The Incantus - Goddess Ablaze - Song Review

Another cold and misty Thursday in the Finnish prison, I am writing about an up-and-coming melodic death metal collective, The Incantus, hailing from Melbourne, Australia. One of their three singles so far, Goddess Ablaze, has been under my focus for two weeks, and I will be sharing my personal view with you; it was released on November 24, 2023.

The Incantus – Goddess Ablaze (Official Audio). Released on: 2023-11-24. Main Artist: The Incantus. Composer: Nat Harmer. Lyricist: Nat Harmer

Two weeks ago, I had the chance to listen to The Incantus‘ three released songs, and the first thing that came to my mind was that the collective was experienced, even though I had no idea of their backgrounds or discographies. After going through their socials and learning a bit more about the band within these two weeks, it turns out that the project has a history of 7 years and has finally started realizing their musical goals by recording and releasing material. Goddess Ablaze is only their second single release so far; afterward, the band released one more single titled Wintersmith.

Goddess Ablaze caught my attention with its secure and traditional approach in the first place, being entirely faithful to the origins of melodic death metal while integrating contemporary sound characterization and production techniques. The song is mainly, if not only, led by guitars, which also qualify as the focus point as well as the loudest element in their musical vision.

The musical language of the song draws influences from the Scandinavian death metal scene, more specifically reminded me of In Flames with its guitar work, instrumentation, and also by being faithful to the origins of the genre. As I mentioned earlier, The Incantus didn’t bother experimenting or pushing any boundaries in their approach, instead structuring the song in a familiar way and keeping things as simple as possible.

The Incantus, band photo. Credit: Unknown

On the other side of the coin, I also have to admit that I have mixed feelings about the outcome. While the Australian gentlemen deserve the utmost respect for their established work in their debut material, which also qualifies Goddess Ablaze, and for objectively having enough quality to make an impact on the listener and attract those who are into this specific genre, after listening to the song on repeat heavily for the last week, I am not satisfied with the sound characterization and production they have decided to pursue.

First of all, the song sounded overly loud and pushed to an extent where there was no room left. The loud guitars the band chose to have are shadowing almost everything else; there’s now nowhere else to focus on in the entire picture. Although the vocalist had all the necessary quality along with the attitude to qualify as a promising death metal vocalist with his performances together with the drummer who sounded quite progressive and complex to me, The Incantus’ sound production has chosen to hide everything under guitars.

While the guitars leading the entire show is nothing absurd when it comes to metal. Nevertheless, listening to Goddess Ablaze and its guitar tones carefully was confusing for me. While I still see potential in the tone, I also feel confused about whether these guitars were recorded analog with a real amp or they are supported by a software plugin. In this case, I am one step closer to believing in software plugin sounds, that they were recorded with a digital computer plugin, or this effect was caused by the mixing and mastering processes. Again, in my opinion, if your music is led solely by guitars, then they have to be the strongest or the most distinguishing element in your vault. After listening to various metal songs on Spotify and then coming back to Goddess Ablaze, it wasn’t a positive experience from my side; it was overly loud, pushed, digitalized, and the sound characterization didn’t have the aesthetics that I personally was looking for.

In conclusion, Goddess Ablaze is a banger that blends vintage melodic death metal elements with contemporary sound production, undoubtedly showing potential regardless of its limitations, familiar language, and imperfections. Thank you for reading.