Review by Lawrence Stillman on October 12, 2024.

Spawn Of Possession is one of those bands that, in my opinion, made tech death more accessible for people who are not fans of the genre. People might get turned off by how crazy and noodly the music sounds, making prog-death sound more accessible due to the inclusion of clean vocals and slower, non-metal elements within their sound. While Necrophagist did change people's perceptions towards tech death, some changes were not necessarily for the better, like being overly wanky and noodly while lacking substance. But Spawn Of Possession showed that you can go all noodly and flashy while keeping the brutality and musical complexity that fans of older tech death bands like Suffocation could resonate with.

This album from 2012 marks the final release of the band and, in my opinion, their magnum opus. It features a lot of what the purists want in tech death, that being the spiraling riffs, unpredictable songwriting that makes sense after multiple listens, and the blast-heavy and pummeling drums. It has it all and then some. It features a lot of songwriting conventions that were copied en masse soon after this album came out, and unlike At The Gates/Necrophagist, it isn't all bad. Bands inspired by SOP (Archspire, for example) have been generally enjoyable, although it is usually harder to get into them than SOP.

The album begins with a short instrumental intro before catching the listener by surprise with the sudden introduction to the second track, 'Where Angels Go Demons Follow'. This song is what I want in a tech death/melodeath song: powerful riffs accompanied by blast-heavy sections that do not sound gratuitous. While the rest of the album is your usual tech death songs that are quite flashy, two of the songs stand out among the rest by their song lengths and songwriting styles: 'The Evangelist' and 'Apparition'.

'The Evangelist' is a 9-minute song that shifts between fast and slow sections that let the song breathe and communicate the lyrics through its song structures. One example of the music telling the story instead of the lyrics is at the end of this song, where the mother of the protagonist learns that his mother kept him in the church, fleeing by herself and being subjected to the same treatment that the protagonist went through. The abrupt shift from tech death to a funeral doom outro might sound nonsensical at first, but this section brilliantly symbolizes that the protagonist is stunned after knowing the depravity of his own mother valuing herself over her own son, the protagonist being the child of rape from Father Dorian raping his daughter (the protagonist's mom!), and the fact that he was not the only person Father Dorian and his priest brigade laid their dirty hands on. It also has a bonus impact in that what the protagonist of 'The Evangelist' went through is happening every day in real-life Catholic or Christian churches, to the point that the pope had to intervene and tell those priests to stop. Maybe Varg was on to something when he torched the churches.

'Apparition', meanwhile, is an 8-minute epic that serves as the album's closer. Unlike other SOP tracks, this is the only song in their entire discography that features a full-on orchestration that runs throughout the song, unlike the brief harp intro in 'Scorched' from their previous album. It is a good example of orchestration that makes the song even heavier since the baroque-sounding orchestration that features a church organ intro sounds imposing and foreboding. The rest of the orchestration is no slouch either; despite not having church organs, the strings are played in a minor key and have a sound similar to the "psycho strings" commonly seen in horror films, which enhance the horror feel of the music (assuming you actually read the lyrics). This song is also long but still follows the conventional song structure of a defined chorus, bridge, and rising or falling action. It is clear that this sort of technical death metal is what non-tech death fans like, as this is by far their most popular song and, for some, their gateway to tech death as a whole. Imagine SOP, a Swedish tech death band, getting their well-deserved recognition because of a fan-made rhythm game being filled by a mostly otaku/weeb audience. If I had a nickel for every case like this, I'd have two nickels. It ain't much, but it sure is weird. (the rhythm game thing, not the Swedish band thing)

The lyrics here have increased in gruesomeness and intensity. As SOP is known for their signature "story in a song" structure, their songs are structured in a way that accommodates their story. But in this album, all these stories are somehow made even more disgusting and appalling. 'The Evangelist' aside, the lyrics in 'Spiritual Deception' are just one wild ride after another. A father is imprisoned after his wife gives birth to a demonic child. He manages to escape the prison and tries to kill the child, being told that his wife got raped by a demon, and then passes out attacking the child, returning to the prison for some reason. It is made clear that this song is actually a sequel to 'Uncle Damfee' from their debut album Cabinet, as Damfee is present in both songs. The rest of the album's lyrics are not that much better either, so better wear your glasses, touch some books, and read those lyrics.

