Immolation - Kingdom of Conspiracy

***

Death Metal's masters return!

When Alex Webster of Cannibal Corpse states you as his favorite Death Metalband and members of Slipknot have your artwork tattooed on them. Your doing something right! Immolation have consistently delivered Death Metal of the finest quality. They are one of the only bands who seem to get the formula right every time. There is a darkness and a genuine sense of dread in their songs and they never let being technical or brutal get in the way of being actually heavy. They always know how to time the song properly too. They know when to go fast, use blast beats and when to slow it down and grind the listener into the ground. All this and they have never released a poor album!

Kingdom of conspiracy is the tenth album from the band and they give no indication of letting up on the quality. Opening with the title track everything you want from the band is intact. The riffs, slightly odd time signatures, the dark atmosphere and the supreme musicianship. Steve Shalaty's drums have drum machine timing yet don't sound over polished or triggered like so many of todays albums do. Instead the drums sounds like giant hail stone falling to the earth signaling the beginning of the apocalypse. Ross Dolan's vocals still crumble the ears and Bill Taylor and Robert Vigna are awesome as a guitar team. Riffs, leads, they have everything tied down.

As stated earlier about how the band have great atmosphere. The lyrics on this talk about a dark dystopian future with lyrics on the title track just a simple line like "it's all gone horribly wrong" or "If we look away from the danger, it will only get stronger" from'Keep the Silence'. Ross delivers these with real conviction and it really pulls you into the song. Second track 'Bound to Order' is a highlight. Closing track 'All that awaits Us' is the closest Immolation come to being catchy!

All in all theres moments of greatness throughout. The albums main problem is that it follows 'Majesty and Decay' which was easily one of the bands top five albums. This is far from a poor album. It slots nicely in the catalogue it just falls short measured up against their classic material. But then again so does 80% of the rest of Death Metal! If your a fan of the band theres no reason to stop if your new to the band you can't go wrong with 'Majesty and Decay' or better still go back to the beginning with 'Dawn of Possession'.

Review by Joe Denby

Check Out! the lyric Video for the title Track of the new album 'Kingdom of Conspiracy' Below...