Review of Incriminated - Promise of Worse To Come

To be honest, when I sat down on my crust-infested futon to listen to this album and heard the opening 30 seconds I laughed my ass off. What is this, Yoda on vocals? This is supposed to scare me? Hell, Harald Mentor laughs and groans for half of the third track with little musical accompaniment, emitting a “raaa” sound for three minutes. However, to ignore the fact that this album, the group’s second full-length, contains some incredibly grim atmospheric work in the riffs would serve as a rejection of what makes Promise of Worse to Come work.

This album is monotonous and slow going. Vocalist and bassist Mentor, guitarist Susej, and drummer Werwolf play with what would sound to the average listener like total disinterest. But in a world where god is made of a liberal dose of contempt, scorn, and doom, this music rules! Some would argue that the best Yoda impersonator, a first year guitar student, and any kid brother with a functioning hand and willingness to bang on a few cans and sound essentially the same, could replace these guys. And right you are, cynics! Now find me those three and ask them to dedicate their lives to studying every second of Apocalyptic Raids while recording a batch of their own tracks. I thought so. Not so easy now, is it?

For those wondering how this sounds beyond Yoda singing over mutated, early 80s first wave black/death metal riffs, you’re not going to find an answer better than what was just provided. Not much here varies from song to song, which is fine by me, because what I am hearing is beyond rad. If you dig Hellhammer, Venom, Motorhead, or even the earliest forms of thrash (and you can forgive the vocals), you’ll love Incriminated. There’s even a badass solo two minutes into the seventh track, “The Grand Downfall.” Tracks that stand out like a sore thumb here are the more up-tempo “Born to Rule,” the appropriately titled “The Age of Deserved Doom,” where Mentor adopts a less distracting tone of voice, and the plodding “Noble are the Warriors,” which sounds almost applicable to an ‘80s biker film soundtrack.

Former MetalReview writer Alex de Moller gutted Incriminated’s debut without putting the album into a context, which is mistake number one when reviewing any piece of music. Mentor and his crew of misanthropic miscreants aren’t aligning themselves with modernity or any of the weird science experiments calling themselves recent works of Ulver. This is pure Hellhammer worship, intentionally distancing production and all, and it’s pretty damn good, if not a little boring after a while. I will turn to Promise of Worse to Come when in need of primal headbanging, but I will never listen to it all the way through so long as I live. Recommended for spear throwers and those that like their metal stripped of everything but the almighty riff.

Release Details

Incriminated

Promise of Worse To Come

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