Genre: Death Metal
Label: Nuclear Blast
Date of Release: May 10, 2013
LACKLUSTER DEATH METAL
Immolation is one of the grand names of the death metal
genre, but time may be sadly taking its toll on them. They formed back from
1986 from Yonkers, New York. Since then, they have grown a very large following,
as well as a wide discography. Their best effort so far has been “Majesty and
Decay” from 2010, with great sinister energy and atmosphere. However, three
years later, the world would witness the release of their ninth full-length
album entitled “Kingdom of Conspiracy.” Unfortunately, clunky mixing and
lacking writing render this effort as not all that pleasurable.
The musicianship itself is where the problems are least
prominent, but it nonetheless has a few issues. The vocals, for starters, are
decently played, with sludgy low growls reigning supreme. However, when it
comes to the instruments, this is where the problems begin to surface. The
guitars, while playing decent, brutal riffs throughout, do become quite
repetitive the further the audience delves into the album. The drums, however,
are the best part of the musicianship, balancing between solidity and
technicality enough for it to be a remarkable highlight. However, even then,
there is a crucial problem that affects not just the percussion, but the rest
of the musicianship.
This shortcoming would be the production and mixing behind
this album. The drumming, while performed well, sounds too triggered and
plastic, while the guitars are drowned out rather badly by the rest of the
music. On top of all this, the production somewhat starves of resonance with
the vocals and instruments, thus removing the possibility of “Kingdom of
Conspiracy” containing an engaging atmosphere. As a result, the music sounds
flat and quite hollow. Although the musicianship itself holds up relatively
well, the mixing does not do it any justice.
“Kingdom of Conspiracy’s” other scathing problem is that the
songwriting is also quite mediocre. Immolation continues their agenda of death
metal clobbering, but the way it is planned out is not very well done. The songs
in this album sound too similar to each other, especially between the title
track and “Indoctrinate,” resulting from the sheer lack of dynamic and
distinction. The album is just loud death metal all the way through, and there
is no surplus of quieter or subtler moments to make the explosive parts more
effective. On top of that, the songs themselves are monotonous as well, for the
same reasons. There appears to be no attempt to build any form of peaks or
bases to leave a larger impact on the audience, as described earlier. Overall,
the music itself comes across as unimpressive.
Compared to its preceding releases, “Kingdom of Conspiracy”
proved to be quite a letdown. However, that doesn't mean there is no silver
lining to the record, either. The musicianship is decent, the lyrics are
intriguing in how they depict the corruption and decay of human society, and
the flaws, while significant, don’t necessarily lend the album to being a
complete failure. As bland as “Kingdom of Conspiracy” turned out to be, it at least could have been much worse. However, the problem is that, once again, the flaws are
significant, and outweigh the positive value of this album. Because of poor
mixing and songwriting, this album is not recommended, even to loyal death metal
fans. All in all, give it a pass.
Score: 4.5/10 (Poor+)