There’s a moment halfway through the making-of documentary for Blood Incantation’s new album that unlocks everything you need to know about the Denver death-metal band. Though many a band have sought to elevate metal in their own way, there’s a winking absurdity to the way Blood Incantation approach the task. While their spiritual siblings in Tomb Mold hinted at a proggier turn on last year’s The Enduring Spirit, on Absolute Elsewhere, Blood Incantation take that mission to heart by going straight to the source. Where Tomb Mold found a path to the heavens in the ’80s guitar tones of the Blue Nile and the Durutti Column, Blood Incantation use the ’70s as a launchpad to plunge into the starless prog-rock abyss, balancing the pastoral splendor of Yes and Popol Vuh with the profane madness of Gorguts and Demilich. Absolute Elsewhere is drenched in a murky incense stench; recorded in Berlin’s famed Hansa Studios, where Brian Eno’s graffiti from his sessions with Bowie still decorates the walls, and half the equipment comes marked with stickers to denote which pieces are Tangerine Dream originals, Blood Incantation give themselves free rein to follow their geekiest impulses all the way to Valhalla.