Immolation - Majesty And Decay review
| Band: | Immolation |
| Album: | Majesty And Decay |
| Style: | Death metal |
| Release date: | March 05, 2010 |
| A review by: | Baz Anderson |
01. Intro
02. The Purge
03. A Token Of Malice
04. Majesty And Decay
05. Divine Code
06. In Human Form
07. A Glorious Epoch
08. Interlude
09. A Thunderous Consequence
10. The Rapture Of Ghosts
11. Power And Shame
12. The Comfort Of Cowards
Despite being one of the longest running death metal bands from the United States, Immolation just haven't had anywhere near the same amount of success as such bands as Deicide and Cannibal Corpse. Album number eight Majesty And Decay breaks no boundaries stylistically, but it does provide another brutal crushing in Immolation's own subtle style.
The drums especially are ravenous as they not so much blast, but bludgeon their way through the album. Vocally, Ross does a great job, although his dry death growls hold little variation. The guitars along with the drums provide the main meat of the album, the guitars harbouring a somewhat old-school, slight Morbid Angel-esque tinge to them.
Immolation however, do not present themselves as being as approachable as the previously mentioned bands. Immolation provide the most crushing death metal by far, but it is presented in an unrelenting assault to the ears that can be at times overbearing. The quality of death metal here is superb, but Majesty And Decay is almost forty-five minutes of solid punishment. A short interlude does provide a little chance to catch your breath, but on the whole this album is too dense and can be a little challenging to properly digest.
There is no doubt that Majesty And Decay has had a great deal of care and attention gone into it, and the quality here speaks for itself. This is an extremely solid, hard worked album that definitely has its highlights from the opening blasts of impending doom in "The Purge" to the slight tempo changes and perhaps most interesting track on the album "Majesty And Decay". There's certainly enjoyment to be had throughout the album.
The production has been nicely fitted to the style of the band. The growls, drums and guitars all sound clear and are exemplified wonderfully, while the whole album together sounds nice and dirty, but quite clear at the same time. Majesty And Decay is a great album that will certainly please the band's regulars but the solid-wall-of-chaos approach the band put into practise could still be a little off-putting to newcomers. Consumed with digestive power of steel however, and Majesty And Decay could be a dark horse. It is about time Immolation got the credit they deserve.
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Death metal
Nuclear Blast
U.S.A.
Length: 45:03
Rating breakdown
| Performance: | 8 |
| Songwriting: | 8 |
| Originality: | 8 |
| Production: | 9 |
Comments
Comments: 25
Visited by: 407 users
| Baz Anderson Staff Posts: 13254  |
Thanks!! Well 7.5 is still a good rating... I'm huge on death metal too, the more brutal the better... but I just felt this album is a little bit too full on without being too diverse. Those scores at the end never tell the full story of an album.
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| Thryce Retired Staff Elite Posts: 4347  |
Only listened to the album once so far, but it seemed indeed quite dense - and pretty diverse IMO. Though I think I like it that way. Seems like a good album thus far. A solid middle finger to all the modern, easily accessible death(core) bands out there.
---- Your favorite band sucks.
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| Troy Killjoy perfunctionist Staff Posts: 21306  |
Written by Thryce on 04.03.2010 at 18:14 You can make that two middle fingers. This album owns. Great review Baz!
---- "Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something."
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| X-Ray Rod Skandino Staff Posts: 18375  |
Written by Troy Killjoy on 04.03.2010 at 18:44 I'll third that opinion. Immolation is for those that likes their death metal the way death metal should sound: Dense, dark and terrifying... The "death"-feeling from the modern bands is gone and Immolation really puts the hellish atmosphere, damn. People should listen to the song Close To A World Below in a dark room... THAT is what I call Death fucking Metal... And guys... The vocals are not varied, but they are so goddamn amazing that I don't want any single change... So hellish.
---- Written by BloodTears on 19.08.2011 at 18:29 Written by Milena on 20.06.2012 at 10:49
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| Metal Maiden Megadead Posts: 352  |
Two more thumbs up for the review - extremely enjoyable, and easily accessible high quality death metal...Don't think I've had this much fun listening to an album for quite a while now, it hooked me up only after one spin...  8.5, maybe 9 from me... 
