Blood Incantation Release New Album Absolute Elsewhere
via Century Media - Listen / Share / Buy
Touring North America This Fall
Early Praise For Absolute Elsewhere:
“the metal album of the year” NPR
(Best New Music) “Following their proggy instincts to galactic new heights, the Denver quartet balances krautrock’s surreal splendor with death metal’s profane madness, finding hypnotic focus in even the heaviest riffs.” Pitchfork
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“an amazing, proggy, thrilling death metal epic” The Needle Drop
“This album is the work of a band who have proven themselves capable of anything. It belongs on the shelf alongside Pestilence’s ‘Testimony Of The Ancients and Spheres’, The Orb’s ‘UFOrb’ and Pink Floyd’s ‘Wish You Were Here’. It’s a goddamn masterpiece.” The Wire
“the ultimate Blood Incantation album” Brooklyn Vegan
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(Album of the Week) “brilliant left turn that makes us totally re-evaluate what these guys are capable of.” Treble
"Throughout it all, every element contributes to the majesty of the whole, and Blood Incantation are audibly exhilarated by their own creative madness, riding waves of inspiration to destinations unknown, and steadily stretching away from any and all competition. Absolute Elsewhere is a mind- blowing masterpiece." Metal Hammer
“Time is a flat circle in Blood Incantation’s soundsphere. It’s as if all the music they’ve released over the years exists simultaneously in its own dimension. Their journeying into the far-flung corners of the known musical universe is an exploration of the tiniest particles that make up our reality, the big theories of existence, and our very consciousness.” The Quietus
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“it’s not just the sci-fi tropes of cosmic travel and dispatches from space prophets that make this one of the year’s must-hear heavy records; it’s Blood Incantation’s genre-shattering approach to creating this wondrous audio landscape.” Arts Fuse
Blood Incantation’s new album Absolute Elsewhere is the sound of a star born.
“The Stargate” Side One: A violent storm invokes the familiar before a grand cosmic key turn for a hint of sweeping scope to come with spiritual acknowledgement and accompaniment by Tangerine Dream’s Thorsten Quaeschning on synths on the song’s second tablet. Musically as violent as it is mediative, with subtle spoken passages flitting between Nicklas Malmqvist’s (Hällas) busy synthesizer keys and Mellotron strings invoking both the modern and ancient, and it is all given sharp focus by Arthur Rizk’s powerfully dynamic and enveloping mix. Blood Incantation depart Extreme Metal’s traditionally antiquated waystation, warping their way towards “Genre of One'' stature, as “The Stargate” intones the disembodiment of consciousness itself, careening through the stargate towards Samsara-like reincarnation, punctuated by the occasional growl from Sijjin/ex-Necros Christos mainman, Malte Gericke.
“The Message” Side Two: A step through doorways of unearthly beauty, playfulness, quirk and horror. As if David Gilmour jams beside Chick Corea and Trey Azagthoth melting together through psychedelic hyperspace, eliciting mystical vibes and a tangible metaphysical transcendence. Dalos briefly reengages with this track in his native language, alongside star-riding Malmqvist, whose iconic synth/keys work throughout the album adds to the unearthly atmospherics that with Absolute Elsewhere defines a new musical epoch for Blood Incantation, as much as 21st century Metal itself.
In total the piece hovers at nearly 45 minutes, their longest full length recording yet, the album’s two movements are as confounding as they are engaging, exponentially expanding upon the formulas laid down by their scene-shattering debut Starspawn (2016) and landmark follow up Hidden History of the Human Race (2019).
For inspiration, the group looked to the mid-70’s progressive rock collective, Absolute Elsewhere as the album’s namesake. For the uninitiated, Absolute Elsewhere’s obscure 1976 album, In Search of Ancient Gods, was constructed as a musical accompaniment to the works of Chariots of the Gods author, Erich Von Daniken, and his theories of non-terrestrial humanoid prompts towards mankind’s evolution. The subject matter of which should serve as no surprise to anyone familiar with Blood Incantation’s cosmically philosophical leanings. But make no mistake, the four musicians working under the Blood Incantation banner for the past decade – guitarist and vocalist Paul Riedl, drummer Isaac Faulk, guitarist Morris Kolontyrsky and bassist Jeff Barrett – have successfully left the microgravity of genre behind and are re-writing the Rosetta Stone of extreme music with a new language entirely.
