It’s been three long years since Immolation last assaulted ear drums worldwide with their unique brand of technical dark death metal. Unfortunately, the line-up from the highly acclaimed Unholy Cult did not remain intact, with drummer Alex Hernandez being usurped by his "temporary tour" replacement Steve Shalaty of Odius Sanction, who filled in while Alex was injured near the end of the world tour promoting Unholy Cult. This marks the second straight release where a long-time member has been replaced after Angelcorpse’s Bill Taylor took over for Thomas Wilkinson as permanent guitarist shortly after 2000’s Close To A World Below. Bill proved himself to be a worthy replacement with his excellent work on Unholy Cult, adding an extra element to the group’s sound. Steve Shalaty’s debut with the group isn’t quite as smooth, as his skill level and overall talent is far below that of Alex Hernandez, and on the whole, the drumming tends to sound a little sloppy, but, thankfully, he’s got three of the world’s most talented death metal musicians in front of him who more than make up for it. Alex isn’t the only departure, as artist Andreas Marschall is not back to paint his sixth Immolation cover, instead the band chose Aborted’s Sven de Caluwé to provide a digitally created cover, and, though I like Sven’s artwork, I was still a little bummed to find out Marschall’s artwork wouldn’t be gracing the cover. The style on Harnessing Ruin is more of a step-back to the band’s earlier sound on Failures For Gods and Close To A World Below, both in musical direction, but also production-wise with Paul Orofino handling the release, going to a far more raw sound, which the band apparently preferred over the cleaner and more polished-sounding Unholy Cult. Technically, Taylor and Vigna are at their absolute best, weaving their way through 9 new tracks, blowing minds with their untouchable precision and skill. The songwriting is pretty solid with plenty of trade-off solos and killer riffs, although they seem to have hit a major creative block and have rehashed entire segments of earlier songs on this release, which was a little disappointing. Ross Dolan’s vocals are flawless with every verse clearly distinguishable without a lyric book in hand, but still maintaining the necessary grit and power, blending perfectly with the music. Overall, this is not their best album, in my eyes that title still is held by their sophomore release Here In After followed closely by Unholy Cult, but Harnessing Ruin is definitely a nice addition to their impressive discography.

Written By: Teufel