IMMOLATION
“ATONEMENT”
Album Review By Mike Hackenschmidt
8/10
Death metal mainstays Immolation are back to kick our asses with their 10th full length studio album entitled Atonement. Hailing from Yonkers, New York, Immolation have been setting the standard for extreme music for nearly 3 decades.
Their first album, Dawn of Possession came out back in 1991 and this is the point where I confess that before a few days ago, I’ve never heard of them. Metal is like that; you might know 1000 bands but everyday someone introduces you to something new and next thing you know there’s 1000 more. And as far as I see it everyone wins here; Immolation has a new fan, I have 10 albums to discover and you get an unbiased review. What could be better?
After a few listens and reading the lyrics, I have to say it was a pleasure to get the opportunity to review this album. I’m not much of a death metal guy, but this album is quite an onion. No, it didn’t make me cry – but it has many layers.
The first layer I peeled back was the cover, one of my favorite parts. On it, we can see a post-apocalyptic scene centered with an evil looking angel. There is a lot of detail and I think the artist spent a lot of time hunched over a table, pencil and eraser in hand to make it just so. But is it significant to the album or did they just think it looked cool? We have to peel a little deeper into the layers to see.
The next layer is the music itself. The album opens rather gloomily with a track called The Distorted light. The song starts off with nothing but a heavily distorted guitar riff that sets the tone of the album – things just aren’t right. The remaining instruments enter the fray and I begin to learn about Immolation’s style. The drums, bass and backing guitars seems to blend together to create a murky atmosphere. If you stop what you’re doing now and just listen, (do this now) you’ll perhaps hear a fan running, your neighbour’s bad music or perhaps the clicking of a keyboard. You didn’t notice these sounds before you concentrated on listening and that’s called white noise. It’s always there but we grow numb to it after a while. Now imagine yourself in the pits of hell, even if just for a moment. What would the white noise there sound like? I feel as though that’s what Immolation tried to capture with their rhythm section. That is not to say it’s unimportant, quite the opposite actually.
Laid out over the rhythmic base, is the crushing vocals of Ross Dolan and the wailing guitars of Robert Vigna. They take turns telling the story Immolation is conveying through the album. Dolan’s voice is deep, guttural and reminds me of Nathan Explosion though I’d say Dolon is a little more difficult to understand. Now I know that Brendon Small based the Nathan Explosion character off of Corpsegrinder and Peter Steele, but man, he really channeled Dolon on the microphone.
When Dolan is done delivering his line Vigna takes over, typically with high pitch soloing. Once unleashed, the wailing guitars create a contrast against the dank foundation. Dolan and Vigna go back and forth over the course of the track, a beast and a banshee on either side of their victim… er… listener, taking turns inflicting their unique destruction in this hellish setting.
Now, I’m doing my best to describe their sound, but perhaps it would be more effective if you have a listen for yourself. In total, the album has 11 tracks. So far they’ve released 2 of them on Youtube, judge them for yourself.
The lyrics of this album are incredibly important in the overall presentation of this album. Peeling back this layer, I’ve come to believe Atonement is a concept Album. Starting with The Distorted Light all the way through to Epiphany a story unfolds, track by track. I’m not going to spoil it for you, but I feel like the 2nd track, When the Jackals Come, lyrically gives the best depiction of the antagonists (or perhaps protagonists, depending on your perspective). So if it were me, I would picked it for the lyric video. It’s also a solid song, probably my 3rd favorite on the album.
The title track – track 8 – Atonement has gotta be my 2nd favorite. They went all out on this one. They even went as far as to tailor the album cover art to depict the lyrics. I feel like the atmosphere on this track is a bit more extreme than all the others. It’s more turbulent than the other tracks and I do wonder if it’s not deliberate as this track seems to be the climax of the story. Another layer or am I grasping at straws here? You be the judge.
Finally, my favorite song on the album has got to be Thrown to the Fire. I strongly suggest enjoying this either with head phones or a decent stereo where the left and right speakers are adequately separated and then sit your ass down in between. They really played with the placement of the sound on this track… or perhaps the opening noises(?) just call attention to it as they pan left and right for the first few seconds. Regardless, it put a big smile on my face.
For a final summation and synopsis, I have to say inside that onion is a gem of an album. It’s clear to me that the artists took great craft in plying their craft as they sculpted this work and I believe an album of this caliber could only be achieved by musicians of great skill and a load of experience. Go buy it.
TRACKLIST
The Distorting Light
When The Jackals Come
Fostering The Divide
Rise The Heretics
Thrown To The Fire
Destructive Currents
Lower
Atonement
Above All
The Power Of Gods
Epiphany
Released: 24th February 2017 via Nuclear Blast.
http://www.nuclearblast.de/en/label/music/band/about/71092.immolation.html
https://www.facebook.com/immolation/
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