Review by Alex Grindor on March 26, 2021.

Brazilian/German quartet Incarceration shall spawn their newest release Empiricism next month, and while short, it will delight fans of old-school death metal.

With a bass intro that goes in crescendo to next turn into bombastic death riffage, we are presented with this small, but superb work by Incarceration. ‘Chthonic Pulse’, the first track, goes full blast with furious guitars, heavy bass, frenzied drumming and piercing vocals once the intro is over. An aspect that I was surprised about were the vocals as they are not the average death growl, but rather a despaired, anguished scream reminiscent of someone who has seen the eldritch horrors from beyond. Not something I expected, but it was great nonetheless.

The entire EP (while short), is quite fast in its delivery. Dark, furious riffs coupled with unending blast beats are what constitute the core of this record, while being varied in its composition. Leads are tossed around in every track, for additional melody and much needed respite from the assault that is Empiricism. Production-wise, it approaches the rawness typical of most black metal recordings, but without going too far into it so as to keep it grounded in death metal. I kinda like this approach, especially for this type of old-school death metal. It reminds me of Repugnant, but without the overuse of reverb (the only use of reverb here is in the drums).

With a bit over 20 minutes of length, this 4-track EP shall leave a good taste in mouth for fans of Repugnant, Repulsion, old Sepultura, and similar bands. Some riffs might be a bit repetitive at moments, the production may not be of your liking and the vocals may not be as you expected, but overall it is a great dose of old-school death metal and you should not miss its April release.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10