In almost 30 years of career (their first demo dates back to 1988), Immolation has never deviated from its path and never seemed to falter. Yet the American death legend has settled into a routine. "Kingdom Of Conspiracy" was an honest album but didn't bring much to his discography. Since then there has been a change with the departure of Bill Taylor after 15 years of service, replaced by Alex Bouks. For this tenth album, "Atonement", Immolation brings out their old logo that they hadn't used since 'Here In After'. All that and some fresh blood let us hope for a new dynamic, because Immolation is a certain idea of death metal, hard and implacable, carried by the technique of the duo Dolan / Vigna that we can't imagine for a moment to see weakening.
With "Atonement", Immolation questions once again our society, the place of religion and the media manipulation of the masses. The band shows a beautiful freshness with an intelligence of writing and a technique at the service of the eleven titles proposed. It also avoids the pitfall of the stodgy wall of sound while remaining brutal. The integration of the newcomer is done wonderfully and his duet with Vigna flows as if they had always played together.
With strong riffs or fluid and fast solos, they bring to the songs a huge force, supported by a relentless rhythm section and brings this majestic power that makes all the strength of Immolation. On vocals, Ross Dolan belches with conviction, his cavernous voice remaining a model of the genre in death metal. It would not be useful to make a too long inventory because the whole is relished as a homogeneous block. Some tracks like 'The Distorting Light', 'Rise The Heretics', as well as 'Thrown To The Fire' and 'Epiphany' have the qualities to become classics, especially in concert.
With "Atonement", Immolation does the trick of the youth cure. Without upsetting its habits, it finds a nice freshness as if the arrival of the new guy had shaken it up a bit. As far as death metal is concerned, Immolation keeps its place on the throne with an ease that verges on insolence