Band:	Blood Incantation
Album:	Hidden History Of The Human Race
Style:	Death metal
Release date:	November 2019

01. Slave Species Of The Gods
02. The Giza Power Plant
03. Inner Paths (To Outer Space)
04. Awakening From The Dream Of Existence To The Multidimensional Nature Of Our Reality (Mirror Of The Soul)

It's the album every self-respecting death metal fan was waiting for; the follow-up to the stellar Starspawn debut by Blood Incantation. And I am so happy to see them finessing their refreshing take on the old-school death metal idiom with Hidden History Of The Human Race.

The first impression with Bruce Pennington's Space, Time and Nathaniel from 1970, which was used for the cover art, is excellent; it greatly represents the album's sound and music, which is olde and futuristic at the same time. As it was the case with their debut, Blood Incantation's latest effort was also recorded using analogue equipment. Compared to Starspawn, in this one the guitars sound tighter and the drums are a bit higher in the mix, which is very satisfying because the drumming actually feels as if an octopus has taken over the kit and elevates the songs on a different level. The vocals still sound cavernous and cosmic, with a bit more reverb.

As far as songwriting goes, from the first notes of "Slave Species Of The Gods" the album grabs you like a python and progressively tightens the grip until all your bones are crushed to little pieces and your internal organs explode. The riffage comes in torrents with lead guitar parts providing gorgeous melodies that sound as if they stem from astral collisions. "The Giza Power Plant" that follows actually predates the band's debut since it was written in 2013. It spends most of its runtime with oriental and psychedelic guitar melodies that take a "Missirlou"-esque form over double bass foundation at some point in the middle of the song, while the deep growls and clean vocals make it feel even more extraterrestrial.

"Inner Paths (To Outer Space)" is mostly atmospheric dreaminess in instrumental form, with the rhythm section being the vessel for a space trip that leads to a cosmic explosion of atonal riffs until Antti Boman's (Demilich) single growl dissolves everything back into astral dust to provide one last chance of relaxation before the final blow. Said blow follows the tradition of '70s prog albums in the sense that side B of your Hidden History Of The Human Race vinyl is filled by one single track, an 18-minute death metal behemoth which is the most brutal and psychedelic, ambient and technical song Blood Incantation have ever written.

There's no two ways about it; Hidden History Of The Human Race is one of the top death metal releases of 2019. It embraces you with its old school nostalgia, it awes you with its technical proficiency, it expands your mind with its progressive complexity and, finally, it mesmerises you with its alien ambiance. Clocking in at just over 36 minutes, it goes by so quickly that feels like it is an EP and demands to be replayed again and again.

It may not be as guitar-driven as Starspawn in the sense that it has so much more juice to enjoy than just guitar riffs and solos, but it still hits hard enough to open a portal to another dimension.

"Far away in the land of dreams
Coast inside the waves of my soul
Deep within the mind I see
Opening my heart to the all"