The “Providence” EP was released when the hangover of Immolation’s previous effort (my favorite, the almighty “Magesty and Decay”) was still in process. They sound like they were recorded in the same session, both musically and production wise. It’s almost like it is an extension to the mentioned recording.
It is short but in its 18 minutes it lefts no head standing above its neck, it will sure make them all roll. The vicious melodic sense they possess combined with the classic genre’s brutality is an effective formula that never fails. Especially because of the truly evil and black essence of the riffs, take for example the intro of “Illumination”. It’s symphonic, yet you can hear how the hearts of those who can’t take extreme metal tremble when it becomes summoning those hiding in the shadows. This can only be achieved by music that is totally committed with the atrocious. Latter, when the riff is played with the guitars you can feel it heavier of course, but equally as mysterious and intriguing, there isn’t even such a big contrast between the symphonic and the electric round it is played due to that. This characteristic draws my attention more to this band and that make them one of my favorite DM acts, you may not know the name of the band or the lyrics but you know they are up to worshiping obscurity and taking a transparent look at the dark side of humanity.
The record’s production as I said is pretty similar to the band’s effort before it. Drumming is neat and recorded without triggers; they just use them live to control the band’s sound in general. That’s another point for them, in terms of sound and honesty. This crystal clear drum tracks let you perceive how every strike on the bass drums “breathe” and finish before the next comes in, no matter how fast and close are they, every hit ends up right in your temple... as a bong hit (?) The same happens with the toms in the fast drum fills, production lets you hear the drum’s resounding (because their skins aren’t as tied as tight as the bass drum) even when the drummer is hitting the next tom. And it’s that way with the cymbals too, adding strange metrics and off beats. Percussion in this band has always been extremely textured.
The bass guitar doesn’t stand out for being particularly innovative, it just goes along with the riffs but it’s still there, you can feel it anchoring the percussion and the guitars, helping them to blend together, that’s the role of a bassist. Vocals are so from the guts they are the standard in guttural growls nowadays, a whole generation of singers was spawned by this amazing performer. Deep and highly vibrating this growls sound barely human, they are unearthly. Guitar’s powerful, dry and compressed distortion has been already tested numerous times since “Unholy Cult”, it works. The weight compression gives to this contusive and crushing tone deserves to be remarked, because it models the band’s sound, organizing it’s violence a little bit for a better appreciation.
Sample: youtube.com/watch?v=jnkzSHM4oes