The instruments marked an increase in technicality compared to Noctambulant. The guitars got more noodly and flashy, courtesy of Christian Muenzner, who was the guitarist for Necrophagist's "Epitaph" album. The bass also enjoyed a bigger presence here thanks to bass virtuoso Erlend Casperson (who also wrote 'Sertitude Of Souls' and 'Deus Avertat'); it is now very noticeable and sounds really heavy. The drums took a step back, however. The blast-heavy sections that I loved from Noctambulant are now massively reduced in frequency; no more insane drum performances like 'Scorched', just a heavily toned-down version heard in WAGDF. I understand that this is due to the drums being manned by a new member named Henrik Schonstrom, but I miss how Dennis Rondum just blows his drums like there is no tomorrow. While the vocals are pretty generic in how they sound, it is how Dennis delivers them that makes him unique. Before Archspire and Oli's weird amalgamation of death metal growling and rap (not a bad thing; it is still a fresh take on death metal vocals even after so long), there was Dennis Rondum, spitting bars at an inhumanly fast speed that took lots of talent and training to be capable of performing growls at such a speed. When all five of Archspire's members said that their primary influence was SOP, they meant it; every aspect of the band's sound has SOP all over it.

After this album came out, Dennis Rondum and Jonas Bryssling knew that they had reached their peak and disbanded SOP instead of risking tarnishing their reputation with a subpar release. I think they were on the mark with that, as no other tech death album managed to be on par with Incurso in technicality, accessibility, atmosphere, and songwriting. I recommend any death metal fan pick this up; it might or might not get you into tech death, but I am sure that you will like it.

As to why this is not a 10, the drums are a step back compared to Noctambulant, and the production is a little bit too sterile for my liking.

Highlights: 'Where Angels Go Demons Follow', 'The Evangelist', 'Spiritual Deception', 'Apparition'

Rating: 9.8 out of 10

Review by chrisc7249 on June 20, 2022.

Whatever type of music you're into, there's undoubtedly the heroes of the genre - the ones that started it all, or, the ones that changed the game to bring the genre into a new direction. Here in technical death metal, Spawn of Possession is just that. Beyond legendary and greatly missed, Spawn of Possession came around when tech death was starting to flatline and, along with other legendary names such as Necrophagist, Anata and Psycroptic, they helped bring the subgenre into a new direction by breathing new life into it. Of the bunch, SoP is my favorite. 3 of the 4 bands are no longer together and the other has been dead to me since they got a new vocalist, so it's quite sad to see this generation of tech death disappear like it did. Of course, I was merely a toddler while all of this took place, but I'm alive in 2021 to appreciate their works now. "Incurso," the third and final full length by Spawn of Possession, is an incredible album that takes the listener on a, err… very technical and destructive journey. With lots of pinch harmonics.

The style of "Incurso" and their previous two albums have often been copied, but very rarely is it done as well as SoP did it. It's some of the most mechanical, labyrinth technical death metal you will ever hear. Each song is like a cornfield maze, with so many twists and turns and dead ends and stop starts that'll leave you absolutely befuddled. Riffs come and go, come back later at an unexpected time and break down into other riffs without notice. It always keeps you guessing and on the tip of your toes of what they're going to throw at you next. The ol' "play that riff again, but don't play that riff again." They'll do the same riff multiple times, but don't expect it to be the same as the first time you heard it - the band adds in minute details each time to freshen up their already used riffs. Spawn of Possession mastered this art with their debut and continued to tweak their craft as they continued to release albums. On "Incurso," this riff formula is at its peak. There's a load of monstrous riffs on this record, chunky, groovy and technical. Don't forget all the great melodies and leads - "Incurso" has all of those too, and they're in every song without fail.

The fretless bass is fucking sick on this album. I don't remember previous SoP albums having fretless but I could be wrong. It sounds magnificent on this record. The bass player has plenty of parts to shine and they make the best of all of it. Super cool bass leads on this album. The drumming is, of course, ridiculous. They hired a new drummer on this album so Dennis could focus more on his vocals. Safe to say he gets the job done with explosive drumming that bangs away and uses quite neat cymbal work. The vocals are definitely better than the previous two albums. He spits, bro. Like, he goes hard in some parts, and I can see where Oliver from Archspire got a good chunk of his influence from. This dude took his vocal only opportunity and ran with it. He sounds fucking sick on this album.

