Incantation - Onward to Golgotha

This Onward to Golgotha album right here is some of the darkest, bleakest, and most haunting death metal ever written. Sure, Nespithe may be the most technical album, and Withdrawal the most bizarre and evocative, but Incantation's Onward to Golgotha has the darkest and most sinister riffs ever recorded.

The strong point of this album is clearly its demonic atmosphere, which is obtained by Craig Pillard's clever use of dissonant and atonal riffs that are nonetheless melodic. To reiterate, while it is not obvious to most as the riffs are often only a few notes away from chromatic, the essence of this work is melody, which underlies the narrative of note patterns moving toward atonality through a field evenly laid with phrasal riffs that were crafted with for a greater purpose than just 'sounding cool' as is common in popular music. These riffs were built to create dark and sinister atmospheres. On top of it all, solos are thrown in like high-speed Gatling salvos, careless in sound but precise in effect.

The way in which tempos as utilised is also a work of genius. Moving between dirge-like trudges, mid-paced demonic momentum and lawless ripping so fast it can barely be processed in a normal experience, listening to Onward to Golgotha often feels like riding a roller coaster above the Styx itself. And not only do tempos have great variation on their own, but individual riffs have their own internal rhythms, with which chords change and left-hand effects are rendered upon fretted chords.

Onward to Golgotha is, bar none, the best death metal record ever. You owe it to yourself to listen to it.

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