Ignominy are from Canada and play death metal. This is their debut album.
Ignominy are not a standard death metal act, and Imminent Collapse is not your run-of-the-mill death metal album. Rooted in the dissonant style, theirs is an avant-garde expression of dissodeath that incorporates blackened textures, technical flourishes, chaotic intensity, and atmospheric proclivities.
Imminent Collapse is a 35-minute journey into a fractured extreme metal vision that somehow manages to sound coherent and consistent despite its maniacal wanderings. Jagged rhythms and lurching percussion move through an apocalyptic landscape, as explosions of virulent speed and brutality burst and burn around them. There are malignant hooks buried in this territory of horror and bloodshed, and Ignominy relentlessly seek them out within the mayhem and carnage.
Unlike some dissonant death metal Imminent Collapse doesn’t sound overly restrictive or oppressive. It has a malevolent atmosphere that only thickens as the album progresses, but despite this there’s a vibrant energy here that makes for music that’s aggressively dynamic. This is partially what differentiates Ignominy from their peers. That, and the sort of songwriting that’s far more memorable and riff-focused than that of many ostensibly similar bands.
As well as really liking everything else here, the vocals deserve singling out I feel. Sure, the guitars are frequently attention-grabbers, and shape the songs with their twisted melodics and distorted darkness, and the drummer can certainly play, but I’m a big fan of the singer’s versatile and emphatic voice. Having a wider range than that of many death metal singers, the vocalist of Ignominy screams with feral abandon, shouts with throaty harshness, growls with monstrous menace, and generally just sounds wonderfully harsh and aggressive. Like the music, his performance has a dynamic energy to it that’s striking.
Ignominy have impressed and produced a record that I have really enjoyed. My only real criticism, (as always, why do bands do it?), is of the two utterly pointless interludes. Apart from these though, Imminent Collapse is a real winner.
If you’re looking for an unholy mix of bands such as Gorguts, Ulcerate, Suffering Hour, Aeviterne, Sunless, and Altarage, then this is definitely for you.
Very highly recommended.
Wonderbox Metal 