If you’ve read my review of ‘Blasphemy’, Incantation’s latest effort, you might get the impression that I’m quite fond of this band. Well, that impression is correct. Thus I was immediately enthusiastic when chief editor Ricardo offered me the opportunity to interview mastermind John McEntee. After a few uncertain days, I got the confirmation of the interview two hours before John would call. Luckily I had my questions ready and John called me right on time. After trying several phones for the best possible connection, we kick it off…
First of all congratulations on the new album, in my opinion a real killer. How do you look at is yourself?
We’re definitely really satisfied. Everyone in the recording is really satisfied. Also everything between the band. Bill Korecky, who helped us produce and engineer the album, thought it came out really good. The record company seems to like it a lot too. We’re really happy with it, we feel this is the closest we can get to the perfect production for Incantation. It’s distinguishable, but still has the raw edge to it. Perfect for our style, you know, both legible and the raw heaviness, the sickness in the sound. We’re also really happy with the songs, and to have Kyle (Severn; Stijn) back in the band. It’s always a great vibe when Kyle and I play together. I think Kyle is the perfect drummer for Incantation.
I myself see Incantation as a band with an own identity, is this something you consciously try to maintain?
I guess you could say that. Well, there is no massive plan to keep it the same. I don’t think about it. It just comes natural, what to do. We’re very much focused to it as a band. We don’t work to keep it as the same style, it’s just in our blood.
74 minutes of ‘Blasphemy’ seems quite a lot, but the last 25 minutes aren’t Death Metal. What was the reason for putting it on the album?
We were really satisfied with the album. Real happy, the songs kick ass. So we felt we just had to put something fucked up on it, something useless. Because we thought the songs were so good, we wanted to put some crap on it, too. We just wanted people to get pissed at us for wasting like twenty minutes of their time.
That’s a reason…
Yeah, we’re fucked up like that. We realized we’re never gonna be accepted by the popular critics and everything. So it’s like a ‘Fuck off’ to them and to trends. It also has a special meaning to us. Relapse likes this kind of stuff on the albums they bring out. Back then Repulse had the rights to released “The forsaken mourning of angelic anguish” but Relapse turned it around and ended up with the rights to release it. Therefor we never did anything stupid like those sounds on Relapse. And now we’re off it, we do. I don’t know, we’re just weirdos.
On your home page, you put some tablature of Incantation songs. Do you like listening to people play your music?
It’s cool, it’s a great compliment. You mean them listening to it?
No, I mean other bands playing Incantation songs…
O yeah, that is totally cool, and killer. A couple of times we’ve played with bands that did Incantation songs, but never when they played with us. Too bad, I think it would be awesome to hear it. I think the closest I ever got to hearing Incantation’s music without me playing it was when I broke a string or something. But it would be awesome, I’d like to play with a band who plays one of our songs. That would be great.
How was the ‘Blasphemy in Europe’ tour?
It was cool. Small, only about a week or so. But it was definitely a great experience. I wish it had been longer, so we could have played more shows. It’s always great to play in Europe, because we hardly ever come there. Relapse always worked against us when it came to Europe. The people in Europe seem to be more diehard Death Metal fans, real sick Death Metal warriors. Here in the US people are more into experimental stuff instead of grinding Death Metal. There’s not really a market for extreme Death Metal. But who knows, it could be totally different in two years.
Vincent Crowley (Acheron) did the vocals on the tour, how was touring with him?
Cool, he is a totally cool guy. We’ve been friends for so long, it’s almost sick. Something like 12 or 13 years or something. It was good to have him with us, helping us out. He did a good job. The tour in Europe was better than the US tour, because it took us a while to get used to playing with one guitar and him on vocals. But it was a cool opportunity to tour with him. But it is just something temporary, nothing permanent.
Besides ‘Blasphemy’, what other Incantation album is your favourite?
That’s impossible to say. All our albums have aspects that mean a lot to me. I’ve never released an album that I wasn’t comfortable with. So there isn’t really one favourite album. I mean, I really like ‘Blasphemy’ and I’m really satisfied with it, but I can’t name one favourite. They all represent a different time in my life, with different memories.
Incantation has had many line-up changes over the years. Was there ever a time you thought: “fuck this, I’m just gonna do something else”?
There was, actually. In the mid-nineties I really considered it. But it seemed useless to quit and do another band. This style is such a huge part of me. I’m in a band that’s based around my songwriting , and it would be like changing the name on the same stuff. I’ve had a vision, already back in the eighties of the style of Incantation, and I always stuck to that vision. I was very sincere to myself back then and I made a decision. It’s not a fase. I would only quit the band if I wanted to change styles like Amorphis or The Gathering. But I want to play brutal grinding Death Metal, it would be silly to change. When I would play in another band, people would expect it to be different…
But it won’t be?
No, so it would be silly and deceiving. This style is very true to me, it’s not like a gimmick to make money or something.
What will ‘Blasphemy’ do for Incantation?
I don’t know, I hope it will satisfy the brutal Death Metal warriors who support us. I hope they look at it as a highlight in our career. I just let it take it’s course. I want to push the band to what it can be. I can’t see us becoming as big as Morbid Angel, although I think our music is great. But unfortunately, we just don’t have the label support for that at the moment.
But you are satisfied to be on Necropolis/Candlelight?
Yeah, our only other option was to stay on Relapse, and N/C is a lot better. Any label sometimes does stuff you aren’t happy with, but we hope for the better. Necropolis put a lot of time and effort into promoting the band. I don’t know about Candlelight, they didn’t do very much for us on the European tour but they arranged interviews for us.
How do you look at the release of ‘Blasphemy in Brazil’, because I understand it’s not really an official release?
First of all I am really happy with it, Mutilated records did a great job, with the artwork and all. It certainly wasn’t official, but we played that show and it was going to be bootlegged anyway. We could work with them or not, but then it would come out like crap. So we thought ‘why not’? We can make it sound good, it was recorded through the mixing table, I guess on a DAT-tape. It’s raw, it’s live, it isn’t perfect. But when you play for a crowd like that, some of the sickest Death Metal warriors, things can get crazy, it gives it the personality. What do you think of it?
To be honest, I haven’t heard it yet. Is it hard to get?
Oh, that’s OK. I have some copies for sale on the website. It’s an underground release, I guess you’ll have to look for it, in distros and stuff.
Well, I will. By the way, have you already read our beautiful webzine?
Yes I have, it really kicks ass. I also appreciate the review (there goes another feather up my ass; Stijn) it was really good. I liked reading all the extra info, the forty band members or something. It’s really good, really cool.
You know, I have interviewed you before, by e-mail…
I actually remember that. When I got the info for this interview and read the e-mail address it sounded really familiar. Cool.
That actually was my last question. Is there anything you’d like to add?
First of all, thank you, I really appreciate the opportunity and the exposure. I’d like to thank everybody out there for the support, you show Death Metal still lives. And look out for us on the road, we hope to do a lot of touring, to brutalize and spread our blasphemy.