What else is sick on this album? These fucking lyrics. That's right - the guy who never talks about lyrics is mentioning the lyrics on this album. I got curious due to the obvious song "The Evangelist," and good God. The lyrics in this track are gross as fuck. I love it! Such a horrible, twisted story and it really makes the song a lot better - I personally think it's the best song on the album, not only because of the lyrics, but the vocal approach and the riffs are just sick. The ending of this song is so Gorguts. I notice a lot of Gorguts influence on this album which I fucking love.

This review is pretty redundant because every tech death fan knows about this album. How could you not? It's often cited as one of the biggest game changers in the genre along with their other two records, and its praise is well deserved - this is one of the best technical death metal albums ever. No questions about it. Every aspect of it is top notch from the songwriting to the lyrics and it really is unparalleled to this day. A real shame that they split up before the follow up album could be released. It's only been 4 years to this point so there's still hope they can get back together one day. Honestly, I think they need a new album more than Necrophagist does. They have a lot more going for them. Until then, this is a great album to end your career off and most certainly a classic despite it being less than a decade old as of writing this. So fucking good.

FFO: Gorguts, Necrophagist, The Faceless

Favorite song: 'The Evangelist'

Rating: 10 out of 10

Review by Adam M on February 21, 2018.

Spawn of Possession performs a very chaotic form of death metal. The music here is infused with blast beats galore and played at maximum possible speed. One thing I noticed is that this band is tighter than a lot of Origin’s material and a little bit more cohesive. Still, the band wanders around many territories in these songs and could be more balanced sounding. The music is brutal enough, but the real focus is on the speed of the songs.

As stated, they have more cohesion than Origin, but a lot less cohesion when compared to the best death metal like the band Death. Their progressive masterpieces simply put this to shame and feature much better song-writing skills. I do enjoy brutal death metal and this band brings enough brutality to the mix to make an impact, but not enough to be wholly memorable. The songs here tend to drift by without anything to cling to on repeated listens unlike the best material from Death or Atheist. This is more brutal than those bands and this could be seen as a positive trait, but the band doesn't push the brutality over the speed enough and ends up sounding somewhat all over the place. The songs here are longer than past album and that would lend them to seeming to be more developed. They are certainly winding and twisting, but not always in the most positive of directions as the music here ends up sounding a little messy. One positive aspect of the music, however, is that it is fairly thrilling and exciting.

With decent song-writing this makes for a decent album and nothing more. The speed and brutality of the band take over things and overtake the cohesiveness that could have been achieved here. Check Incurso out only if you're the most hardcore death metal fan.

Rating: 6.4 out of 10

Review by JD on April 28, 2012.

Technical Death Metal walks a very fine line between being just chaotic noise that has no melody or structure to it and having some very brutal melodics with some earth shaking heaviness. It is a walk that some are very successful in doing, while other are just plainly noise and soon fade away. Sweden’s Spawn Of Possession are one of those bands who actually do it right.

If you take the technical aspect of Bloodbath, the nastiness of Obituary and combine it with the brilliance of say Death or even my favorite GraVil you'll get Spawn Of Possession. They combine all of this and then add in their own originality. This is a amazing convergence of different parts that end up creating something that could be the next step in the extreme metal field.

Each of the nine tracks are extreme to the maximum, with razor sharp riffs and complicated time shifts but still hold a brilliant example of melody as well. Songs like 'Bodiless Sleepe'r and 'No Light Spared' are just a few of the prime examples of that perfect melding of dizzying speed, monstrous power, musical complexity that can be wrapped up in a firm hold of melody. Spawn Of Possession has all of this, all while doing it with originality, a feat that is very rarely pulled off.

I never thought that a band could ever top Bloodbath but there it is. Some might never completely grasp what the band is trying to do and that is a sad thing that they will not get it. Spawn Of Possession is a one of only a handful of bands that could have out done the Extreme Metal Gods that are Bloodbath, and I have found them.

Categorical Rating Breakdown

Musicianship: 10
Atmosphere: 9
Production: 9.5
Originality: 9
Overall: 9.5

Rating: 9.4 out of 10