Colorado quartet
Blood Incantation became one of the most acclaimed death metal bands of the 2010s, performing a psychedelic take on the genre that drew equally from classic science fiction and '70s progressive rock albums, and featured lyrics focusing on inner journeys of the mind. After their second full-length, 2019's
Hidden History of the Human Race, appeared on numerous year-end lists, the band signed to metal heavyweight
Century Media, which reissued their first two albums and a 2015 EP. The group's first original release for the label isn't a metal album at all, but a cinematic ambient suite consisting of two lengthy pieces (plus a third on a limited CD/Blu-ray edition). The only precedent for this work in the group's catalog is the untitled B-side to the self-issued 2018 cassette EP Live Vitrification, which was an 18-minute collage of dark ambient droning and samples of
Terence McKenna lecturing about alien communication and psychoactive substances. While that piece clearly sounded like an experiment,
Timewave Zero is a more thoroughly composed work that certainly befits its status as a proper full-length. "Io," titled after a moon of Jupiter, is a slowly expanding sequence of progressive electronics that gradually incorporates tanpura-sounding drone and gently wavering guitar notes, somewhat resembling a blend of '70s
Tangerine Dream with
Windy & Carl-style ambient space rock. It's frigid, shivering, and lost in the cosmos, but there's still a lot of life coursing through its veins. "Ea," possibly a reference to fantasy author David Zindell's Ea Cycle, begins with more upfront synth arpeggios, then gradually slows down and shifts into a different mode. By its astonishing third movement, it approaches the mystical beauty of a
Popol Vuh soundtrack, highlighted by stirring, sorrowful melodies accented with pealing gongs.
Timewave Zero might be a far cry from
Blood Incantation's best-known work, but it truly rewards the open-minded listener, and is simply a fantastic ambient album in its own right. ~ Paul Simpson
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