to the band’s material. It wouldn’t hurt to see a little more variety in the future, but for now Insult seems to have a pretty good handle on how to make their vocals fit perfectly with the heavy hitting riffs.
Insult is a death metal band that is genuinely enjoyable, and even though half of the songs on this compilation have low budget production values they still demonstrate that this group has some good ideas and are worth watching in the future. Hopefully it won’t be too long before their full length album is released, as while Abysmal Incantations is a good introduction to the band listeners will certainly find themselves wanting more.
http://www.daemonworship.org/
http://www.metalhit.com
Chris Dahlberg
January 16, 2010
