"Since day one, the most important thing was to not have some high expectations," says guitarist/vocalist John McEntee, the only member of the band to have remained in Incantation since its inception in 1989. "Before Incantation, I was in the band Revenant, and we were about to get signed but only by switching a more commercial style. I was 18, and I didn't want that. So we started Incantation, kind of as a 'fuck you' to everyone. We always kept the attitude, always tried to do it our way and say fuck the trends. Stay hungry, do it from the heart, and never turn it into a business and do it for money."

Talking to McEntee is like talking to the friend who first played you that Bathory demo in your parents' basement. There is none of the old-soldier exhaustion or dismissal of genre tropes that one often finds in metalheads who have been worn down by over two decades of sonic punishment. In fact, the dude sounds genuinely disappointed when discussing how certain bands consider death metal a set of boundaries rather than a powerful jumping-off point, an atmospheric state of mind that has fuck all to do with how many beats or notes you play per minute.

"Some people are limited in imagination," says McEntee. "Some bands feel the need to express themselves outside the confines of death metal, whether they lost interest or whatever. But it comes naturally to me. Incantation is a death metal band, and as long as I can contribute to the genre I will. I always want Incantation to be respected as truly death metal. Some bands from our era changed so significantly, and I can't imagine why. Maybe I just have more dark feelings in me than others."

McEntee's pride continues to the band's new album, Profane Nexus, which he regards highly in the band's catalog. "About a year and half ago, we started recording it. The drum editing guy screwed some stuff up, so we had to re-record them over again. We were supposed to have the album out by the next summer, but because we had the editing problem with the drums, it took us a whole other year to get finished. I decided I wanted it done the right way, so I'm happy that we made the right decision. It was almost a disaster, but turned out to be a great album. I also like it because everyone contributed to it, which is something I really like. There's really great stuff that everybody wrote. The songs sound like Incantation but they don't sound like we're mimicking our older stuff. It's close to 30 years since we started the band—to still come up with fresh new ideas is something I'm very proud of."