Review Summary: The weight of it all.
The gates open, debris and dust in the wind. The screams, calamity of footfall and souls being extinguished all clash. Steel scrapes across the bedrock, destruction and chaos prevalent
everywhere you look.
Imminent Collapse, the sophomoric release from Canada-based, Ignominy is the metaphoric example for whatever demolition contraption tasked to take down medieval castle walls but their stylistic ethos, that is to say, their sound is born from the same molten rock that spawned the likes of Gorguts, Ulcerate, Sunless, Dischordia, Noctambulist (exhaustive list continues here…). As you can expect,
Imminent Collapse epitomizes heavy, with equal measured dissonance added for good measure. What’s clear here is that Ignominy doesn’t stand above the contemporary, prevailing instead to simply add more din to a world of cacophony and rage. Fists clench as “Frantic Appeasement” is anything but. Riffs cluster and grow, expanding one dissonant note after the other. Noise simply crashes into reverberated idea echoes; a cumulative love affair of snaking, winding single notes and barreling tempos—fully aware of the lateral march that never cedes nor ascends. Despite the album’s more a-typical approach to dissonant death metal, there are a few ear-raisers to tug at even the genre’s more jaded listeners. “Defaulting Genetics” is a callback to an era of Ulcerate and Portal lovechildren. The dynamic isn’t unique [anymore], but I can’t help but twist a neck when these newer faces directly nod to the niches' more distinguished names.
As well as
Imminent Collapse can be acknowledged for being a studious representation of death metal’s occasionally progressive, moderately heavy and certainly dissonant flag-bearers it should be noted there’s exactly nothing
new here. That’s not what we’re looking for…oh, but we are! No longer does simply emulating and pearl-clutching the heaviest of death metal tropes work without some level of progression or the extra level of undeniable technicality. Sure, listeners these days can accept the trials and tribulations, gobbling down another serving of the same old portions. There’s nothing especially offensive about Ignominy’s approach, but
Imminent Collapse leaves room for a lot more. Something different—or dare I ask? Maybe some innovation. Nah.
Frankly, I shouldn’t complain too much. The barreling range of “Reminiscence of Hatred” more than covers the daily itch for
Ulcerate music that isn’t Ulcerate, while interludes one and two spread the pensive chaos, creating
some contrast, breathing room and dichotomy. “Visceral” has all the ebb and flow of a doom track melting under the weight of molten steel. Aesthetically there’s no denying just how much of the influences mentioned above are crammed into it. In spite of all the sheer dissonance, vocalist Alexandre Desroches carries most of this thirty-five-minute slab of molten death metal. While most of the vocals maintain themselves to mid-ranged growls that near shout, the higher, more manic phrases really bring about the furor, rage and distortion (see: “Nightmare Bacteria” and “Visceral”) underneath it.
Perhaps I would’ve seen
Imminent Collapse and its respective weight in a different light if it had been released a decade ago. More likely I’ve simply become jaded in the pursuit of transcendental death metal acts that could fight the likes of Ulcerate at lofty summit tops. “Visuals”, the record’s closing track comes close to bringing enough atmosphere to validate these sheer walls of dissonance, there’s not really enough here overall to chase away the stigma that all this has been done before, done better and made much more of an impact. Casual death metal fans can rejoice however, the steel mills are still churning out hot, raw material.
