Rank Your Records: Incantation’s John McEntee Relives Nine Albums Worth of Death Metal Madness

FYI.

This story is over 5 years old.

Music

Rank Your Records: Incantation’s John McEntee Relives Nine Albums Worth of Death Metal Madness

The only original member talks about staying true to his roots for three decades.

In Rank Your Records, we talk to artists who have amassed substantial discographies over the years and ask them to rate their releases in order of personal preference.

In a genre that values loyalty to principle and a dedication to extremity, Incantation might be the truest death metal band on the planet. For fans living at the surface of death metal, the Pennsylvania-based band's nearly 30-year career might not seem like the most exciting or astonishing one—Incantation has never had a breakout record that sparked mainstream media pandering, and the dudes in the band have never posed for Playgirl or incited riots on tour. Instead, Incantation have done what any metal band worth its gas money dreams of—they've released nine albums of uncompromising, unapologetic, ripping fucking death metal.

Advertisement

"Since day one, the most important thing was to not have some high expectations," says guitarist/vocalist John McEntee, the only member of the band to have remained in Incantation since its inception in 1989. "Before Incantation, I was in the band Revenant, and we were about to get signed but only by switching a more commercial style. I was 18, and I didn't want that. So we started Incantation, kind of as a 'fuck you' to everyone. We always kept the attitude, always tried to do it our way and say fuck the trends. Stay hungry, do it from the heart, and never turn it into a business and do it for money."

Talking to McEntee is like talking to the friend who first played you that Bathory demo in your parents' basement. There is none of the old-soldier exhaustion or dismissal of genre tropes that one often finds in metalheads who have been worn down by over two decades of sonic punishment. In fact, the dude sounds genuinely disappointed when discussing how certain bands consider death metal a set of boundaries rather than a powerful jumping-off point, an atmospheric state of mind that has fuck all to do with how many beats or notes you play per minute.

"Some people are limited in imagination," says McEntee. "Some bands feel the need to express themselves outside the confines of death metal, whether they lost interest or whatever. But it comes naturally to me. Incantation is a death metal band, and as long as I can contribute to the genre I will. I always want Incantation to be respected as truly death metal. Some bands from our era changed so significantly, and I can't imagine why. Maybe I just have more dark feelings in me than others." McEntee's pride continues to the band's new album, Profane Nexus, which he regards highly in the band's catalog. "About a year and half ago, we started recording it. The drum editing guy screwed some stuff up, so we had to re-record them over again. We were supposed to have the album out by the next summer, but because we had the editing problem with the drums, it took us a whole other year to get finished. I decided I wanted it done the right way, so I'm happy that we made the right decision. It was almost a disaster, but turned out to be a great album. I also like it because everyone contributed to it, which is something I really like. There's really great stuff that everybody wrote. The songs sound like Incantation but they don't sound like we're mimicking our older stuff. It's close to 30 years since we started the band—to still come up with fresh new ideas is something I'm very proud of."

Advertisement

Perhaps most amazing is that, when it comes time to rank his records, McEntee recounts a band history that would make most aspiring musicians shit themselves. Any one of the experiences he's survived, from bandmates with heroin addictions to friends committing suicide to running out of money before the mixing process, might have made many strong musicians throw down their axe and quit, much less soldier on year after year. McEntee's excuse?

"I guess I'm just one stubborn bastard," he laughs. "I was never going to let anyone stop me."

9. The Infernal Storm (2000)

John McEntee: I put Infernal Storm last because this was the album that was least properly jammed out. Kyle [Severn, drums] was out of the band—he had a big drug problem and went to rehab. We originally wanted [former Death drummer and Charred Walls of the Damned frontman] Richard Christie to play on it, but we ended up with Dave [Culross]. We didn't have time to practice. In my opinion, those songs were unfinished. If we'd had a month… who knows? A lot of people like it, and I respect that, but it's missing that overall feel and flow.

Noisey: Have you talked about this record with Kyle since he got clean?
Oh yeah, of course. We did a live album in Brazil with Kyle, and when he played the songs from that album he really brought a lot more to them. I told him that. At the time, I didn't know if he'd be alive. He screwed up, but he got back on track. It was just tough for him. The album before had done so well, so there was a lot of pressure on us.