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| RafaRata Posts: 117  |
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| BitterCOld The Ancient One Admin Posts: 15288  |
Written by ₣rost Giant on 04.03.2010 at 16:48 Those four areas do not reflect the only criteria for the overall rating. When filling in a review you are asked for the following: Performance How well the band plays their music. Songwriting The quality of music and lyrics. Originality How original this piece of work is. Production The quality of sound. Total rating Your final rating, based on the overall impression. You'll notice the first four are all largely based upon the band's composition skills, execution, and the knobfiddling. At no point do those sub-criteria actually ask whether or not you like the album. it's completely possible that the band can craft a well structured song, do something a bit daring instead of tried and true, color by numbers music, play it really well, and have sound fantastic coming out of your speakers... but bore you to tears. That's where the overall impression comes in. When i assign that figure, i look beyond just the other four bits and factor in how much i actually liked the album and whether or not it was likely to be something i pull from my collection and listen to again.
---- get the fuck off my lawn. Beer Bug Virus Spotify Playlist crafted by Nikarg and I. Feel free to tune in and add some pertinent metal tunes!
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| sancho666 Posts: 4 |
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| Enigma Posts: 44  |
Very Undearrated. Majesty and Decay deserves, at least, 8. One of the best albuns i've heard this year, with Overkill, Dark Tranquillity and Rotting Christ.
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| BurbotsRevenge Foetal Butchery Posts: 1603  |
Really awesome album imo, killer riffs, brutal as always, one of the best albums of 2010 so far the only thing i really hate about this album is the ending to "A Token Of Malice" - i just think it sounds pretty lame
---- Dark death metal from Sydney: https://www.facebook.com/GolgothanRemains
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| Baz Anderson Staff Posts: 13254 |
Written by BurbotsRevenge on 05.03.2010 at 07:48 Yeh, that bugged me too.
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| theflyingmachine Posts: 499  |
This is a good album. It seems like Immolation has really varied their sound over their career, and there is a lot of disagreement as to which is their best. I personally don't like Close to a World Below or Unholy Cult too much, although there are a lot of people saying those are their best. Anyways, this is their best album since Failures for Gods in my opinion, and I think 7.5 is just a little low...but to each their own.
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| Raiden Down Under Staff Elite Posts: 8292  |
Written by BitterCOld on 04.03.2010 at 21:09 Surely this wouldn't happen all that often would it? 
---- "Scream for me Melbourne!!!!" - Bruce Dickinson "I don't see any god up here" - Yuri Gagarin (while in orbit, 1961)
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| frankeli Account deleted |
frankeli
Account deleted
Well satisfied with the album. It is Immolation ... although I would like to hear something new, but, hey, it is their music, not mine
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| Dangerboner Lactation Cnslt Posts: 7262  |
This album is more brutal than farting out of your wiener 
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| Maxx666 Meshuggahian Posts: 376  |
Immolation keeps on making masterpiece. There's nothing stopping them, that's for sure
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| MeTalRea|istiK Posts: 170  |
I think 8 more appropiate..agree..immolation never stops making masterpiece..
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| Baz Anderson Staff Posts: 13254 |
If I were to review this album again right now, it will get a much better review...
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| X-Ray Rod Skandino Staff Posts: 18375 |
Written by Baz Anderson on 03.10.2010 at 14:37 From 7,5 to 10? Wow, you sure changed your opinion bro What happened? It was too much to bite the first time? It's nice when albums do grow on you a lot.
---- Written by BloodTears on 19.08.2011 at 18:29 Written by Milena on 20.06.2012 at 10:49
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| Baz Anderson Staff Posts: 13254 |
Written by X-Ray Rod on 03.10.2010 at 16:22 Not really. I gave it a lot of listens before I reviewed it. What happened? I don't know... I just gave a bit more time to the band.
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| Sulac Posts: 242  |
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| BeastOfMetal456 Account deleted |
BeastOfMetal456
Account deleted Written by Sulac on 20.08.2011 at 08:20 Great album, I agree. It's a great gateway into the genre. If you'd like some easy-to-get-into death metal, I could help you.
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| pkillerjp Posts: 122  |
I actually rank this as one of their better albums, which seems like a rare opinion. Their early stuff is quite good, but I always considered it a little over praised, it never held my interest for the length of the album in full. This one does.
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| sgtrobo Posts: 595  |
Written by pkillerjp on 06.03.2014 at 00:28 I gotta agree. Their first 3 get a ton of praise, but their best albums include World Below, this, Unholy Cult, and Atonement, all better than their first 3 EDIT - as well as their latest, Acts of God
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| sgtrobo Posts: 595 |
Written by Baz Anderson on 03.04.2010 at 13:29 when reviewing death metal, terms like "crushing", "Unrelenting", and especially "45 minutes of solid punishment" all equate to a 10/10
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