I’ve already stomped my feet and banged on the table in a loud display of enthusiasm about “Of Disillusion and Doctrine,” the first single off Incessant‘s new EP Entropic Aeons:
Prepare for a roiling and ravishing typhoon of danger and destruction, replete with harrowing howls and unchained sky-high wails, but the mix also includes rocking grooves, feral chords, and glittering melodies with an exotic Eastern air. It’s a hell of a thrill-ride….
Less loudly, I hoped the rest of the EP by this Dublin blackened-death trio would be as good as that song. I’m here to tell you that it is, and to give you an immediate chance to appreciate it for yourselves as we premiere a full stream in advance of the EP’s imminent release by Repose Records.
Incessant‘s 2021 debut EP Perennial Umbra was a formidable first strike, and one that demonstrated an interest in making music that is distinctive as well as both atmospheric and ravishing. But the new EP pushes boundaries even further, including beyond the usual limits of black and death metal and reaching into terrains of psychedelic, progressive, and post-rock.
On the new EP Incessant follow that startling first song “Of Disillusion and Doctrine” with “Upon the Cosmic Pyre,” quickly proving that the opener was no outlier. It too furnishes relentless percussive dynamism, writhing and roiling riffage of a dissonant demeanor, and extravagantly wild vocals — and it too twists and turns into other dimensions.
In fact, in that follow-up song Incessant reveal another dimension immediately. As the bass gloomily hums, isolated guitar notes mysteriously ring and menacingly beckon, and the ensuing guitar-glitter deepens the feelings of mystery and menace. As the riffing warps and wails it adds dimensions of angst and morbid misery. In such a setting, the screamed vocals, which trade places with haughty, gargantuan roars, sound like torment.
Things get even more off the usual well-trodden paths with “Ephemeral Sanctity“. There, the dissonant wailing ring of the guitars sounds both like fractured warning sirens and the siren-calls of old, luring listeners in but sending shivers of peril down the spine, spell-binding but unsettling.
The song’s neck-snapping beats and nimble bass-pulses create a viscerally magnetic momentum, while the variable vocals reach terrifying heights of unchained extremity. As tremolo-ed chords take over near the end, the music becomes a fraught fever, a kind of hallucinatory meltdown into madness.
By now you should realize that every one of the performers is contributing something vital to these sinister morphing escapades, and that each one is worth focusing on, later if not sooner (and fortunately the production, which isn’t too pretty but is still well-defined, makes that possible).
That observation applies again to “Transient Oblivion“. It moves from a simultaneously ominous and enticing opening phase of moaning bass and brittle guitar into a slithering audio swarm of snakes, venomous in the guitar’s coiling and uncoiling. The bass gets funky and proggy; the drums’ variations grip the attention once more; the vocals elevate into singing, but again ravenously roar and scream in violent ecstasy; the music itself begins to sound ecstatic, but also esoteric and psychedelic — and eventually convulsive.
Fortifying the “all killer, no filler” conclusion, Incessant close with “Entropy of Archons“. The sprightly dancing of the guitar seizes attention again at the outset as the rhythm section engage in their own interesting maneuvers, and there’s almost a post-punk feel (as well as a prog-rock feel) to some of the ensuing chime-like arpeggios that unfold over proggy rhythm-section patterns.
This might be the most head-spinning adventure of them all, given the extensive panoply of riffing and rhythmic styles the band work in, the song’s sharp tempo changes, and all the equally dramatic changes in mood. Glimmers of brazen old-school heavy metal arrive, as well as grim and grievous psychedelia.
All in all, Incessant‘s new EP proves to be relentlessly interesting and engaging, often as seductive and mysterious as it is scary and scarifying. It’s a promising sign of both adventurous songwriting ambition and instrumental aplomb, coupled with the kind of wide-ranging vocal tumult that may leave the whites of your eyes showing all ’round.
Yes, I’ve stomped my feet and banged the table quite loudly again, and hope you’ll be as taken with Entropic Aeons as I am. Give it a go now:
INCESSANT is:
Conor Spierin — guitar and vocals
Alex Cafrey — bass
Jamie Sweetman — drums
They’ve explained that they draw indirect inspiration from iconic bands such as Darkthrone, Root, and Bolt Thrower, as well as newer artists like Negative Plane, Possession, and Bölzer.
Repose Records will release Entropic Aeons on cassette-tape and digital formats, and pre-orders are available now.
PRE-ORDER:
https://www.reposerecords.com/en-us/products/entropic-aeons-tape
https://incessant1.bandcamp.com/album/entropic-aeons
INCESSANT:
https://www.facebook.com/IncessantIRL