Advertisement

8. Mortal Throne of Nazarene (1994)

With this album, there was kind of a similar situation, where we just had no proper line-up. Our line-up fell apart after this album. Me and Craig [Pillard, then-guitarist and vocalist] were trying to keep it together. The songs on here are not bad songs, but we didn't have a drummer for half the album. At the last minute, Jim Roe, the drummer from our first album came back, but Craig and myself were not seeing eye to eye. He wanted doom and industrial aspects, and while I liked doom, I was not into industrial. The producer wanted horror samples in the songs, like clips from The Exorcist. I guess he envisioned us as Fear Factory. I didn't want that. How did you guys reconcile that?
Well, our producer ended up pulling out of the project, Craig quit, and I was there stuck with these unmixed reels. Relapse were pissed about all the money they'd had to pay to the studio, so we ended up with five percent of the budget to mix the album, which was maybe $600 or something. I brought it to a friend in Cleveland, and he was just horrible. He had 'em sitting out on the roof of the car, and said he would only mix the album if his name wasn't on it. We have it listed as mixed by "Mr. Bill." Then, salt in wound, we released the raw mix [1995's Upon the Throne of Apocalypse], but it was also improperly done. That's always killed me—we had two versions of this album, and both were terrible. The songs were good, but the mix was a disaster.

Advertisement

7. Diabolical Conquest (1998)

Songwise, this album is great. But it was Kyle's worst time on drugs, and we had Dan [Corchado] on vocals. The band was just a freakshow. I remember calling my mom and telling her, "I think I'm going crazy." It was the rock and roll lifestyle, but in the underground version. Everyone was bitching… it was just insane. How did Kyle's drug use affect the recording process?
First day in the studio, Bill [Korecky, producer] and I show up, and Kyle's nowhere to be found. He's in bed—he was on a binge, and Dan can't wake him up. Five or six hours later, Dan, a Mexican citizen with no driver's license, drives up with Kyle. Kyle slowly sets up the drums. He plays one hit, and I said, "Go home." Most of the time in the studio he was on heroin. Meanwhile, Dan thought it was so poser to be in a real studio—he was used to, like, home-recorded stuff—so he was reluctant on everything. So many times, I think, How'd it get done? It's a miracle. It took two days to get the vocals. The first day, Dan goes in with a bottle of tequila. He does patterns, and then he's wasted by end of the session. Day Two, his voice was so shot from the day before that he could barely sing. Those are great songs, and it's one of our most popular albums, but it was so much stress.

6. Dirges of Elysium (2014)

This was a taxing album. Alex [Bouks, guitars] was barely present by midway through the recording process. He was just a big mess. He had to go. It was difficult for me, 'cause this is one of my best friends from when I was eight or nine, so it was so horrible, but it was the right thing to do. He made the album so difficult. But [former Incantation guitarist Sonny "Darkie"] Lombarozzi knew all the trouble, so it was natural for us to just ask him to come in. It was positive in that we got Sonny back in the band, but Alex was pissed at me—he thought I was just being an asshole at the time. He had to realize that he himself had to quit the band. Similar to Kyle, have you spoken to him about it since then?
Oh yeah. He totally agrees with the decision that we made now. He's got a great gig playing with Immolation. He's doing really good. I've spoken to him many times.

Advertisement

5. Primordial Domination (2006)

The reason why I pick that for number five is that I really like the album, and it's exactly how we wanted it to come out, but it was written so it could be played well live as a three-piece, and it kind of has a little bit of a different vibe to it. It's still real strong as far as an album goes. It was our last album recorded at Mar Studios in Cleveland. It was good, but kind of sad because the last that [bassist] Joe Lombard contributed to, more lyrically than anything else. It's sad, because he later committed suicide.

Had the partying and substance issues chilled out by then?
Yeah, it was actually kind of smooth-going by then. It was a difficult time because death [metal] just wasn't popular then. Power metal, symphonic metal, that kind of stuff was just more popular. It was one of those albums that was really good, but it didn't get the press it should've. It wasn't popular with the public. But it just got re-released recently, and it got great reactions. That's tough, when even reliable underground genres fall out of favor.
Yeah, but it's always been like that. Certain bands like Exciter were in and out. Certain times it's the cool thing to like. I'm really proud of the album—I like it a lot. At the time, I didn't know if we'd be continuing on after that. For about three years after that I wasn't inspired, and I promised myself I wouldn't do another album until I was inspired to do it. Is there ever pressure to supply that inspiration on demand?
Yeah, that happened with Infernal Storm. I felt pressured to get it done, and it didn't get done the proper way. Either we wait and do it properly, or keep the ball rolling. Better to wait, because the album is part of history.

