Band:	Incarnia
Album:	At The River's End
Style:	Melodic death metal
Release date:	April 20, 2008
A review by:	Thryce

01. At The River's End
02. As The Gates Fall
03. Amidst Silence
04. Ashes Of Our Time

"At The River's End" is the second demo of this six-piece outfit hailing from Montreal, Canada. These young Canadians pride themselves on their never ending search for a unique and remarkable sound, which they try to achieve in all of their works. The current result of this search, as presented on this four song demo, is some kind of highly melodic, by times almost symphonic, variation on Death Metal. Or as the band likes to call it, "River Metal", in other words, crushing dark epic Melodic Death Metal. Anyway, however you like to call it, what's sure is that this is something worth your time and money if you like your metal full of melodic twists and turns? and with some unmistakable winks to Dark Tranquillity.

A good thing about merging metal with those melodic twists and turns is that it brings a lot of variety and diversity in your sound. However - and let's get to the main criticism here - when you're mixing all those samples, melodic riffs and keys together, you simply cannot afford to forget about the end product of that amalgamate. Because normally the whole should equal the sum of its parts, but most of the time it seems like that's unfortunately not the case on "At The River's End". Most of the songs are not the result of a search for something unique, but are rather the result of a lot of different ideas thrown together. Of course, to a certain level, this is a flaw that can be improved by adaptation and adjustment. And I'm sure Incarnia are capable of doing that, given the amount of creativity and inventiveness the band is showing us in only four songs.

Ultimately, "At The River's End" should be the proof Incarnia is a band that is willing to evolve their style in order to obtain the aforementioned unique sound they're constantly looking for. But it seems to me this demo is most of all a fair demonstration the band isn't afraid at all to experiment with melodies and keys. Indeed, what I will remember the most about this band and demo is not that is a presentation of a new and innovating sound, far from it actually. No, in the end it's rather the striking accent they are putting on rhythm, symphony and melody that is the main theme on this record.