Formed in 2004 in Phoenix, Arizona, and fronted by Richie Cavalera, Incite are a band who have been building up an impressive following despite line-up issues meaning that Richie is now the band’s sole remaining founder member. The current line up came together shortly before 2014’s ‘up in hell’ and, whilst that album was a powerful effort, this new record sees the members firmly bedded in and the result is the band’s most mature and ferocious effort to date.
Clearly influenced by the music that formed such a large part of his childhood, Richie has become a remarkable vocalist. His roar is now a thing of monstrous beauty, and the band deal in skull-crushing, dizzying riffs with technical aplomb. The album does not so much open as explode into life with ‘never surrender’, a devastating assault that shows just how assured Incite have become in the last two years. Drummer Derek Lopez plays like a human octopus, underpinning Kevin McAllister and Dru Rome’s guitars with a fluidity that is nothing short of jaw-dropping. Nonetheless, the opening track remains Richie’s show and it’s truly remarkable to hear him explore his vocal range with a throat-ripping proficiency that marks him out as one of the finest extreme metal vocalists out there. Not even pausing for breath the band launch into the ferocious ‘lost reality’, a track that draws upon the likes of Lamb of God for inspiration, only to up the ante and spin things off in their own unique direction. A good choice for single, ‘Stagnant’ is up next and it’s a corrosive beast that sees lightning-speed riffs tempered to a mid-paced beat that will have even the dead head banging in unison when this one goes out live. Another album highlight, ‘no remorse’ is a rage fuelled nightmare of taut riffs and deathly vocals delivered with a conviction that will sees listener’s hairs standing up on end. This is extreme metal at its best – stunningly proficient, produced with clarity and power and delivered with a fiery passion that is palpable in every raging scream and every blistering solo. Another track that builds upon the lamb of God blue print, only to turbocharge it with a breath-taking sense of aggression, the title track is a punch to the guts that will leave listeners breathless.
With the album passing at breakneck pace, ‘life’s disease’ slows things a touch, but ups the intensity, the band piling riff on top of riff until the listener is left reeling at the relentless brutality. A full-blown thrash assault ‘forced into life’ takes the likes of Devildriver and A life once lost and throws them into a blender, the result a scarifying blitzkrieg that leaps from the speakers ripping and tearing through raw and bleeding flesh as it goes. Another album highlight, ‘worst of me’ is as brutal and bloody as a knife fight, whilst ‘I want it all’ opens with the battle cry “heavy fucking metal!” just to underscore the point of the album. Reminiscent of Soulfly’s ‘the song remains insane’ thanks to its breakneck delivery, this truly is heavy fucking metal and all the more cathartic and potent for it. The album ends, all too quickly, with ‘silenced’, a churning maelstrom of cataclysmic riffs and brutal groove. It neatly summates the strengths of the album into one last crushing anthem of despair and it marks Incite out as a potent force indeed in the world of metal.
It was, perhaps, inevitable that Richie would follow in Max’s footsteps and tear headlong into the world of heavy metal. What was far less inevitable was that Incite would prove to be quite as good as they are. The product of a life-long passion for the genre ‘Oppression’ is a mature, brutal, extreme metal album delivered by a band whose skills have been honed to a killing point. There is not a moment wasted here and Richie’s devastating vocal assault lies at the heart of it all, his rage palpable as he delivers his lyrics through gritted teeth. An album that maximises its impact through ruthless editing, ‘oppression’ is a mere 33 minutes long, but the band use the time well to deliver ten memorable blasts of truly crushing metal. In short, ‘Oppression’ is a masterclass in extremity, and quite unfathomably good.
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