A unique fragment of the New York Death Metal sound was birthed with the first album from Immolation which wrought from complex and specific structures enwrapping rough chromatic death metal riffing an emphasis on the content of each song. Thunderous hollow vocals and exact percussion frame the rushing chaos of intricate riffs and extended thematic conclusions which synergize to form sensibility.
With a taste for the fast strumming of southern bands but an emphasis on the pounding rhythm of death metal worldwide, Immolation made from the sludgy metal of the northeast a style of riffing which brings out the tugging, dragging, tearing influence within otherwise fast riffing, allowing the band a flexibility of emotion within their ability to hammer out ripping vertiginous phrasing. Songs introduce concepts and return to them in accents through a cyclic exchange of motion in the various directions employed to route a cluster of riffs into familiar verses and choruses.
Unabashed in their desire for speed songs undulate within a theatre of growth and change, setting each scenario in listener consciousness with the symbolism of shaping and tone expressed in nihilistic but universally human riffing, and in this drama of the conflict within space is given to differing speeds including a raging blast. To the credit of the percussion department, beats incorporate more than one texture and use balanced internal emphasis to conserve momentum.
On their first album, Immolation can be seen making the transition from the straightforward death metal of their demo to a new and technical style within the advancements the death metal genre was to make in the early 1990s, seen most prominently on the newer songs on the first half of this release. Their strengths in perceiving existential consciousness and creating it in the shapes and vibrations of the communicating structure flower greatness throughout this album as groundwork for what is to come. In this motivation toward evolution as in all of its songs, this release shows a cognitive grasp of the spirit and strength of metal.
