BLOOD INCANTATION - Absolute Elsewhere

One hour of deeply relaxing headphones fodder. Warm analogue synthwaves beautifully washing through your (sub)consciousness, only for a while - when the "Flight" takes off - aided by an Electronic Berlin school Beat or an acoustic guitar and soft deep drum echoing your pulse in the "Rain". An esoteric journey to the homeworld of Space Jesus through way of the Seventies and early Eighties.

Haters rejoice! Death Metal traitors Blood Incantation have done it again and released their second full-on Ambient album after "Timewave Zero"! So there's no need for you to stop spreading your sour gatekeeping vitriol! Phew.

The album is called "All Gates Open" and is the original soundtrack to a documentary of the same name. It cannot be purchased on its own, but only as the first of three bonus discs in the Deluxe Artbook edition of the album this review is actually about: "Absolute Elsewhere".

And sorry, that one has loads of Death Metal in it, but also that other untrue stuff too, so good luck figuring out how to love/hate this in a well-balanced manner!

BLOOD INCANTATION - Absolute Elsewhere (3CD + Blu Ray artbook) (2024)

Ok, as it seems most Blood Incantation fans old and new seem to actually absolutely love this new album, many even already crowning it album of the year, which is a little too much for me personally, but I can totally get behind why people feel that way.

But first let's take a look at what comes with this version!
Of course Century Media has also released several vinyl variants and a standard CD, but the prospect of three bonus discs was just too tempting for me, even if it made it one of my priciest album purchases of the year - at least if I don't think of postage and taxes I've paid on some other stuff.

I've already mentioned the first bonus CD, which features four tracks of pure Tangerine Dream-inspired Ambient music and more than doubles the total amount of music here. It's not as essential as the main dish, but still a good and welcome display of Blood Incantation's fully Ambient side.

Almost twenty minutes on top of that come with the third disc, which contains last year's "Luminscent Bridge" , which had only been released as a 12" Maxi Single so far. Probably even less essential, at least if you already have it, but it makes sense to feature the half Death Metal, half Ambient release in this package too, especially once you know that its recording before beginning the development of "Absolute Elsewhere" and its video shoot after the album recordings kind of bookended this whole project.  

Ambient Blood Incantation live at Roadburn

Last but certainly not least comes a Blu Ray, which contains the already mentioned making-of documentary, in which we can observe the band from Colorado enjoying Berlin and working in the Hansa Studios. If you're not completely obsessing over the artist you'd normally watch a thing like this once, but since this one is quite interesting and also pretty well done, I can see myself watching it again a second time one day.
The main feature of the Blu Ray however are alternative mixes of the album. But I'll come back to those later... 

All four discs are housed in the almost record-format artbook, which contains over fifty pages of illustrations, photographs, credits, lyrics, but above all a lot of liner notes, providing many background informations and little stories, which compliment and expand on the documentary. From the recording process to the inspiration for the album title and the paradox that 70's cult sci-fi illustrator Steve R. Dodd cannot be reached via any device connected to the internet, there are many nice little nuggets in here. Gear-nerdy as this band is they even included lists of all the equipment available at the studios plus the shitload of vintage synths and other stuff they rented.

I could have lived with the cover artwork using the the full size available, but I guess they wanted to visually distinguish it from the vinyl version, and after all it's still a beautiful item.    

So what can I say about the actual forty-four minutes of "Absolute Elsewhere", which hasn't already been said by others in the well-deserved hype exploding around this album? Not much, I guess.

Two twenty-plus minutes longtracks, "The Stargate" and "The Message", each divided into three tablets. Classical Floridian Technical Death Metal, Dschörmänn Ambient, Pink Floyd and Eloy Seventies celebrations, Voivod worship, but also the odd "Painkiller" era Judas Priest riff and spectacularly majestic guitar solos... and so much more... all seamlessly - not to say randomly - morphing into each other.

And since this is undoubtly one of those albums, where all the stars alligned, where all the different experiences and experimentations of the past came together and all the surrounding factors played perfectly in the artists' favour, nothing here sounds like a gimmick or luxury addition. It's all equally important part of a tapestry that conveys a sense of timeless cosmic holism, of structured chaos with a spiritual meaning.

And when Blood Incantation alone cannot yet reach perfection, they are substantially aided by Hällas keyboardist Nicklas Malmqvist and Thorsten Quaeschning, member of none other than their Kraut idols Tangerine Dream themselves. Additionally there are also some darker accents with a couple of vocal contributions from Malte Gerricke (Necros Christos).

Death Metal Blood Incantation live at Roadburn

All this comes together as a fantastic sounding whole. Is it as completely unheard of as the narrowed view of some Metal print magazines want to make you believe? I bet that - given the necessary skills and equipment - Nocturnus would have loved to play eighty percent of this stuff already in the early Nineties. Monolithic Death Metal compositions flowing from movement to movement while including other musical influences aren't an absolute novelty too; just think of the most recent releases by Haunter or Fleshvessel! A band like Qrixkuor, who even beat Blood Incantation's sheer scope several times, very likely just doesn't have the means and/or will for a production budget comparable to what was invested here.

And that's not me diminishing Blood Incantation's effort at all. But one must recognize that this a band made of musical Tarantino's. Everything they have always done is full of reflection, citation, homage to what has come before them. The huge accomplishment of this album is how they constantly bring forth multiple of their very varied influences back to back or even at once without ever becoming incoherent.

Even though the kind of less songwriting-driven, more kaleidoscopic structure works fine, this strength is also the only little weakness of "Absolute Elsewhere" for me. Or at least this is the reason, why the album despite its greatness plus the extra material of this particular version ptobably won't land at the very top of my favorites of 2024. Which is of course no shame anyway. But there are several releases full Metal, half Metal, not Metal at all which simply offer not only fantastic and catchy parts, but also more tangible "hits". 

But who knows, maybe that's just one card Blood Incanation has saved to play for the future. And if there's no doubt about one thing, it is that these guys do "the future" really good.

Their music video game is pretty awesome, too. So if you really haven't heard anything from "Absolute Elsewhere" yet, I strongly recommend to start on YouTube with "The Stargate":
 

*cough*

And now I almost published this review without coming back to the mixes on the Blu Ray! Damn.

Since neither my audio setup nor my ears are made of professional audiophile equipment I cannot really go into deep detail or comparisons between the Dolby Atmos and the 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio surround mix of the album. I guess which one of those works slightly better really comes down to personal preference on your stuff.
Both mixes definitely sound big and spatial without making too much flashy use of the surround possibilities. So just like the completely Ambient "Timewave Zero" this is effective and my favorite way to enjoy the album, yet still rather subtle, even a bit more so this time. 

At long last there's also a 24 / 48 Stereo mix. So, is this just the regular album mix or different? Sorry, I don't know and honestly, don't care... if I put in this disc I want the surround thingy. I guess it doesn't hurt anyone that it's there though.

And now I'm done here. Really. Promised. Go listen to Blood Incantation now!