Incantation – “Our band is a rebellion against any trend.”

Last week I had an interview with John McEntee, guitarplayer/mastermind of the veteran Death Metal band Incantation. During the conversation we talked about the past and present of Incantation, certain trends, the business side of being in a Death Metal band, Ibex Moon Records and of course about the new album, “Decimate Christendom”. After the interview I couldn’t help thinking of a certain Pantera song…

Let’s start with the first question. In my review I described your new album as a strong release, yet musically a tad predictable. What is your take on “Decimate Christendom”?
Well, I understand what you mean. We do not make music to be cool or trendy, we play this kind of music because we like it. The music should give us some form of satisfaction. Trying to create some kind of new music is not our thing. We would not be true to ourselves if we were trying to create groundbreaking music just for the sake of playing that, instead of pure Death metal.

The typical Incantation sound has been established years ago. Isn’t it difficult to find a new and exciting perspective in your music?
I know what you are saying. I do not find it difficult to come up with new and exciting things within our music, because I love our sound. It does not feel like a burden to come up with new stuff, haha. We go into the rehearsal room, we create the music we love to play and we still have the same vision like early on. The music does not need to be progressive, as long it is brutal enough for our liking, we are happy. We simply want to be true to ourselves. Our band is a rebellion against any trend. I feel like our new album is probably more of a bold move and more original than most stuff out there, because most bands are concerned about being different or about trying to follow the trends. To me it is boring and getting old soon. I mean, how many bands sound like hardcore ripp-offs of At the Gates and In Flames? It is ridiculous. The media do not complain about these bands, and rather nag about bands like us who have stuck to our guns for the past 15 years.

Okay, but what about the Death Metalscene in general? It is filled with Morbid Angel, Cannibal Corpse and Suffocation clones.
I think it is alright for people to play in bands which are ripp-offs from their favourite bands, if that is what they like. More power to these musicians. I do not have an interest for those kind of bands. I prefer bands which rather put more of their own emotion into their music than to be worried about what is popular, like technical ability or computer synchronised drums.

You mean like brutal US Deathmetal with a lot of blastbeats and triggered drums?
Yeah, there are too many bands playing that style. It is boring to listen to it. There are a few great bands playing that genre, but there are too many bands copying that style and that is almost hurting the few good ones. Unfortunately for me, it is very boring to listen to it. I have been in the deathmetalscene for 15 years now and I do not like the modern productions. It simply is too clean and polished for my taste. It is great to have a good production, but the most important thing is to feel the emotion and the power in the music and not to sound like a machine by using pro-tools.

So you are saying that emotions in music are more important than technique?
Oh yeah, I mean technique is great, but most music, not all though, is computer generated. What the hell is that? It is great for industrial music I guess, but for Death Metalit does not work. It should have a dark and aggressive feeling to it and not sound too sterile, at least in my opinion.

Let’s get back to your new album, “Decimate Christendom”. Was there any grand idea behind it or a special goal you wanted to achieve?
Not really, like I said before, our mindset was to be true to ourselves and let this album be a big “Fuck You” to all the trends out there and the music industry. It is an anti-typical Death Metal album. We wanted it to be as pure and organic as possible. We do not need to follow any type of band, because we have our own sound. I mean, when Obituary makes a new record their fans want it to sound like Obituary and not like Angel Corpse. The whole idea behind this album is to be true to ourselves. That goes for religion, music or whatever. We just want to do our own thing. That’s all.

Incantation has worked on several albums with producer Bill Korecky. He did “Decimate Christendom” as well. Why did you choose to work with him again?
We still like working with him. He puts great care into his productions and he pushes us to our musical limits. As a band we like to have a producer on board who cares a lot about the album and we feel comfortable working with him. We like him to have input, but as producer he should respect us as a band and our music as well. Bill helped us out with some of the harmonies and he gave us the occasional advice on our guitar sound, but on the whole we worked as a team.

Have you ever considered being at the helm yourself and produce your own records?
Ehmm, I would not be against it, but I do not have the ear to listen to my own music over and over again. That is why Bill Korecky is so good, he has that special ability. As for me, I would go crazy if I had to do that, haha. Perhaps somewhere in the future, but not now.

The new record marks your debut as a vocalist. How did you experience this?
Well, as long as the fans think it sounds good on the album, I am happy. For me, though, it was very nerve-wrecking. It took a long time to get the proper tones and to get used to singing and playing guitar at the same time. It all turned out for the best, so it was worth the time and effort. One thing I know for sure is what we want to bring across to the public as a band. It is certainly easier for me to sing, than to get a new singer and tell him what we want to achieve. What is good as well, is that I am willing to take all the criticism from the other bandmembers, use it and try to do the best job possible. It was a very healthy situation for the band. In the past, Kyle and I told Mike Saez and Daniel Corchado (former vocalists. red) how to sing the song patterns. This time it was a more thought-out group effort.

