If there is one thing you can bet your life on, it’s that any new release from Immolation will a) knock your block off, yet b) undertake any such decapitation in the most intelligent and insightful manner. Here, on their 12th outing, these OGDM marauders have predictably done it again.
Whilst their direct counterparts, such as bands like Suffocation and Incantation, have achieved what we’ll call a ‘steady career’, they have not been without less remarkable points. Immolation, however, have seemingly risen on a trajectory that has seen them improve again and again as songwriters, and develop the keenest nose for ‘nuance’.
Aided by a now staggeringly beautiful level of production, ‘Descent’ surrounds itself in a dystopian, godless narrative which carries you throughout this 41-ish minutes of sublime death metal. From opener ‘These Vengeful Winds’, through the riffy, blackened knuckle sandwich that is ‘Adversary’, and into the ever-so-slightly progressive ‘Host’, there is of course absolutely everything to love here, and nothing to question.
Immolation are the sort of band who have an ability to know what sits well in your head. They are also the sort of band who dare to push their own boundaries but in the most subtle of ways. This is incredibly unique, requires the sharpest sense of your own identity and, most importantly, can only be achieved by a bunch of folk who live and breathe their own brand of extremity. ‘Descent’ is, ironically, probably one of the most important steps in their continued ascent.
Best Paired With: wrap-Around Sunglasses, A Blasphemous Bumper Sticker and A Hearse.
Reviewed by Jaff.
‘Descent’ by Immolation is out now on nuclear blast records.
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