IMMOLATION

Heavy music is usually full of surprises, but certain bands are so utterly reliable that you could set your watch by them. IMMOLATION have a strong claim to be death metal's most consistent band. For the last 35 years, bassist / vocalist Ross Dolan and guitarist Robert Vigna have been at the top of their game, releasing a succession of monstrous albums that have both defined and reinvented the genre. If the New Yorkers were ever to release a substandard effort, the earth's crust would probably crack open and swallow us all in an act of unparalleled disgust. IMMOLATION operate on a different, higher level to the vast majority of their peers, and "Descent" is yet more proof that the greatest bands stay great.

The last IMMOLATION album was an overwhelming affair. Epic, grandiose and crushing, "Acts Of God" was almost too much to take in on first listen, revealing its sinister secrets over repeated plays. "Descent" is not hugely dissimilar, of course, because this band are seldom inclined to make radical left turns, but these ten songs amount to a much more direct and devastating statement. A whiplash-inducing sense of urgency prevails here, as Dolan's enduring crew power their way through songs that favor the immediacy of violence over the slow burn of creeping atmosphere. "These Vengeful Winds" and "The Ephemeral Curse" offer the most jaw-shattering flurry of punches that IMMOLATION have kicked off an album with in a long time. The former is a peerless and pitiless restating of musical values, and the latter is a lethal dose of subtly progressive blast 'n' churn, with tempo shifts that resonate like earthquakes, and dynamics that will pin even the most experienced death metal listener to the wall. Producer Zack Ohren has nudged the band's perennially punishing production style to a new level of clarity and might, with guitars that generate a thick, pulsing wall of aggression, and drums and vocals that puncture the chaos with decisive precision. Within a couple of songs, "Descent" is so imperious and unstoppable that it becomes hard to imagine how anyone else could come close. Again, this is exactly what was expected.

An invigorating and economical 45 minutes of death metal supremacy, "Descent" is full of songs that all desperately want to be your favorite. "God's Last Breath" is an artful throwback to mid-'90s grandeur and a thrilling corruption of myopic old-school thinking. "Adversary" and "Attrition", both previously released as singles, are both flawless, mutant takes on the classic IMMOLATION sound, with multiple twists and turns, and some of the nastiest, darkest riffs that Vigne has ever wrung from his fretboard. Next up, "Bend Towards The Dark" is simply magnificent, as grotesque melodies bubble up from blastbeats and hellish grooves, and this band's unholy momentum threatens to annihilate anything stupid enough to cross its path. Drummer Steve Shalaty deserves some kind of glittering trophy for the song's final dive-bomb into blasting madness alone.

And on it goes, through the nightmarish onslaught of "Host", the spine-wrenching, machine-gun punishment of "False Ascent", the perverse, instrumental limbo of "Banished", and the frenzied but strangely ornate disembowelment of the closing title track. At the correct volume (i.e. loud as fuck),this could permanently rearrange your insides.

All killer, no filler, and utterly relentless in its pursuit of the ultimate, infernal dopamine hit, "Descent" is one of the greatest records IMMOLATION have made yet, and a living, screaming monument to one of death metal's most immutable forces of nature. Predictable.