Blood Incantation have finally released a preview into their forthcoming album, “Absolute Elsewhere” which sees its release next Friday via Century Media. Its first movement, “The Stargate” is available since Friday in its entirety across digital retailers and comes with an exquisite short film, The Stargate which 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).
“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 Stargate” short film is unlike anything you have experienced before. 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 Weingard
