INCAPACITY '9th Order Extinct'
Metal Blade (2004)
Here we have one more impressive Death Metal release from a band that chose to gather the best elements from the two biggest extreme schools, the American and the European, and that band is called Incapacity. I was not surprised when I found out that what I had in my hands was another product of a Swedish band - it seems like the Northern Europeans are doing everything in their power to dominate the world Metal scene.
Incapacity was formed in mid 2002, and consists of a well-known cast of extreme Metal musicians who have served their duties in many important bands such as The Great Deceiver, Ashes, Edge of Sanity and Marduk. The band released their debut album "Chaos Complete" in 2003, which immediately drew the interest of the well-known label Metal Blade. A contract was achieved, and the band entered Soundlab Studios in Orebro (Sweden) in order to record this new release called "9th Order Extinct".
The main thing that you will notice after the first notes of the opening track "Wide of the Mark" is the very good production that was achieved by the members of the band in collaboration with Mieszko Talarzcyk (Genocide Superstars, Nasum). This is a well-arranged extreme composition, but it leaves you with the feeling that there’s something missing. Things get much better with "Grand Future Disease", the second song of the album, but it’s actually when "Winged With Fire" takes its turn that you will really understand what this band is all about. It is really difficult to manage to combine the technical elements of Morbid Angel with the Swedish melodic guitar riffs that were first introduced to the Metal world by bands like the Edge of Sanity and Entombed, but this song is an indication that Incapacity are more than capable of achieving such a thing.
Another good moment comes with the next song,"File Under Torture", and even though the following four tracks "Cross-Fixed", "Shadows of the Watcher", "Christless Ways" and "Infinite Time Decay" will give you many good reasons to start head banging, it is the ninth track of the album "A Plague of Their Own" that managed to bring Goosebumps to my body. An amazing composition, in which the band’s frontman Andreas "Drette" Axelsson" gives his best performance. The album closes with another well-structured composition called "Overdose of Purity".
I really liked "9th Order Extinct", and I can assure you that will occupy a prominent place in my CD collection. I grew up listening and appreciating both the European and the American Death Metal scene, so it would be almost impossible not to enjoy Incapacity’s second release. I believe, though, that given some time, the band’s experience will allow them to create more compositions such as "Winged With Fire" and "A Plague Of Their Own", and if they manage to include ten such compositions on one album…well, let’s just say that their mission to dominate the Extreme Metal scene will become much easier.
***1/2
Review by John Stefanis
|
