Incantation – Decimate Christendom

A great release here. The LP sounds great to me, dead on accurate with minimal surface noise. Definitely a bit quiet so gotta crank the volume; not an issue! Presents greatly as well. Not sure why the LP was cut as quiet as the Blasphemy LP as this one is around 7 minutes shorter in length, but it’s alright.

Incantation is like a granite tombstone that has been standing in place for many years and does not care about any external changes. Technologies are changing, industry trends are changing, and listeners' tastes are changing... And Incantation, as they played old-fashioned Death Metal, continue to stand their ground. The music is still rude, the lyrics are blasphemous and the cover is offensive. "Decimate Christendom" is in many ways a typical record for band with the usual set of expressive means, frequent slowdowns and a general oppressive atmosphere. Presented in one go, the material does not suffer from excessive memorability, but it sounds very monolithic and holistic.

The reissue from Hells Headbangers has about the same disadvantages as the album "Blasphemy" reissued by them a year earlier - the decision to release a fifty-minute album on one vinyl leads to a loss of quality. The material lacks a bit of dynamics and depth, it doesn't sound quite flat, there is relief, but the potential of this record could have been revealed better on vinyl. The recording is quite quiet, this is not due to the high dynamic range, but to the fact that very narrow inner grooves were made, 21 minutes of music were placed on side A, and 28 minutes on side B. Technically, this album should have been released in DLP format in the year of its release. At first, Listenable acted incompetently, ten years later HH repeated almost the same mistake, only placing the tracks on the sides in a different order (Horns Of Eradication was A6, but became B1).

In general, the press is of high quality - an interesting design of the gatefold and the envelope with additional arts, foil elements on the cover, the original color of the vinyl itself, as well as the great quality of its playback. The material on this album deserves the highest rating, there are also no questions about the quality of the material edition, but in fact this vinyl does not sound much better than a regular CD. But there is no other version at all.