Review by Carl on October 15, 2024.

What the hell is this production? Has this album been recorded in an aquarium somewhere? It sounds as if it has been put to tape deeply submerged under water. I enjoyed Evil Incarnate's previous output well enough, but the production on this one has me scratching my head. C'mon Mike, I know you can do better. I've heard you do better, so what gives?

Before we get into it, allow me to give a bit of a rundown of what Evil Incarnate is all about. Or to put it better, what the main man Mike Eisenhauer is all about because he is the sole consistent member of the band, writing (and sometimes even performing) the vast majority of the music. So what does that music sound like? I think the key word here is traditional because that is in my opinion the best way to describe what is on the plate here. Dealing in a sturdy type of old-school death metal, mostly midtempo with faster sections worked in, it brings to mind acts such as Acheron (the Vince Crowley one), Bathym, Funeral Nation, and Sathanas, with some Deicide, Nunslaughter and early Morbid Angel added in the more brutal parts. As mentioned, the music moves along at a mostly mid-tempo flow, putting emphasis primarily on heaviness and stomp, instead of high velocity. It's a sickening kinda groove that works well with the sturdy double kick-driven approach of the drums, and the gruff vomity vocals of Mr Eisenhauer. When the speed goes up, the band resorts to a pummelling style of primitive brutality, comparable to what Deicide filled their first two albums with, simple yet effective. Add to this the old-school death/thrash metal riffing, and there you have a solid dose of sometimes even catchy death metal. It's an approach that I greatly enjoyed on their previous offerings, things don't always have to move along at a million miles per hour.

Now, for the album. We get more of the same as before but with an added sense of ambiance this time. In some tracks that means added keyboards, like in "Not My Christ", and these work pretty well with the mid-tempo death metal on offer. There are also some intro's throughout, that for the most part establish the right kind of feel, but because they sound pretty boxed in, they sometimes come across as funny. Take the intro at the beginning of the album for an example, where the sound of what is supposed to be marching boots sounds more like a guy playing with a whoopee cushion because the sound is so compressed. Needless to say that this undercuts any intended effect. The music itself is again of the sturdy kind, sometimes heavy and grooving in that old-school death metal way, other times pummelling and filled with sadistic intent, with the songs at times getting pretty catchy for a death metal band. Add some blistering leads to the mix, and there you have a good dose of metal-plated death to bang your head to. One thing I have to add though, is that the songs are on the longer side of things, and I have to admit that some trimming of the fat would not have been unnecessary, because a track like "Lucifer's Crown" just seems to keep going, with "Black Box of Fear" being an outright slog in places. The average length is something over five minutes here, with three cuts even going over the seven-minute mark, and I would not have minded if these were more on the compact side.

And so we come to the peculiar sound mix. Apparently this is the work of one of the band members, and this production indeed sounds like a DIY job. The kick drums are horribly triggered, sounding very plastic and lifeless, with the guitars having a thoroughly compressed feel to them. These still sound damn heavy at times, but also have an unfortunate digital edge to them. As a whole, this album sounds as if the band is playing submerged in some liquid or other. You know that dull sound everything gets when you have water in your ear? Well, this album has that all over it, with an unwanted side effect the neutering of the whole. Add to this some choppy editing here and there, and it comes falling apart at the seams. The guitars sound detached from the rest of the instruments sometimes, and the balance between all of them shifts around as well, creating an unfocused and messy total picture at times. As someone who appreciated their previous stuff a lot, this is something I find to be a terrible shame because musically, this is a passable album for sure.

If I'm going to be honest with it, this is my least favorite Evil Incarnate offering. While the majority of the music sure has its moments, the crushing length of some of the songs makes me watch the clock a little too much, but it's the weird and unfocused production that sucks out a great deal of the fun for me. I've heard the band more energetic and sounding way better in the past, so let's just hope that Mike and his crew manage to recapture that spark, because I know they can do better.

Rating: 6.5 out of 10