EP Review: Invocation - Attunement To Death

Invocation - Attunement To Death

Hypnotic Darkness Records - 2020

8/10

Having yet to commit to a full-length release, Chile’s Invocation come pretty close with their longer EP titled Attunement To Death. While labeled within the “black/death” realm, this extra-step excursion of death metal rakes in dense layers of extra weight. Because of that, I see it more as a cooperation with the doom genre, avoiding shrieks, raw production, and the bells and whistles that you’d expect from the sharper black sphere. No, this is instead doused in deep, muddy rhythms with a thick cadence, and guttural vocals that draw themselves out pretty hard.

Yet, it would still be a stretch to call this a full-on doom/death experiment in the vein of Spectral Voice and such. While Invocation certainly lays down the cavernous echoes and unrelenting bass rumbles, it’s more of an extension of the traditional sound. Speeds are kept relatively high for much of the run. Even the slower beats that let the drums and bass take the forefront allow faster guitar techniques to maintain prominence. “Divine Transition” really makes this known in its drawn-out breakdown, covered in painful howls, before returning to business as usual.

Speaking of which, the vocals do a very good job of working themselves in as an accessory to the rumbling foundation. Much of the time, they’re flattened and slowly belted, and remain constant regardless of the guitar tempos. Sometimes, things feel so dense that they all mesh together, letting the drums pop above the rest; it’s a strong blast amidst little variety. Weirdly, this is let up a bit on the back side, as tunes like “The Officiants” boast just a notch more of clarity.

Considering the thirty-minute runtime, I can only imagine a full-length of Invocation’s style would yield a further elaborated, massive dose of crushing murk. Attunement To Death is certainly a dark force to be reckoned with, alluding to something that could easily fall into the monstrous doom/death makeup. For now, I dig what we’ve gotten. Fans that spin the likes of Nekus, Witchbones, or Grave Miasma should feel right at home.