Uhhhh… Well, this one caught me completely off guard.
When I saw Blood Incantation had released the soundtrack to their own documentary, I honestly wasn’t expecting to spend much time with it. A soundtrack album from a death metal band isn’t usually something that ends up in regular rotation. Then I put it on.
The first surprise is how little this feels like a soundtrack. The second is how little it feels like Blood Incantation, at least on the surface. There are no riffs, no growls, no moments where the band suddenly remembers they’re supposed to be one of the most talked-about death metal acts of the last decade. Instead, All Gates Open drifts through more than an hour of analog synths, slow-moving melodies and long stretches of atmosphere.
“Balance” takes its time getting anywhere, but that’s exactly why it works. Nothing feels rushed. The music unfolds so gradually that after ten minutes you almost stop paying attention to individual sounds and start following the overall mood instead. “Flight” introduces a little more tension, while “Dawn” might be the most understated piece here. By the time “Rain” arrives, the album feels completely detached from the world outside your headphones.
What struck me most is how warm the whole thing sounds. A lot of modern ambient music can feel distant or clinical. This doesn’t. Everything breathes. The analog recording approach gives the album a soft, organic character that suits the material perfectly.
I kept thinking back to Timewave Zero while listening. That record already hinted that Blood Incantation were interested in exploring territory far beyond death metal, but All Gates Open feels even more comfortable in its own skin. There’s no sense that the band is trying to prove anything. They simply follow the music wherever it wants to go.
I also wouldn’t call this challenging ambient music. Plenty of artists working in the genre aim for discomfort, tension or abstraction. Blood Incantation seem more interested in creating space. There were moments when I realized several minutes had passed without me really thinking about anything at all, which is probably the highest compliment I can give a record like this.
Will every Blood Incantation fan enjoy it? Probably not. Anyone showing up expecting Absolute Elsewhere Part II is likely going to be confused. But for listeners who appreciate the band’s more exploratory side, there’s a lot to enjoy here.
More than anything, All Gates Open feels honest. Not like a side project, not like an experiment, and definitely not like a contractual soundtrack release. It feels like music the band genuinely wanted to make. That’s probably why it works so well.
Why the hell did I write this review when I’m not a fan of this kind of music at all? Hell if I know! Maybe it’s because I’m a fan of the band’s death metal albums, so I was curious to see what the hell they decided to do this time in their history.
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