Timewave Zero

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, 2019s 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 groups first original release for the label isnt 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 groups 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. Its frigid, shivering, and lost in the cosmos, but theres still a lot of life coursing through its veins. "Ea," possibly a reference to fantasy author David Zindells 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 Incantations best-known work, but it truly rewards the open-minded listener, and is simply a fantastic ambient album in its own right. ~ Paul Simpson