Incantation - Diabolical Conquest

There's just no question that Incantation is either evil or brutal, but unless that's all you're looking for, Diabolical Conquest may leave you a little dry. I've listened to this album about 25 times, but whenever I go to write my thoughts on this satanic epic, I can hardly remember anything about the album besides a few riffs. However, those few riffs do certainly sear into your skull, especially the opening on track one (Shadows of the Ancient Empire comes to mind as well). The whole album pretty much lumbers along at a steady pace, pausing to change moods momentarily on Unheavenly Skies before pounding us back into the fray. Much like Suffocation and Cannibal Corpse, this stuff is hard for me to digest all at once I suppose, for after a few tracks, everything has sorta melded together for me. Now, while I personally don't really get into this, it is a solid death slab worthy of induction into the kindgom of all that is less-than-holy, and those that wouldn't have it any other way most likely have this monster already. Probably best as an apocalyptic mood piece, for closer Unto Infinite Twilight... is just devastating while clocking in at over 16 minutes! Overall, a solid 8 for those in the brutal death fold (out skinning goats as I write, it's gotta be goat-skinning time somewhere!) but a 7 for me, for while it'll throw me across the room, it's just not my first choice for musical intoxication (although if I go back to grad school it'll probably never leave the CD player).