Immolation: Ascending The Descent
Descent, the new album from New York death metal legends IMMOLATION sees the band destroying all in their path with a fearsome display of straight for the jugular death metal. To celebrate Descent, we caught up with guitarist Bob Vigna to discuss the new album, recent tours and the band’s long history as leading figures in death metal.
We start with Bob declaring how happy he is with the reception that Descent has had so far. “It’s been awesome, we’ve gotten a lot of positive response from fans, and we’re super happy with it. It’s probably one of the best things we’ve done in a long time, both in the music the production. I mean, we love everything we’ve done, but it’s nice to be able to say that you’re very happy with the latest thing you’ve done. It’s a very powerful sounding but also atmospheric sounding record, which is very cool!”
Bob then goes onto to explain that the atmosphere that IMMOLATION create continues to grow on Descent, especially on the instrumental track Banished. “You always want the atmosphere to be there. It’s part of everything. I think the songs themselves lend themselves to atmospheric but intense parts. The album has a lot of peaks and valleys and a lot of emotion and having a track like Banished in there too, to just add to the overall atmosphere is awesome, we love doing that.”
We then discuss the themes of Descent and its familiarly dark subject matter. “We observe the dark sides of everything in the world, whether it be politics or just mankind in general. We focus on that a lot, and look at the stuff that maybe isn’t always brought to the light all the time. We’re positive people most of the time. It’s just that with IMMOLATION, we’re looking at the dark side of things, especially over these past few years. That’s how the whole Descent idea came about. With mankind, more than ever before, it feels like we’re going to a place we’ve not been before, because everything that’s happening around us, we’re repeating a lot of history that shouldn’t have been repeated.”
At the time of our conversation, IMMOLATION are currently on the road in America with BEHEMOTH, DEICIDE and ROTTING CHRIST, Bob then enthused about the tour. “It’s phenomenal, man. Every night is a highlight on this one. We were lucky enough to do the MAYHEM and MARDUK tour in February in Europe, which was an amazing tour, that was phenomenal, and now following up with this one when the record came out, it’s been incredible! The BEHEMOTH guys are awesome guys. We’ve known them for years, and we’ve known most of their crew for years, and to finally get to tour with them is super cool, It’s been great seeing them every night, and then we have ROTTING CHRIST, who we’ve known for many years, and toured with them two or three times in the past. We’re actually sharing a bus with those guys, they’re super cool guys and a phenomenal band. DEICIDE are also very cool guys. We’ve toured them before! So to have all these bands touring together, it’s great for us and it’s great for the fans because it’s a real full package of a show.”
Bob also told of how the new material from Descent has been going down in their live set. “We have a half hour set on this one because it’s a lot of bands and a lot of ground to cover every night. We’re doing five songs, three old songs and the others showcasing the new stuff. It’s been going over phenomenally.”
It has been 35 years since IMMOLATION released their debut album Dawn Of Possession, and Bob sounds proud as he considers just how long the band have been active in metal. “It’s crazy! We talk about it all the time, because all of us here, especially this tour, we’ve all been in the game for a long time, so it amazes us that we’re all still here and relevant. Playing shows and seeing all the young faces out there every night is awesome too, All of us combined, have well over 100 years of underground extreme music and to see all these young kids coming in and getting into it, it’s pretty cool. It’s something that I don’t think any of us would have imagined!”
Bob then goes to share his memories of making that first IMMOLATION record. “I think it was the first time we were in Germany. We had been in Europe once before, just on a trip to meet up with friends like ENTOMBED and NAPALM DEATH. It was interesting not only to be doing our first record, but to be doing it in Germany, of all places, with Harris Johns, who was such a big producer and had produced SODOM and KREATOR. To be in Germany at a time where, the year before or so, the Wall came down, and parts of the wall were still up all over the city. That was very interesting to see that history, and the whole experience was unique!”
Going back even further, Bob then discusses IMMOLATION’s origins in the death metal scene in New York. “It was a new thing. Back then, it was very new, and it was very underground. You didn’t have the internet, you just had snail mail, and you’d write letters all over the world, sending your tape to other people that had fanzines around the world. It was physical tape trading and little paper photocopied ads in the mail. That was our network back then. It was definitely an interesting time, and very cool.”
With fellow Yonkers, NY death metal bands like MORTICIAN and MALIGNANCY alongside IMMOLATION flourishing on from those early days, we finish off with more memories from that formative time period. “We just played the local clubs, and try and spread the word, You’d have bands like DEATH and Morbid Angel coming through but it would be to 25 people, 50 people tops, because they were just starting out. But we knew this was something special. It t was the beginning of all this. You had those moments that you’d never forget, because now, obviously you saw where Death and MORBID ANGEL and all these other bands went. It was like witnessing the history of this music!”
Descent is out now via Nuclear Blast Records. View this interview, alongside dozens of other killer bands, in glorious print magazine fashion in DS130 here.
Like IMMOLATION on Facebook.