#139 | Album Review | Blood Incantation – Hidden History of the Human Race

Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:28:21 — 202.2MB)

Blood Incantation is an atmospheric death metal quartet from the mile-high city of Denver, Colorado. Founded sometime back in the year of 2011, the outfit churned out a handful of demos during 2013 and 2014 before dropping their EP, Interdimensional Extinction, in 2015. One year later came their otherworldly debut LP, Starspawn. And now, three years hence, their sophomore effort, Hidden History of the Human Race, is bestowed upon the cosmos for beings both earthly and extraterrestrial to travel through.

At this point in time, so much has already been said about Blood Incantation’s latest effort. And to folks who have been following us for a good while, it should come as no surprise that we are fashionably late to dissecting an album that has been out for several months. However, Connor and I had the immense pleasure of experiencing this album front-to-back at the Fire in the Mountains Festival in the summer of 2019 before the album was officially debuted. With the striking jaggedness of the Grand Teton mountain range slicing across the horizon as Blood Incantation brutalized us with riff after ravenous riff, we were both utterly enamored and perplexed by the sight and sound transpiring before us. It was transcendental to say the least.

With Hidden History of the Human Race, Blood Incantation ports us to a civilization immemorial. They provide us a glimpse into the true origins of humanity, pockmarking their cerebral expedition with tones both alien and Egyptian. Throughout each track, we hear the reprisal of a flange effect that promulgates a cinematic quality akin to an alien spacecraft streaking above dilapidated structures corroded by thousands of years of exposure to piercing winds, brutal rainfall, and endless floods. Beyond these elements, however, we are subject to eviscerating riffs and rather grooving drum patterns that peel back the long-dormant veil curtaining our lineage. This is reflected in the album’s arcane lyrics, which Blood Incantation summarizes as articulating “the unseen cosmic forces behind the systems of omnidimensional quantum oppression, the cycles of time, death and rebirth, etc. which define samsara and the transmigration of the soul across the timeless millennia of material engagement.” If that is beyond your comprehension, don’t fret. Connor and I both had a field day trying to wrap our respective gourds around it and well… we’re still not sure we got it correct, but we enjoyed trying to disentangle the ideas. That being said, we both had a bunch to say about this record and we hope you enjoy our discussion of it. Thank you so much for tuning in.

* * * * * *

Most physical copies of Hidden History of the Human Race are out of stock, save CDs. Surely there’s another vinyl pressing underway. You can acquire a digital copy (or CD) of Blood Incantation’s record via the Dark Descent Bandcamp page. Additionally, you can follow/like Blood Incantation’s Facebook page to stay in the loop about new merch and other news related to the quartet.

If you’d like to support us beyond listening to our podcast, you can do so by becoming a patron on our Patreon page. There you can read all of our notes for each album review episode we publish, gain early access to every episode before its official release, and acquire an embroidered From Corners Unknown patch, button, and stickers if that’s your thing.

Our next album review is of Blut Aus Nord’s Hallucinogen, which will be on our Patreon in a few days. Thank you for your continued support.