Review by SilentScream213 for Immolation - Unholy Cult (2002)

Absolute legends of riff-oriented cavernous Tech-Disso-Death release another masterpiece.

Immolation is such a special band because they are technical and dissonant, yes, but they never let that come before the fact that they are extremely dark, atmospheric and moody. In fact, they utilize technical and dissonant songwriting to further add disorientation and disturbance to the listener, but not so much so as to prevent the songs from being extremely memorable and digestible.

Unholy Cult is a continuation of the band’s previous sound, meaning you can expect some of the heaviest, densest, most well-composed music out there. However, I think the album does manage to stand out from the predecessors in some key ways. Chiefly, the atmosphere on here is crazy. Layers of dissonant guitars create a sublime cacophony of perpetually disturbed darkness that feels like a thousand hands dragging the listener into the depths of an abyss. It’s astounding how much they do with just a traditional Rock ensemble, as even without keys, pads, or symphonic elements of any kind, they construct masterful caverns of sound that feel absolutely massive and crushing. The interplay between guitars, both dissonant and harmonic, is nothing short of genius.

That’s not to say the other members of the cult are outdone. The drumming on here is flawless; incredibly varied, technical, complex, power… yet not overdone. In fact, the drums go about as far as they can without sounding like they are doing too much. The endlessly impressive fills and pummeling blast beats are spaced apart by slower or more conventional sections that last only long enough to ensure the songs are never without clear structure. The drummer also has a wonderful habit of playing technical parts with the sticks while keeping a constant, unbroken stream of double bass to maintain a cast-iron foundation to the chaos.

The bass adds a wall of pressure to the atmospheric and moody density, focusing on filling out the low end with an ominous weight that is not as immediately noticeable, but nevertheless just as important in ensuring the thing sounds denser than tungsten. The guitar leads tend to get quite high and piercing at times, so the 6-feet-under bass does a great job at complimenting and contrasting those. The vocals are also essentially perfect guttural growls, fantastically enunciated so each of the superbly written lyrics shine through. I can actually hear a few moments here and there where the vocalist just barely has time to breath between delivering lines and I love that so much because so many harsh vocalists who deliver fast screams will just do separate vocal takes for each line and throw one next to the other to compensate for the fact that they could not actually do such a feat in reality. I’d rather hear a little bit of natural struggle and know that it’s all real, like I do here.

One more thing that ties into the focus on atmosphere on this album – the band is a bit more inclined to flirt with Death Doom in a few spots. It’s lovely every time they do because they’re essentially Incantation on cocaine when that happens – twisted, cavernous walls of twisting and turning dissonant guitars.

Probably their most consistent album… perhaps my favorite thus far.