Starting with a quiet introduction, it’s not too long before brutal blast beats throw us deep into Immolation’s world. A place of bleak darkness and moroseness, it truly is a Descent into hell.
Now on their twelfth album and with no signs of stopping, they are a band who have never really let their quality drop over the years. One of the earlier proponents of death metal, they have kept going through the years, barely evolving even when all around were losing their shit to changes in metal and adapting their sound. Immolation remained stubborn to changes and instead dug deeper. This has paid dividends in an album which is more than a match for earlier classics such as Here In After and the majestic Close To A World.
Tracks such as ‘The Ephemeral Curse’, all jagged , gnarly riffs mixed with shades of Swedish buzzsaw death metal, showcase an ever present progressiveness in their music. The true tenets of death metal remain though, and there is a malevolence about the whole production. Indeed, ‘God’s Last Breath’ simply ushers a cloud of despair over you. The inner torment of ‘Adversary’ is an early highlight with its marching, triumphant beat of the underworld.
Elsewhere, ‘Bend Towards The Dark’ inexorably marches on into a miasma of death metal, with swampy riffs replacing the earlier more breakneck moments. Using blast beats to convey speed rather than churned out riffs which sit rather splendidly in the Chuck Schuldiner camp of never knowing where it will head next, it keeps a vitality to the album. ‘Host’ contains elements of blackened death metal and is maybe the heaviest track here. ‘False Ascent’ is the purest form of death metal here as it storms out in a blaze of riffs and blast beats. Perhaps the biggest curveball is ‘Banished’ which is ushered in by cello, before harmonic guitar provides an orchestral flourish. It’s a slight track, but one that fits perfectly with the mood of the album. It’s also a palate cleanser for the final blast of the title track which closes the album in a blaze of hateful malevolence.
As noted earlier, Immolation don’t do bad albums and Descent is certainly up there with their very best. They still retain that vital edge that was on the earlier classic period, yet have developed that into something much more contemporary. It’s an album which towers tall over the recent death metal revival and shows how it should be done. An essential release, and one of the albums of the year.
