:: Immolate - Ruminate

Immolate

Having just recently reintroduced themselves to live audiences via the recent run of dates up and down the east coast in support of Mondo Generator’s last visit to Australian shores back in May, New South Wales based heavy rock outfit Immolate really have picked the perfect time to release their sophomore effort ‘Ruminate’. Picking up where Immolate last left things with their self-titled debut full-length effort in 2008, ‘Ruminate’ is a molten slab of primitive stoner/doom rock. The four piece act open up the eleven track album with the lumbering ‘Heathen’, which features plenty of thumping drums, sluggish and heavy riffing and plenty of rumbling bass underlining the track. Vocally, Nick Irwin isn’t what you would call the kind of front man gifted with a wide ranging vocal presence. But nonetheless, his gritty half spoken word/workman-like approach does fit the band’s raw and basic approach to their low end heavy/primitive rock sound, which gives a real sense of ‘what you see is what you get’. The faster and more up-tempo ‘Hot Heat’ is an early favourite, with the band adopting a little more dynamics to their sound with some infectious choruses chants and some equally cool riffs, while ‘Live By (Knife And Gun)’ and ‘Kill Your Idols’ are further impressive rocking efforts with some great riff passages, despite the former sounding a little left of centre for them with its off kilter clean vocals within the choruses. Although quite good, both ‘Trap Me’ and the slower ‘Tune Out’ fall a little flat in the memorable stakes due to the strength of the album’s first four tracks, but things do manage to pick up with the chaotic duo of the title track ‘Ruminate’ and ‘Broken’, the energetic blast of ‘Intergator’ and the lengthy fuzzed out psychedelic jam ‘Code’ that is the album’s closer. Immolate may not be the greatest band in the world, but they are at the very least an interesting one. And while some of their music doesn’t translate as well in the studio as it does in the live forum, there is enough within ‘Ruminate’ to warrant further investigation if the sound of huge stoner rock influenced riffs delivered with a decidedly hefty raw and organic ‘live in the studio’ vibe and sound gets you all hot under the collar in the musical sense.