Immolation has been around for a while now. From being second tier hopefuls in the death metal scene to becoming bona fide underground legends over the course of almost twenty years and 6 studio releases, Immolation today are a distinctive and unique death metal proposition. 

Since the release of the band’s debut Dawn Of Possession in 1991, the band has undergone a few line up changes but through it all have remained one of the most consistently powerful death metal bands around. While my personal favourite is the classic 1996 release Here In After, the band’s last two albums - 2002's Unholy Cult and 2005's Harnessing Ruin were highly impressive and powerful documents of death metal. Considering that, Shadows In The Light had to be a bit special just to match up to the last two releases. 

The album kicks off with the awesome 'Hate’s Plague' and immediately you know it’s business as usual for this band. The dissonant guitar playing, the mad drumming that seems to follow the guitars and those swirling guitar lines all add up to make a pretty kickass song.  The band’s use of mid tempo yet ferociously heavy parts has always set them apart and the changes in pace right through this album work beautifully. 'Passion Kill' demonstrates this perfectly as the song is an ultra heavy mid tempo stomp to begin with before alternating with a pummeling death metal section. Every single song on this album has a guitar line or riff that’s memorable and the band generate enough power for the duration of the album to light up a small town. 

The band is playing out of their skins here. Drummer Steve Shalaty is the star of the show and his drumming is quite spectacular on this album but guitarists Robert Vigna and Bill Taylor pull off some terrific songs.. The guitar parts are powerful and the leads fit in perfectly with these songs. Ross Dolan sounds like a rougher Glen Benton and is very effective. The production is classic Immolation and just dirty enough around the edges to remind you that this is what death metal should sound like.  

It is a little pointless to go through this song by song, as the quality of songwriting never dips. The songs are reasonably short and like most classics of the genre the album will fit onto one side of a 90 minute tape. Still special mention must be made of 'World Agony' and 'Deliverer of Evil', two songs that just pummel you into submission. The title song is another terrific death metal song and comes at you with full force. 

Every single song on this album has at least one part that’ll make you go “Fuck yeah!” and that’s the magic of Immolation on Shadows In The Light. There’s a sense right through this album that this is as real as it gets. This is not an album from a bunch of trendy poseurs hiding behind a lush production, this is not a by the numbers dethfukkinmetal album that sounds like two hundred other bands. This is Immolation showing that after all these years they can still pummel the living crap out of you and do it in a way that’s completely unique.  

I’m diverging into hyperbole to describe this album but to put it simply, this is the most powerful and consistently crushing death metal album of the year. It edges out the new Monstrosity in the brutality stakes and is for me the Death Metal album of the year. 

As good as they’ve ever been and maybe just a bit better, Godhood awaits for Immolation.

Label: Century Media
Year of Release: 2007