{"id":11665,"date":"2013-05-13T00:00:20","date_gmt":"2013-05-13T00:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=11665"},"modified":"2013-08-17T17:37:44","modified_gmt":"2013-08-17T17:37:44","slug":"album-review-immolation-kingdom-of-conspiracy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-immolation-kingdom-of-conspiracy\/","title":{"rendered":"IMMOLATION – Kingdom Of Conspiracy (2013) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

IMMOLATION
Kingdom Of Conspiracy<\/strong><\/span>
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\nNuclear Blast (2013)<\/span>
Rating: 8\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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I\u2019ve been a fan of these New York death metallers since the arrival of their 1991 debut album Dawn Of Possession<\/em>, which on vinyl has become quite a collector\u2019s item.<\/p>\n

Since that battering ram of a record \u2013 an era when death metal was very much the in-thing \u2013 Immolation have survived the grunge and nu-metal trends and churned out a number of albums, their 2013 effort being Kingdom Of Conspiracy<\/em>.<\/p>\n

This ten-track affair, produced by Paul Orofino, who also twiddled the knobs on a majority of Immolation albums, is, as expected, another brutal jarring of the senses. Thankfully, unlike so many other metal bands, the Immolation line-up hasn\u2019t altered since the Unholy Cult<\/em> (2002) and Harnessing Ruin<\/em> (2005) period.<\/p>\n

Bassist Ross Dolan remains a formidable vocalist of the old school variety, vomiting out those identifiable guttural growls, while behind him we\u2019re treated to a tirade of heavy and often complex riffs and leads courtesy of Robert Vigna and Bill Taylor respectively. Elsewhere, the drums of Steve Shalaty are earth-shuddering.<\/p>\n

Kingdom Of Conspiracy<\/em> may not be blessed with the best album cover, but musically it\u2019s as brutal as we\u2019d have hoped. The title track rushes headlong from the blocks with a scything guitar sound and Dolan\u2019s bellows, but the injection of a mid-paced section adds to the ominous atmosphere as the quartet plough through a series of time changes, woven together by deep cutting solos and skull-clattering drums.<\/p>\n

\u2018Bound To Order\u2019 is equally ferocious; the sound deeper than the previous track, it once against boasts an accessible riff and gruff vocal sneer. Immolation has somehow become stalwarts of the foetid field, and yet they remain one of death metal\u2019s most underrated combos.<\/p>\n

The immense trudge of \u2018Keep The Silence\u2019 is foreboding indeed. It marches on a booming bass and squealing riff, proof that the best death metal bands do not need to resort to hyper-blast assaults to win fans over. If anything, this style of no frills death metal is the best of all \u2013 it remains out of time, surviving any fads, lumbers along, sticking to its guns and pounding the ears hard.<\/p>\n

Of course, if Immolation feels the need to up the pace then they do so, effortlessly. \u2018God Complex\u2019 showcases Shalaty\u2019s talent on the skins, his beats rattle like a machine gun as the guitars become a frenzy of twisted riffs and flailing solos.<\/p>\n

But where the band truly outshine others, is on the epic, doom-laden \u2018The Great Sleep\u2019, with its oozing intro and power metal-style marching guitar. It\u2019s a mid-paced affair clocking in at over five minutes and it\u2019s the albums highest point, featuring a sinister set of riffs and ghastly Dolan roar.<\/p>\n

Mind you, \u2018A Spectacle Of Lies\u2019 is in complete contrast; it\u2019s ravenously fast, scavenging off the scraps with that old school death metal-style of guitar grate. The same could also be said for the jarring \u2018Serving Divinity\u2019.<\/p>\n

Album closer is the creeping \u2018All That Awaits Us\u2019, which throws up that classic Morbid Angel-style of riffing which was once symbolic of the old Floridian sound that plagued the late 80s and early 90s. It\u2019s a classy track to top off a bone-crunching opus from one of the death metal scenes main stayers.<\/p>\n

Kingdom Of Conspiracy<\/em> may not shake the foundations of the genre, but it\u2019ll take a while to remove the blood stains from the carpet. Immolation is death metal in its truest form.<\/p>\n

Neil Arnold<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

IMMOLATIONKingdom Of Conspiracy Nuclear Blast (2013)Rating: 8\/10 I\u2019ve been a fan of these New York death metallers since the arrival of their 1991 debut album Dawn Of Possession, which on vinyl has become quite a collector\u2019s item. Since that battering ram of a record \u2013 an era when death metal was very much the in-thing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,586],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-ep-reviews","category-immolation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11665"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11665\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13648,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11665\/revisions\/13648"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}