Blood Incantation – Timewave Zero

Blood Incantation – Timewave Zero
Release Date: 25th February 2022
Label: Century Media Records
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Genre: Ambient, Experimental.
FFO: Tangerine Dream, Mike Oldfield, Pink Floyd, Lustmord.
Review By: Andy Spoon

In the follow up to 2019’s critically-acclaimed album, Hidden History of the Human Race, Colorado’s Blood Incantation mix their signature cosmic death metal with an atmospheric tour de force displaying a total departure from the death metal influences which have thus far preceded this release. Completely spanning only two tracks, Io, and Ea, Timewave Zero is an ambient album completely devoid of typical metal influences, stimulating the corpus callosum to work overtime to account for a truly mystical binaural experience. 

The band themselves describe the album as experimental, genre-bending, and otherworldly, using the term “soundscape” to paint the picture that is the totality of Timewave Zero. It’s no secret the Blood Incantation’s previous work was clearly a sludgy death metal offering with cosmic themes and recurring elements. Timewave Zero is altogether something completely different. To say Timewave Zero is genre-bending is patently-misleading. It’s a completely-different genre from the first to the last second. Rather than individual tracks played in movements, or sharing discreet themes and verses, the album possesses only two tracks, or musical movements, something akin to more avant-garde/experimental artists of the past who had forged the cosmic ethereal “bones” that would become the stereotypical Binaural Beats to Study to. 

The first track, Io, begins with a sweeping, flanger-effect before starting a rhythmic pulse between chords and repeated square wave arpeggios over mountainous reverb and delay effects. It begins with separate sub-movements around the 9:00 mark, and meanders into various phrases and hollow tones, dancing between left and right stereo channels. The hall reverb is ever-present, creating more “atmosphere” behind each and every little tickle of an additional synth note. The overall tone is dark, but displays a mysterious and dreamy landscape that, when imagined against a giant spectral curtain, certainly not a happenstance of design. At around 17:00, the movement changes to a much more peaceful, mellow lull with softer pads in multiple layers. 

The second, albeit last track, Ea, fades in with slightly more activity through the arpeggiator and a saw wave. The structure of the chords are certainly dissonant and reminiscent of that cosmic-composer sound from the 1980s à la Mike Oldfied or Tangerine Dream. Honestly, it feels like Blood Incantation wanted to create a stoner-ambient album, traded all their gear for synthesizers, and redefined their entire identity as a band. This can either be something that is looked on with reverence or disdain. For the elements it has, Timewave Zero does not necessarily inspire as an ambient album, nor does it break any barriers in either genre Blood Incantation seems to occupy now. 

Part of me wonders whether this is akin to Serj Tankian composing his recently-released classical record, e.g. something to show the fans how diverse the band wants to be. If that is the case, I’m not overwhelmed by its presence, nuance, or complexity, as it feels more like a score than an independent album of 5 to 6 ambient movements through 45 or so minutes. I sincerely hope that this is something Blood Incantation is using to enhance their sphere of sounds, instead of replacing it with something that hasn’t been thematically-relevant in 30 years. Reasonable minds might differ regarding the score, but I personally find it very “ok” in nature, but not anything I would likely play again without the assistance of mind-altering substances. 

(2 / 5)