BravePicks 2020 - INCANTATION's Sect Of Vile Divinities #24
December 8, 2020, 4 years ago
If there was any year that music was a true saviour, it was 2020. The ultimate diversion, as the world sits in virtual stagnation waiting anxiously for a fix. We will keep it brief here with the COVID commentary. Let’s let the music speak for itself. It is time to unveil our annual BravePicks countdown, where the devout scribes at BraveWords cast their votes at the hits and misses of the year! So who will be our #1? You’ll find out as we count down the BravePick Of 2020 each day in December!
Everybody has an opinion and it’s time for ours! And stay tuned in January for the writers’ individual Top 20s (new studio albums ONLY), Top 5 Brave Embarrassments (a fan favorite!), What/Who Needs To Stop In 2021? and Metal Predictions For 2021. Sadly no concerts. But all will be showcased come the New Year!
This virus can go to hell! Let’s let the Top 30 releases of 2020 rock your world!
BravePicks 2020
24) INCANTATION - Sect Of Vile Divinities (Relapse)
Incantation continue their bludgeoning death metal with Sect Of Vile Divinities. Dirty and unrelenting, the album is dedicated to different ancient evils across various cultures. Taking on this theme clearly inspired the swift songwriting as the all components work like a brilliant dance of death with Eliran Kantor’s mesmerizing cover art and Dan Swanö at the controls. Sect Of Vile Divinities is a must have for any death metal head as it lurches in at #24.
As scribe Greg Pratt detailed in his review: I always like it when Incantation’s production is a bit murkier, but, man, here things are as crystal clear as can be, but it’s refreshing, it works, the band showing just how heavy open space can be in the lumbering “Entrails Of The Hag Queen”, for example. Then a brisk blaster like “Guardians From The Primeval” shows the bands skills at both grinding and the mid-tempo jog, while “Black Fathom’s Fire” starts noisy and just gets noisier as the band squeals through the double-bass-led mid-tempo march down to the caves. I love the sludging “Scribes Of The Stygian”, a late-album monolith if ever there was one, the band then closing things off with the mighty “Siege Hive”, Incantation once and for all proving they are the kings of their particular sub-realm of extremity, Sect Of Vile Divinities simply the latest proof of that.
BravePicks 2020 Top 30
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24) INCANTATION - Sect Of Vile Divinities (Relapse)
25) MIDNIGHT - Rebirth By Blasphemy (Metal Blade)
26) NAGLFAR - Cerecloth (Century Media)
27) RAVEN - Metal City (SPV/Steamhammer)
28) KIRK WINDSTEIN - Dream In Motion (Entertainment One)
29) VANDEN PLAS - The Ghost Xperiment: Illumination (Frontiers)
30) GREEN CARNATION - Leaves of Yesteryear (Season of Mist)