Advertisement

4. Decimate Christendom (2004)

That album came out really good, but it was kind of our first album that Joe Lombard did, and while I have positive memories of him, the bass had a lot of clang to it, and he had a lot of problems in the studio. But I think that album is actually a really strong album. A lot of songs on that record—"Merciless Tyranny," "Oath of Armageddon"—are tracks that we play out all the time. Similar to Primordial, death metal was not quite as popular, and it never really got the attention it deserved. It just got released by HHB, and it got a lot of attention. Definitely one of my favorites, and recording it meant a lot to me because it was the first time I did vocals. How was that, changing up your role in the band after 15 years?
I remember being extremely nervous, because you don't want to do vocals for the album and have it suck. Kyle was my cheerleader, and I would just do things the best I could. I couldn't really judge it, so I had to ask my engineer and Kyle, "Was that good?" Every time I'd hear my own voice, I'd think, I suck! To this day, I kind of need someone to tell me if it's good or bad.

So why take over vocals?
I just got sick of a revolving door of vocalists of the band. I knew I had to do it. I spent about a year growling in my basement to get the tones that I felt comfortable.

3. Onward to Golgotha (1992)

That album was our first time in the studio, so we were really excited, but we were such novices. We didn't know how to get the sound we wanted. We just didn't know how to do it properly. It wasn't necessarily the tightest of albums, but the vibe on it was really good. It was our first album, so I thought it'd be really special to me, but it was a mixture of songs we had, a collage. We didn't have a lot of songs to choose from besides the songs we had. It was everything from our demos, so that aspect of it… Listening back, it's just not enjoyable compared to some of the stuff we've done before. Vocal-wise, it was amazing, the playing was amazing. I was tight. I'm proud of the impact that it had, but in my personal opinion I think we've done some better stuff than that later on. How do you feel about how much fans love it? It's often the favorite from your line-up, being the debut and all.
I look at it like, I totally understand why people like that rawness, that immaturity. If anyone likes any of our stuff, I'm happy. If they like one song, that's fine. I never have a problem with that. I respect everyone's opinion. The fact that every one I played on, people like, is cool. I'm never condescending, Oh that stuff is crap. [Arch Enemy guitarist] Michael Amott did that when I met him, and it pissed me off. You played on the album—don't look down on it! Don't look down on us for loving it!

Advertisement

2. Vanquish in Vengeance (2012)

I like that one a lot—that one came out so naturally, it was just amazing. When we were jamming with that line-up, we were working on a set for some shows, and we just came up with a couple riffs, and the whole album just came out together, as a band. It just came out properly. I remember playing those riffs in the studio, and there was a magic there, playing on that album. There was a feeling in the studio, just playing as you would in practice. A great mixture between me and Alex Bouks. There's a natural fire on that album that I always really appreciate. It was also our first time working with [mixing engineer] Dan Swano. Definitely one of best experiences I've had.

1. Blasphemy (2002)

The reason I like Blasphemy the best is that at the time, death metal was at a low—power and symphonic black metal was popular. We'd just finished Infernal Storm, which was a low point, and Blasphemy was totally the opposite. It was 100 percent a "fuck you" to everybody. We took the opportunity to say: you can follow your trends all your want, but we're going to do it our way, and you can piss off. It was a great moment in time in the band, and it was more of a thing on our end, of us showing our pride and our love for the music, and showing that we weren't going to give a shit about the trends. It was the most basic, pure death metal album at a time when that was just not what people wanted to hear. Dillinger Escape Plan, Mastodon, and High On Fire were coming out, and we just wanted to say, "Fuck you, we're doing what Incantation does." Plus, the songs on it are great, meat-and-potatoes death metal. Did you know it'd be your favorite at the time?
At the time, we knew what we were doing. Death metal at the time was more like Angelcorpse and Nile, a lot more about the technical aspect or BPM. We just weren't about all that. We were there before those bands. A lot of people were pushing us to fit in and be part of those trends. We were doing our style before our style even existed in death metal. Nile is great, Origin is great, but that's not our style of death metal. We didn't need to progress that way. We come from a punk rock vibe—fuck you, we're doing it our way. Metal attracted us because it was outsider music, it was pissed off and going against the grain. Old heavy metal, old punk, from Black Flag to old Maiden to Exciter to Possessed, they all had that "fuck you" attitude. It's what I love about metal, and it's what I love about Blasphemy. It didn't do so well at the time, but for our diehard fans, they really enjoy it. They get it.