Formed in 1986, Immolation are justly revered as legends in the field of American Death Metal. Affiliated over the years with Roadrunner, Metal Blade, Listenable and, latterly, Nuclear Blast (a label that seems to have become the bastion of all things metal recently), Immolation have maintained a remarkable momentum in a career of just over thirty years, releasing ten albums within that period and garnering both near universal critical acclaim and legions of fans in the process. Nonetheless, a certain degree of anticipation has crept in ahead of ‘Atonement’, the band’s tenth full-length offering. It has been four long years since their last outing, 2013’s politically-charged ‘Kingdom of conspiracy’, and four years is a considerable time for a band considered to be at the top of the death metal pack. ‘Atonement’, therefore, needed to be a very strong album indeed if the band were to retain their precarious perch, but fans need not have worried. The album builds neatly upon Immolation’s many successes and emerges as a new highlight in a catalogue of bloody riches.
Drawing upon the turbulent social upheavals that have engulfed the world, Immolation continue to shift the lyrical focus away from the dominant anti-Christian themes of their earlier albums, and towards the powerful, media-enhanced political landscape, finding within these themes something and far more resonant for today’s increasingly secular audience. The themes are uncomfortable and, although very current, the underlying tensions that exist between social and cultural groups resonate through the ages, the result being that ‘Atonement’ carefully treads the line between painting a depressing portrait of modern times whilst drawing upon historical precedent (and likely future events) in a manner that will see the album maintain its relevance long after the current cultural squalls have died down. The album opens with ‘The distorting light’, a blistering condemnation of false perception set to a backdrop of searing, dissonant death metal. Here you’ll find hate-corroded vocals, ever-shifting waves of percussive fury and eerie moments of calm as solos emerge from the sonic chaos, all of which makes for a demonically powerful opening number. Wasting no breath the band plunge straight into the apocalyptic ‘When the jackals come’, a similarly grinding testament to the band’s enduring brutality. A brilliant comment on the incitement of social division for political purposes, the Machiavellian ‘fostering the divide’ is a masterclass in syncopated riffs, dizzyingly complex rhythmic patterns and doom-laden atmosphere. Given greater weight thanks to the contrast offered by the brutally slow previous track, ‘rise the heretics’ is a stormy sea of grinding guitars and blast beats only shifting to a more nuanced groove when the ferocity of the assault threatens to capsize the listener for good. Initially a slow, majestic number, ‘thrown to the fire’ is a mid-tempo tsunami of hatred, so inculcated in the antipathy of modern times that a palpable feeling of discomfort arises. The first half of the album concludes with the incisive ‘destructive currents’, a searing critique of those who would blindly follow the pack, even at the expense of their own humanity.
The second half of the album takes its time to emerge with ‘lower’ featuring a deceptively calm introduction before the band drag it into altogether darker territory for a good kicking. The title track draws parallels between social and religious control, putting the blame for humanity’s current strife squarely on the shoulders of archaic belief structures, whilst musically it is a monstrous highlight, drawing upon the exceptional musicality of the band and roving roughshod over a wide range of death metal territory from the punishingly fast to the miasmically slow. Following such an epic piece of music is no easy task and yet the band successfully achieve this feat with ‘above all’, a sinister, blackened trudge into the darkest recesses of belief. ‘The power of gods’ is a churning, hell-bound death metal death march, whilst the album proper finishes with the raging, ‘epiphany’ which, for all its propulsive percussive blasts, sounds like an invocation of the apocalypse with its grandiose riffs and squally lead guitars. For those who buy the digi-pack edition there is also a bonus track in the form of ‘Immolation’, a rawer, bloodier track that sounds completely different to the more studio-bound recordings that preceded it. Very much a bonus cut, it will undoubtedly please fans of the band, but it’s easy to see why it wasn’t considered part of the album’s main sequence. It should also be noted that the digi pack offers an extended view of the exquisite artwork of Zbigniew Bielak (internal imagery) and Par Olofsson (cover and rear) which only adds depth to the band’s dark treatises upon humanity.
If this review has focused on the lyrics at the expense of what is, at its most basic level, an astonishingly powerful death metal album, it is because it is hard to imagine the one existing without the other. Immolation are a band of strong convictions and the music is driven by the conceptual framework of the lyrics, the two together forged in the dark imaginations of the musicians to emerge, brilliant and blisteringly intense on this album. Shorn of such potent subject matter, it is quite possible that the band would lack the muse to unleash quite such an unholy noise. Lyrically dense and musically astounding, ‘Atonement’ is an album that will continue to impress long after the visceral thrill of the white-hot riffing has worn off and it sees Immolation not only cement, but enhance their already impressive legacy. It seems that social upheaval often leads to an upsurge in art and 2017 has been no exception. With Ex Deo’s stunning ‘The immortal Wars’ already out and Krysthla’s epic ‘peace in our time’ soon to be unleashed, it has been an amazing year for extreme metal and Immolation’s contribution is no less impressive. Put simply, ‘Atonement’ is a death metal masterpiece against which all bands will be judged and many will be found wanting. 10
