Year: 2022
Total Time: 52:15
Label: Nuclear Blast

IMMOLATION is one of the few great Death Metal bands of the early 90’s, that continue unscathed and stable with pretty good records, even after a career of thirty years. A band that in the mid-90’s had a mythical status, due to the amazing debut album “Dawn of Possession” and their attitude, as they did not give any interviews and it was hard to find their releases. So, when the second album “Here in After” was released in 1996, I felt it was like a dream coming true, as I was holding in my arms this new record. After this release, the Americans fortunately changed their attitude, became more approachable and professional and began every two to three years to present us new albums, establishing their name in the Death Metal genre during the following years.

So, five years after their awesome album “Atonement”, IMMOLATION released their new album entitled “Acts of God”. As soon as this release was announced, the agony for the result and the expectations were very high, which were reinforced by the beautiful cover art that refers to the classic “Dawn of Possession” and the first two singles “Apostle” and “The Age of No Light”. All this was awesome and promising, but the clue that made me have second thoughts was both the fact that the new record included fifteen compositions and its total duration. As we cannot characterise IMMOLATION’s Death Metal style the easiest for the ears, the 53 minutes could act as a deterrent for the total musical quality.

After the first two/three auditions I wouldn’t say that I was very excited for it. Maybe the problem was the fact that I had high expectations from the band, though I continued on a daily basis to listen to it in order to have a more reasoned final judgement. All the classic elements of the familiar and blasphemous Death Metal sound of the band are once again present, such as the perverse riffs, the mid-tempo rhythms with the outbursts and the groove (accompanied by Black and Doom Metal elements), as well as the eerie atmosphere and the gloomy production. An atmosphere that could give “Acts Of Gods” the title of the darkest album in the band’s discography.

Even after several hearings there was a feeling inside me that “something was missing”, and I couldn’t come to a safe conclusion about the quality of “Acts Of Gods”. So, I tried to separate the listening into two parts, first the eight songs of the album and then the rest of it. To my surprise the record was more enjoyable in this way. Although the album starts very dynamically, after the seventh composition there are two to three songs which would be better if they were excluded, as they do not have the quality of the two singles “Blooded” and “An Act Of God”. So, “Acts Of Gods” is perhaps the most difficult album of the band in terms of its ranking among its discography. This doesn’t mean that the album is mediocre, it’s just missing some elements that would make it stand out. I would compare its quality with “Kingdom of Conspiracy” and “Unholy Cult” albums.

The indisputable fact is that IMMOLATION is one of the bands that never disappoint. They have confirmed it with “Acts Of God”, which although loses in comparison with “Atonement”, has the required quality to make fans of the band and Death Metal in general enthusiastic for the new release. If the band had chosen to work more focused on the songs, reducing the total number included in the final album and increasing song’s average duration, the final score of the album would surely have been different and the characterization “masterpiece” might not only exist as an expectation, but also could become statement through musical reality.

Rating: 7/10
Editor: Nikos Manousis
Related Link: IMMOLATION – Facebook Page