Review by Sam on March 10, 2026.

To describe the dissonant blasphemers Immolation in one word, spanning their entire nearly four-decade career(!), I think that word would be “grandiose”. Beginning with their 1991 debut, it was apparent that this was a group of high-minded individuals who sought to set themselves apart from the death metal saturation of the time. Dawn Of Possession indeed showed glimpses of this grandiosity, but I believe it was their sophomore effort Here In After that proved that the dudes from Yonkers were not fucking around, and the year 2000’s Close To A World Below sealed their status as brutal, evil, eccentric, gigantic, technical death metal icons.

So here it is, 2026, thirty-five years since the release of Dawn Of Possession, and the group’s core of Bob Vigna and Ross Dolan remains intact, gifting us with their latest release, entitled simply, “Descent”. Drummer Steve Shalaty has occupied the drum throne since ‘03, and “new guy” Alex Bouks has been in the line-up for ten years. They’re even currently on tour with the likes of Behemoth, Rotting Christ, and Deicide. Jesus fucking christ! I mean, can one bill possibly be any heavier? If I understand Immolation’s songwriting process correctly, it is done by the band members recording their ideas and emailing them to each other. The four guys live in different parts of the country, and they’re rarely in the same room together. I don’t know if this is true, but I heard that before their massive tour for Atonement that they rehearsed as a group maybe a couple times, if at all, before hitting the road. With the complexity of their arrangements, this is utterly mind-boggling.

Well, one thing that Immolation always does is deliver the goods, and this holds true for their current release. With album opener 'These Vengeful Winds', you are punched directly in the gut with the malevolent power of this band. Ross Dolan sounds just as possessed as he did from the start all those years ago. His voice only seems to deepen and become more menacing with age. The aforementioned grandiosity of Immolation is most redolent in the lead guitar work of Bob Vigna. He is the dissonant master, extreme string bender, and harmonic pincher. If Shalaty’s kicks and snare sound heavily triggered, that’s because they are. I’m sure this makes the emailing of sound files more efficient. All I can say is that the dude is a beast who can recreate live anything that he’s laid down in the studio, because I’ve seen him do it. He even let me buy him a beer after the show.

The first time I heard the song 'God’s Last Breath', I thought wow, this is some sinister shit going down right here. Where Immolation truly excel is enshrouding the listener in their out and out blasphemy, and then dragging the listener through the flames of their music and into further, deeper chasms of the abyss. It’s a lumbering brute, which allows Shalaty’s bass drums to devastate properly. It’s when the blast beats start that you can detect the synthetic nature of the snare. This is just a minor gripe. The atmosphere achieved by this track and indeed throughout the entirety of the record is on the level of Close To A World Below. The closing lead work of this baddy is utterly diabolical. The first single, 'Adversary', proves that these guys are absolutely still capable of writing a hooky, even almost catchy, death metal song. The first section is aggro and blasty and topped with some of Vigna’s most colorful soloing of the album. It’s at about the 55-second mark that the hook is set with a jaunty 6/8 meter, an impressive pinch harmonic riff, and Ross bellowing about the lake of fire. You are ejected from this private garden party in hell with a driving sixteenth note groove which then kicks into sixth gear, blasting you into the ionosphere. WE ARE THE ADVERSARY, barks Dolan, with staid authority.

Seventh track 'Host' is a demonstration of Steve Shalaty’s overall drum kit mastery. A punishing and tribal tom-tom groove fills the ears with sensations of warm, organic-sounding drums, and indeed, I wouldn’t be surprised if the rack and floor toms are not triggered. This groove is seamlessly replaced with mid-tempo 32nd note double bass destruction below some damnable riffage. The brutal cycle is completed when Shalaty brings back the tom-tom beat augmented with double bass beneath, a masterful performance. This song, of course, features the signature, hallucinogenic soloing of Vigna, and although I don’t have the lyrics, we can be assured that Dolan’s belligerence is blasphemous in nature. And if you think that bands like Deicide and Immolation need to branch out from blasphemy, I’m sorry, but the die is cast, and you may kindly fuck off.

And now for something completely different. I’m not sure if these guys have ever done a track that’s ambient and mellow all the way through, but that’s what 'Banished' is. Despite being subdued, the evil remains well intact with haunting melodies of piano, cello, and Vigna dabbling in some sort of Phrygian mode, among other strange and surreal synthesizer sounds. What this does is set the stage admirably for the closing and title track of this tome. This tune features one of Shalaty’s most memorable double bass patterns to be found, and the iniquitous chanting of Ross Dolan will become lodged in your brain. Vigna is on fire on this one; the dude is a chaos agent, what more can be said of him? The sacrilege of the six is on full display as the masters engulf and incinerate; after thirty-eight years, their bag is rather bottomless.

I’d just like to add right here that it is the highest honor and privilege to be reviewing the new Immolation record. My puny brain can barely comprehend their vast contribution to the death metal canon. Their music is legion. They are legend. 

Rating: 10 of 10 burning adversaries