IMMOLATION - Atonement 2LP (GREEN)
While 2013’s Kingdom of Conspiracy saw Immolation honing their sound into a faster and more typically aggressive model, Atonement slows down the pace and sees the band returning to their more deliberate roots. Huge, tectonic riffs rumble through entire swarms of kinetic blasting, whilst lead guitarist, Robert Vigna, ever the master of the weft and warp of guitar dissonance, twists through a multitude of tremolo riffs and screaming leads.
Interestingly, in as much as Atonement exhibits the quintessential signatures that Immolation have been plying for the better part of three decades, it also introduces a few new concepts. Instead of the overwhelming chaos infamously wrought on Close to A World Below, Atonement instead sees Vigna incorporating chord progressions of an Eastern nature in his sporadic soloing, and even utilizing some black metal inspired picking.
A rigid sense of self resounds on this record, an identity that continuously enables the band to produce exemplary and unique death metal almost 30 years after their inception.
Ltd. green vinyl double LP in gatefold sleeve
Nuclear Blast 2024