Absolute Elsewhere arrives today via Century Media. Its physical version features a 73 minute feature film All Gates Open: In Search Of Absolute Elsewhere which tells the story of their time in Berlin during the summer of 2023, while recording at the legendary Hansa Studios. It will be available on Blu-Ray with the album's deluxe mediabook package and will also include the documentary’s original soundtrack, All Gates Open (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) which includes 60 minutes of exclusive new music distinct from the new album. This special edition will also include Blood Incantation’s 2023 maxi-single, "Luminescent Bridge” for the first time ever on CD, and of course, Absolute Elsewhere in both standard and Dolby Atmos / 5.1 mixes, alongside exclusive liner notes, exclusive interviews, behind the scenes photos and a forward by Ross Dolan of Immolation.
Watch / Share All Gates Open: In Search Of Absolute Elsewhere - Official Documentary Trailer
For Absolute Elsewhere, Blood Incantation decamped to the celebrated Hansa Tonstudios in Berlin, Germany in July 2023 to record with wünderkid producer Arthur Rizk (Power Trip, Spectral Voice, Kreator, Wayfarer, Sumerlands, etc). This legendary, pre-Weimar-built recording complex was where many of their most progressive influences including Tangerine Dream, Eloy and Brian Eno created classic albums in the 1970s. Unmistakably, Hansa and Berlin became part of the underlying character of the album, culminating in Tangerine Dream’s own Thorsten Quaeschning contributing lead synths, Mellotron and programming to “The Stargate [Tablet II]”. Other special guests include Nicklas Malmqvist, on lead synths/keys, piano and Mellotron throughout all tracks, and Malte Gericke, the Sijjin/ex-Necros Christos mainman contributing guest vocals in his native tongue. Underscoring the classic Progressive Rock vibe, the album is adorned with contemporary visionary paintings by the iconic and reclusive 70s Sci-Fi artist Steve R. Dodd. Together, this international all-star team adds to the unearthly atmospherics of Absolute Elsewhere, which defines a new musical epoch for Blood Incantation.
Next month, Blood Incantation set out on an extensive North American tour crossing both coasts and more with support from Midwife. Tonight, their inaugural voyage into the Absolute Elsewhere timeline will be christened the enigmatic Master of Silence, Steve Roach, who will open the stargate alongside the band with a hometown release show at the Boulder Theater. All tickets are on sale now here. For a full list of dates, see below.
In case you missed it, Blood Incantation debuted The Stargate short film which captures Absolute Elsewhere’s first movement in its entirety. The film was directed by award winning cinematographer Michael Ragen (Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities: The Viewing) and features mesmerizing analog fluid effects by Chris Parks (The Fountain). It presents the saga of a mysterious artifact and its victims in a hallucinatory synthesis of science fiction and folk horror, where mind bending imagery and unsettling atmospheres converge in a surreal tale of primeval blood magic, interdimensional travel and grotesque otherworldly technology beginning in the Dark Ages and journeying into voids of deep space.
Photo By Julian Weigand | Hi Res Version Here | L-R Paul Riedl (Guitars, Vocals), Morris Kolontyrsky (Guitars), Jeff Barrett (Fretless Bass), Isaac Faulk (Drums)
Blood Incantation Absolute Elsetour Dates:
Oct 04: Boulder, CO - Boulder Theater * (Record Release Show)
Nov 07: Portland, OR - Hawthorne ~
Nov 08: Vancouver, BC - The Rickshaw ~
Nov 09: Seattle, WA - Substation ~
Nov 11: Berkeley, CA - Cornerstone ~
Nov 12: Los Angeles, CA - The Regent Theater ~
Nov 13: Tucson, AZ - 191 Toole ~
Nov 15: Austin, TX - Come and Take It ~
Nov 16: Dallas, TX - Echo ~
Nov 18: Atlanta, GA - Masquerade ~
Nov 19: Tampa. FL - The Orpheum ~
Nov 21: Asheville, NC - Orange Peel ~
Nov 22: Richmond, VA - Canal Club ~
Nov 23: Baltimore, MD - Baltimore Soundstage ~
Nov 25: Philadelphia, PA - Underground Arts ~
Nov 26: Brooklyn, NY - (Absolute) Elsewhere ~
Nov 27: Boston, MA - Brighton Music Hall ~
Nov 29: Montreal, QC - Fairmount ~
Nov 30: Toronto, ON - Lee's Palace ~
Dec 01: Detroit, MI - Magic Stick ~
Dec 03: Chicago, IL - Metro ~
Dec 04: Minneapolis, MN - Fine Line ~
Dec 05: Omaha, NE - Bourbon Theater ~
* w/ Steve Roach
~ w/ Midwife
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