Released: February 18, 2022
Acts of God didn’t arrive as a reinvention. It arrived as a consolidation. By this point, Immolation had already spent decades refining a language built on dissonance, weight, and theological confrontation. What Acts of God accomplishes isn’t expansion—it’s reinforcement. The album doesn’t attempt to widen their scope. It deepens it, pressing further into the same territory until resistance becomes structure.
Immolation entered this phase unchanged where it mattered most. Ross Dolan’s voice remained fixed—measured, deliberate, and unembellished. Robert Vigna’s guitar work continued to define the band’s identity, favoring tension and asymmetry over resolution. Together with longtime drummer Steve Shalaty and bassist Alex Bouks, the band operated with clarity of purpose. Nothing here feels transitional. Everything feels set.
The album establishes its posture immediately through “Abandoned.” The opening riff doesn’t resolve into familiarity. It unsettles, circling through dissonant shapes that never fully align. Dolan’s vocal delivery doesn’t dominate the song—it reinforces its mass, moving in parallel with the instrumentation rather than rising above it. The track doesn’t introduce a theme. It enforces one.
“An Act of God” follows with greater density, its structure built on layered repetition that tightens rather than releases. Vigna’s riffs resist symmetry, creating instability that becomes central to the song’s weight. The rhythm section remains grounded, allowing tension to accumulate without interruption. Nothing breaks open. Nothing relieves the pressure.
Mid-album material continues this approach with precision. “The Age of No Light” operates through sustained dissonance, its pacing deliberate and unyielding. Rather than escalating, the track remains fixed, allowing repetition to define its shape. “Noose of Thorns” reinforces that logic further, its riff structure favoring friction over flow. The guitars don’t guide the listener forward. They hold position.
Throughout Acts of God, Immolation avoid excess. “Broken Prey” and “Overtures of the Wicked” rely on tightly controlled structures that never drift into spectacle. Solos emerge as extensions of the framework rather than departures from it. Nothing interrupts the album’s internal logic. Everything reinforces it.
The album’s title track, “Acts of God,” serves as a central statement—not through escalation, but through consolidation. Its dissonant phrasing and deliberate pacing reflect the record’s core principle: tension sustained without release. The song doesn’t resolve its themes. It maintains them.
Lyrically, Dolan remains focused on institutional collapse, spiritual authority, and human complicity. Tracks like “Derelict of Spirit” and “Immoral Stain” examine systems that persist through obedience and repetition. The language avoids abstraction. It presents its themes directly, reinforcing the album’s refusal to offer comfort or resolution.
Production across the record supports that approach. The guitars remain sharp but controlled, allowing dissonance to remain intact without blurring into noise. Drums strike with precision, reinforcing structure without distraction. The mix remains dense and close, eliminating distance between elements. Nothing floats. Everything remains grounded.
What distinguishes Acts of God is its refusal to reinterpret Immolation’s identity. The album doesn’t attempt to modernize their sound or soften its edges. It applies the same principles that have defined the band for decades—repetition, dissonance, and structural permanence—without deviation.
In doing so, Acts of God reinforces Immolation’s position not as innovators chasing change, but as architects maintaining form. The album doesn’t introduce a new language. It proves the existing one remains intact.
What Immolation achieve here isn’t reinvention. It’s endurance.
Written by Rob Joncas for DeadNoteMedia.
Artist information and music courtesy of the bands and publicists.
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