Why did you take this extra burden on you? You are already the creative mastermind and guitarist in the band.
After Mike Saez had left the band, I felt betrayed. His reasons were justifiable, but I could not help feeling backstabbed, because we were getting comfortable with him being our frontman. When he left, I decided to step in and do the vocals myself. Unfortunately it is not something you can step in easily, so I was running around in my house growling for 1.5 years in order to practice. At that time, we used session singers to help us out during the gigs. Early 2003, I felt confident enough to do the vocals and after a few gigs in Mexico I decided to give it a go. The response was really good. We used to have a second guitar player for the last couple of years, but everytime when we let new persons into the band, they started acting like rockstars. We got fed up with the whole situation and decided to go on as a three piece. We are not entirely sure whether or not we are going to seek a second guitar player, but we are not in a rush to do it. At the moment, it feels good to perform as a three-piece. There are many great bands who can pull it off in such a formation, like Hate Eternal and Celtic Frost for instance.

Incantation has a lot of guitar harmonies in the music. Don’t you need two guitarplayers in order to play them?
Haha, We are screwing around with our amps and stuff in order to create the double guitar effect live. We are doing special things with the bass in order to make the harmonies stand out more. I got myself a set-up where I am using two amps in order to get more of a stereo sound. There are ways to make it happen. For the upcoming tour as a three-piece we are going to play easier songs and when we feel comfortable playing them, we will switch to the more difficult ones.

Your new album has a good mix of short, fast songs and longer, more doomy ones. What is your take on this?
Well, for Death Metalin general it is important to have more than speed and mosh parts only, which most bands do nowadays. We are trying to use all the elements of Death Metalin our music and it gives a whole different kind of dynamics to it. We are influenced by fast bands, but also by slower bands, like Candlemass and early Paradise Lost. The contrast between fast and slow parts works great.

Let’s now move to the lyrical part. Incantation is renowned for its anti-Christian lyrics. Do those lines reflect your views on the world or does it just come with the package?
I think it is a mixture of both. It fits the music we are playing and it is part of what the band is all about. It would be cheesy if we would suddenly write about political subjects or gore stuff. Sticking to anti-religious topics feels more true to us. From everyday life it becomes clear, that most of the biggest problems in the world today, besides political issues, are fueled by religious fundamentalist isues. The whole islamic thing in the Middle East is just an example of that. The Spanish Inquisition under Torquemada, on the other hand, is a perfect example of Christian fundamentalism. It is a very dangerous thing. People ought to be able to believe in whatever they want and not to get killed because of something stupid like religious issues.

Incantation has got quite a reputation when it comes to line-up changes. How do you reflect on this? Do you see it as a positive thing or do you feel like it holds the band back from more success?
It depends on how you look at it. Concerning the overall image of the band, it had a negative aspect, because people get attached to certain persons within the band, like for instance a certain vocalist. I have had some bitter experiences with some people leaving, but it also gave us the chance to work with great musicians throughout the years. People like Richard Christy (Death, Control Denied, Iced Earth. red) and Dave Culcross (Suffocation, Malevolant Creation. red) on drums and Daniel Corchado (The Chasm.red), Craig Pillard and Mike Saez doing vocals. As a musician, I have learnt from all these people. From a musical point of view, things have not changed much over the years. We are still playing death metal and not indy rock. Many people left the band because they were discouraged by the way the music business works or because they had other musical priorities, like Daniel Corchado with his main band The Chasm. I guess all those line-up changes hold us back at the time, but it was for the better at the end of the day. I am pretty happy with the current line-up consisting of Joe Lombard on bass, Kyle Severn on drums and me on guitars and vocals. We all share the same vision about the band and we want to push it to the next level.

You are experienced in the business side of being in a band yourself and you run your own label called Ibex Moon. Do you think it is an advantage that you have experience about both sides of the fence?
Yes, I do not want to sound cheesy, but I think I know more about the problems with labels and bands. I want to work together with the bands, instead of letting them do what I want, which happens in most labels. I think it is very important to respect the bands’ wishes. I used to have a label quite a few years ago, but it was not until I moved from Cleveland to Johnstown when I got the change to do things right. I did not want to put all the bands on my label through the same label hastle which I had experienced with Incantation. Relapse (former label. red) interfered with our business and tried to break us up in the early years. They did not pay us royalties in a decent manner. Relapse sold our deal to Necropolis Records, without asking us if we agreed to it. The new label did not have the proper money to promote us, so we got hurt by that too. Our label in Europe did absolutely nothing promotionally wise. They did not even send us a decent promotional copy of our own cd. Only recently I received a copy of that cd from our local distributors during a show in Italy. I mean, it was a ridiculous situation. We are signed to Listenable Records right now and thus far they have been awesome to us. I feel very comfortable working with them. I know the owner from way back since the eighties when we were penpals. We share the same metal foundation and in general Laurent (label owner. red) is a cool guy. In the States we are signed to Century Media, the most professional label I have worked with so far.

Time for the final question. What are your expections for the upcoming tour with Behemoth, Krisiun and Ragnarok?
I think it will be a killer. Behemoth has done pretty good the last few years and they have a great fanbase. Krisiun are longtime friends of ours and we had a good time touring with them in the States and in Brasil. I do not know a lot about Ragnarok, but I think it will be cool. It is a great package and we are definately proud to be part of the package. This is the first time we have toured with such a package in Europe. We did the Repulse tour with a smaller bill, but there were many organisational issues. The upcoming European tour is the first decently organised tour since 1994. It is going to be a killer, that is for sure!

I would like to thank Marije, Ron, Nuberus and Danny for inspiration.