There must be literally millions of death metal bands in the world; many dwelling in total obscurity, and a tiny handful rising to the top to enjoy what I would tentatively call a `career’ in playing death metal. Immolation are one such band; one of the miniscule minority that are able to unleash album after album of grim and deathly tunes on an eagerly awaiting audience. There is a reason for this of course, Immolation’s distinctly dark, twisted and bile-filled songs have forged them a totally unique path through the swathe of the extreme metal scene. There is no band that sounds quite like them (aside from shameless copyists), and very few bands that conjure up such epic grimness in their music and lyrics.
For those unfamiliar to Immolation’s sound; imagine a vast, black, chaotic whirlwind, sucking you into its hate-filled epicentre. Unlike other death metal bands, Immolation don’t rely on pure brutality and muscle, instead they smother you with a leaden veil of pure darkness, comprised of twisted, snaking riffs and an oppressive, malevolent atmosphere.
For the most part, `Kingdom of Conspiracy’ does exactly that. There are many of the usual elements that make up a good Immolation album; those suffocating, oppressive and downright evil sounding riffs, a good unhealthy dose of surprising technical twists and turns, those distinctive, sinister guitar solos, some truly crushing, mid-paced epic darkness, and Ross Dolan’s baleful, doom-laden roar leading the nihilistic proceedings. I have always been impressed by Immolation’s ability to balance pure dark nastiness and perverse technicality with something approaching hypnotic catchiness. All three of those elements are definitely on display here, although for some reason the songs seem shorter than I am used to on an Immolation album (Nuclear Blast having their way a little too much maybe?).
There is also a tinge of dramatic black metal on occasion, which has been used on previous albums to enhance the intensity, and it used liberally here too, to excellent effect, particularly on `Echoes of Despair’ and other songs.
OK I will cut to the chase here; the press release that comes with the album claims that the band `continues to refine and hone their most identifiable style’. Of course press-releases will say that, however I say that in a lot of ways, this Immolation album is very much business as usual. If you already like Immolation’s unique style, there is a lot to enjoy on this album. There are some amazingly dark, cranium crushing moments scattered throughout the album, and every song contains at least one of those `oh!’ moments. This album seems a little more `blast-heavy’ than previous releases, but there are also gargantuan chunks of creative, blackened, twisted, grim and simply epic death metal.
My only real quibble is that it lacks a certain something… It is hard to put my finger on it exactly, but it could possibly be the extremely polished production. Immolation seems to work best with a more organic sound, as opposed to a totally polished, technical production. Other than that, and the songs seeming rather shorter than usual, this will be a winner with Immolation fans I’m sure.
(8.5/10 Jon Butlin)
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