Immolation – Acts of God (Review)

With Atonement, Immolation convinced me back in 2017 and won me over as a fan. In the last five years, I have used the time to work my way through the previous work of the band. Quickly I was allowed to determine: They have always been so awesome!

Now, in the year 2022, they are back with Acts of God and help, the thing has it in itself. “As terrifying as majestic” describes best what happens on this album. Like a higher apparition, and I’m not exaggerating, malice turned into music resounds from the speakers here. Whether it’s the insane instruments or the malicious vocals that roll over you, it doesn’t really matter. Nevertheless, Ross Dolan must be especially praised. For me, along with legends like Frank Mullen, John Tardy, Steve Tucker and of course Chuck Schuldiner himself, he is one of the most powerful and mighty of all Death Metal vocalists and has been since the band’s inception.

No matter what you listen to, no matter what song you play: Everything is deeply sinister, heavy as ten oil tankers and just incredibly engaging. I’ll just name “The Age of No Light”, “Noose of Thorns“, “Overtures of the Wicked” and “Broken Prey“, but really, these ultimately just belong to one big overall work of art called Acts of God. Each of the fifteen numbers, including the intro and the all hope devouring “And the Flames Wept” is a reason to love this album.

I could go on for hours about it, dissecting each song in detail and ranting about why I love it, but that would be anticipating too much. If you love Death Metal, then I simply ask you to trust me and my judgement and command you to listen to Acts of God in its entirety at least once. I for one am completely blown away and happy that there are still bands like Immolation that fucking deliver!