''Absolute Elsewhere'' is the fourth studio album by

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band Blood Incantation. It was released on October 4, 2024, through Century Media.

Background

The album is named after the progressive rock group Absolute Elsewhere. The album was recorded during the summer of 2023 at Hansa Tonstudio in Berlin. Arthur Rizk, who previously worked with the thrash metal band Power Trip, produced the album. The band stated in an interview that they hired an extra €9,000 worth of synth equipment to record the album. Lead singer and guitarist Paul Riedl stated "''Absolute Elsewhere'' is our most potent audial extract/musical trip yet; like the soundtrack to a Herzog-style sci-fi epic about the history of/battle for human consciousness itself, via a '70s prog album played by a ’90s death metal band from the future.” On September 27, 2024, the band released "The Stargate", the first song on the album, accompanied by a short film directed by Michael Ragen and produced by Mindy Kelly. The band released a 73-minute documentary titled ''All Gates Open: In Search Of Absolute Elsewhere'' alongside the album. Thorsten Quaeschning of the German electronic music band Tangerine Dream contributed

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to "The Stargate ablet II.

Musical style

The album has been described as

, progressive metal, and progressive rock. The album consists of two tracks, both exceeding 20 minutes in length. Each track is divided into 3 sections, called "tablets". The album is over 43 minutes long, making it the band's longest studio album to date.

Reception

''Absolute Elsewhere'' received widespread acclaim upon release. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 91, based on 6 reviews, which the website categorized as "universal acclaim". Don Lawsom of '' Metal Hammer'' gave it four and a half stars, stating "Blood Incantation's new album is two songs long. It's also pure prog-death perfection and one of the best metal albums of 2024." '' Pitchfork''s Sam Goldner gave it a score of 8.5/10, writing: "Just when it can’t seem to get any bigger, it all gets swept away, echoing out to some arcane, far-off land, where fantasy is alive and the riffs roam free." Nick Russel of '' Kerrang!'' gave it a score of 4/5 and wrote "There are moments that do spooky, cunning, Morbid Angel-styled death metal better than Morbid Angel over the past decade, and there are bits, such as the second movement of Tablet II, that could have been written by

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at their most cosmic."

Track listing

Personnel

Blood Incantation * Paul Riedl – vocals, guitars * Isaac Faulk – drums, percussion * Morris Kolontyrsky – guitars * Jeff Barrett – bass Session musicians * Thorsten Quaeschning – synthesizer on "The Stargate ablet II Production * Blood Incantation – production * Arthur Rizk – production

References

{{Reflist Blood Incantation albums 2024 albums Century Media Records albums