IMMOLATION – DESCENT

(Andy Synn takes on the titans in Immolation for the start of a new week here at NCS)

One of the things we love doing here at NCS is pushing new and up-and-coming bands and helping them find their audience.

This, however, is not one of those times.

Because what we also love doing is celebrating seminal artists undergoing a well-deserved career-resurgence, and few bands deserve recognition in that regard more than Immolation.

Of course, one thing I’ve always been at pains to point out is that “seminal” is not always synonymous with “best” – there are lots of artists out there without whom the music scene as we know it simply wouldn’t be the same, but whose works (as seminal as they may be) have been drastically improved on by their descendants over the years – but in this particular case there’s no doubt that, when it comes to the savage art of Death Metal, Immolation remain one of the best, and most reliably brilliant, names in the business.

This reliability, however, can be something of a double-edged sword for any reviewer – such as myself – looking to say something original (or, at least, interesting) about their music beyond simply stating that “Immolation have done it again” (and, just to be clear, Immolation absolutely have done it again), especially considering that both the band and their fans are still riding the high from 2017’s modern-day magnum opus, Atonement.

True, 2022’s Acts of God might have been a slight step down – though I still contend that a judicious bit of trimming and reorganising, splitting off a handful of tracks into a stand-alone EP while leaving the rest to serve as a more focussed and concise full-length would have changed that – but it’s still astonishing to take a look at the band and realise that they’ve now been putting out killer album after killer album for almost forty years, with nary a dud in sight (ok, Shadows in the Light might have been a bit of a misfire, but it still has its fans).

So if reliability is something we can basically take for granted at this point, then maybe we need to switch up the question… maybe we shouldn’t be asking “is it any good?“, but rather asking “just how good is it at its best?”

Well, let me tell you, the album’s best cuts (ultra-powerful opener “These Vengeful Winds” and its equally caustic companion “The Ephemeral Curse”, the groaning, gargantuan “God’s Last Breath”, the hellishly hooky “Adversary”, and the sinister, slithering “Host”) are all more than worthy of being added to any of the band’s set-lists, which – considering just how many stunning songs they have in their catalogue – is some of the highest praise I can possibly deliver.

In particular the aforementioned “God’s Last Breath” – just under four-and-a-half minutes of monstrous grooves and menacing melody – and the blisteringly intense, balefully infectious “Adversary”, highlight just how much leaner, tighter, and (unless my ears deceive me) more melodic Descent is in comparison to its slightly over-stuffed predecessor (with both Vigna and Bouks, the latter of whom’s tenure in the band correlates very closely with their recent creative and commercial resurgence, continually cranking out the sort of scorchingly serrated riffs and piercing leads that are guaranteed to leave a mark).

And if they don’t all quite rise to such lofty heights – though the only truly skippable song is slightly superfluous penultimate instrumental “Banished” – the epic finale to the album’s terrific title-track (which is another highlight that I probably should have mentioned earlier) should leave you with no doubt that Descent is yet another outstanding addition to the long-standing legacy of a band who continue to defy time and trends to remain just as relevant, and just as excellent, as ever.