Incantation

Not to be confused with other acts that are called Incantation (including a group that specializes in South American music), the band profiled in this bio is a ferocious, mercilessly brutal outfit that is known for death metal, black metal and grindcore. The words "pop" and "mainstream" are not in the vocabulary of this Incantation, which has never come even remotely close to receiving acceptance in the mainstream pop market. Nonetheless, Incantation has enjoyed a small underground cult following since the early ‘90s, and the band's followers (both American and European) love the fact that Incantation's extreme metal is so far from the mainstream. Incantation has all of the ingredients that death metal and grindcore enthusiasts crave: insanely fast tempos, an obsession with Satanism and the Occult, and choked, grunting, evil-sounding vocals--in other words, everything that is guaranteed to intimidate mainstream audiences and frighten them away. However, metalheads have been quick to point out that Incantation isn't the sort of band that has played at an ultra-fast tempo 100% of the time. While some death metal/black metal and grindcore bands never slow things down, Incantation has been willing to change tempos a lot. But whether the Pennsylvanians are playing fast, slow or somewhere in between, their work never ceases to be blistering--Incantation is about as subtle as a sledgehammer. Incantation was founded by guitarist John McEntee in Western Pennsylvania in 1990; that year, McEntee assembled the band's original lineup and hired Will Rahmer (founder of the death metal unit Mortician) as lead vocalist. Rahmer was featured on Incantation's debut EP, Entrapment of Evil, which was released on the tiny Seraphic Decay label. It wasn't long before Rahmer was replaced by...