Four years ago, Denver death metal experimentalists Blood Incantation released their massive opus Hidden History Of The Human Race. The album was an absolute monster, and the underground metal world acknowledged it as such, but it also drew the sometimes-unwelcome attention of people from outside that world — people like, um, me. Last year, Blood Incantation followed the LP with their ambient album Timewave Zero, but they haven’t returned to the death metal well until now.

Today, Blood Incantation have released two massive new tracks, “Obliquity Of The Ecliptic” and “Luminescent Bridge.” Google tells me that “obliquity” means “indirectness or deliberate obscurity of speech or conduct,” while “Ecliptic” is “a great circle on the celestial sphere representing the sun’s apparent path during the year,” so now we all know exactly what that song is about. (I still have no idea what that song is about.) Both tracks are long, nearing the 10-minute mark, and both combine brutal death metal pummel with ecstatically progged-out reverie. Blood Incantation are back, baby! Listen to both tracks below.

Today happens to be a very big day for adventurous death metal releases. We don’t just get the new Blood Incantation joints; we also get the new Tomb Mold album! Tomb Mold, a Toronto band with a grimy and cavernous sound, released their last album Planetary Clairvoyance in 2019. Last year, guitarist Derrick Vella’s solo side project Dream Unending released the great LP Song Of Salvation. Tomb Mold just announced their new album The Enduring Spirit a few days ago. I’m on my first listen right now, and this shit is intense. If you’re in the market for more long and experimental death metal epics, might I suggest the nearly 12-minute closing track “The Enduring Spirit Of Calamity”? It’s probably also worth mentioning that Arthur Rizk mixed the new records from both Blood Incantation and Tomb Mold. Stream The Enduring Spirit below.

Blood Incantation’s “Obliquity Of The Ecliptic” b/w “Luminescent Bridge” is out now on Century Media. Tomb Mold’s The Enduring Spirit is out now on 20 Buck Spin.