Released: February 18, 2022
Immolation have spent decades writing death metal riffs that pull against the beat. On Acts of God, that instinct runs across 15 tracks and just over 52 minutes. The album’s central question is simple: how do they keep that much crooked, dissonant music from becoming one long blur?
“Abandoned” gives the album a minute of low, clean guitar before “An Act of God” cuts in at full speed. Halfway through, the song breaks for a strange acoustic passage, then expands into a huge chord section and Robert Vigna’s lead work. That interruption matters. Immolation fill these songs with riffs, yet the unexpected turns are often what stay with you.
“The Age of No Light” uses a different marker. Its rapid drumming continues beneath a slow, uneasy guitar figure in the middle, making the two parts sound as though they are moving at separate speeds. “Noose of Thorns,” the album’s longest song, begins slowly, erupts, and keeps introducing sections that barely repeat. “Shed the Light” builds its opening around an unusual drum pattern, then ends on a riff that refuses to settle. Each song bends time in its own way.
Vigna and Alex Bouks also give the record more colour than the word dissonance usually suggests. “Overtures of the Wicked” opens with a sharp German thrash pattern before building into a frantic lead exchange. “Immoral Stain” starts with an almost acoustic figure, while Bouks adds a mournful lead that moves around Ross Dolan’s voice. “Incineration Procession” takes a basic slow rhythm and keeps adding layers until the middle opens into something much larger. The guitars twist, scrape, and bend, but every movement has a purpose.
Steve Shalaty’s drumming separates the songs further. His cymbal patterns become the main event during parts of “Broken Prey,” filling spaces that another drummer might cover with constant double-kick work. “Derelict of Spirit” stays mid-paced nearly all the way through, giving Dolan’s bass and vocals room to control the pulse. Placing the much faster “When Halos Burn” directly afterward makes the change immediate.
The mix keeps those details audible. Shalaty’s smaller accents remain clear, while the guitars retain their rough edges. Dolan’s bass thickens the bottom of the riffs without fighting for attention. His growl sits clearly above the instruments, and his short vocal phrases give the irregular guitar patterns a centre. Even when a riff seems to be falling sideways, Dolan tells you where the sentence ends.
Lyrically, the album keeps returning to false authority, organized religion, hypocrisy, and a world moving backwards. Images of light, fire, thorns, halos, and darkness connect the songs without creating one continuous story. “Let the Darkness In” brings that language closer to the band’s pandemic experience, and Dan Lilker’s added scream helps drive its final section. The brief instrumental “And the Flames Wept” clears some space before “Apostle,” where dreamlike chorus chords and successive guitar leads close the record.
So how does Acts of God keep 52 minutes of warped death metal from blurring together? Immolation give every song its own rhythmic spine and at least one detail that survives the first listen: an acoustic interruption, a thrash opening, a cymbal pattern, or a sustained mid-tempo march. By the third or fourth pass, you know exactly where you are. Immolation make the route difficult, then mark every turn.
Written by Rob Joncas for DeadNoteMedia.
Artist information and music courtesy of the bands and publicists.
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