The Incurable Tragedy is a concept album, Into Eternity's first. The subject matter is cancer, which is universal because everyone has been touched in some way by the disease. It's also intensely personal, because Roth lost his father and two friends to cancer in a very short time period.
As with Into Eternity's other CDs, The Incurable Tragedy combines intense death metal elements with progressive and experimental parts. It's technical, precise and diverse with expert musicianship. Their brand of extreme progressive/power metal is packed with twists and turns and is ever changing.
The vocals are also very diverse. There is both melodic singing and growling. There seems to be a bit more singing on this CD, ranging from mid-range crooning to high pitched King Diamond-esque howling. The growling is sometimes low and menancing, other times high pitched and piercing.
Combining melodic death metal and progressive metal may sound like an odd combination, but Into Eternity makes it work. The songs on The Incurable Tragedy aren't quite as good as their last CD, but it's still a solid release.
(released September 2, 2008 on Century Media Records)
