by Jason Schreurs

The only guarantees in life are death, taxes, and longtime metal bands like Immolation. Spawned in 1988 as one of the forefathers of the New York death metal scene (along with Suffocation, Mortician and Incantation) Immolation has recently unleashed its seventh album, Harnessing Ruin, on the Century Media imprint, Olympic Recordings. The album marks the recorded debut of drummer Steve Shalaty, a dude who has some of the fastest feet and hands in the death metal scene. That coupled with pounding yet creative death metal puts this album in the upper echelon of metal releases so far this year. Immolation has been metal almost as long as some of these new fangled, so-called metal bands have been alive (almost 18 years and counting), so when I caught up with bassist/vocalist Ross Dolan it was the perfect chance to pick the brain of a living legend of brutal death metal.

Now that you’ve recorded with him, how is your drummer for working out?
Steve is working out great. We knew he was going to work out fine the first day we rehearsed with him two years ago, before US leg of the Unholy Cult tour. He was a very quick learner and he retained everything really well. He was very precise and had a tremendous sense of timing, but most of all, he was an unbelievable talent that learned our songs almost effortlessly and performed them as if he had been playing them for years, not days. Right now we are in the process of rehearsing for the upcoming tour with Deicide, so we are making frequent trips to Ohio for weekend rehearsals to teach Steve the list of older material we decided to pull out of obscurity for this tour. Everything is going better than expected and we are very excited to bring the new material out on the road.

I’ve heard a lot about your live shows but have never seen you. Can you describe the live fury for people who haven’t seen you play?
Well, I think what makes the live show so special is that all four of us are truly passionate about what we do and I think this shows when we are up there doing what we truly love doing best. It is an intensity that surges through us the second we start playing until the second we walk off that stage and nothing during that time matters more than the music. I think people can really get the feeling that we are very much into what we are doing and this is what makes for a truly unique performance.

“Harnessing Ruin” is a very atmospheric batch of songs. What was the mood like when you recorded it?
The mood really wasn’t any different this time as opposed to previous times, but we were very confident with all of the new songs and knew that we had some really great ideas. There was an anticipation to finally hear the songs all together with vocals, and leads and all the little extras that give our songs that extra dimension and different feel. The songs really don’t start coming to life until the leads are finished and the vocals are there and it’s only then that we really feel like we are finally hearing the songs for the first time. 

There’s a lot of melody amongst the death (I’m thinking the intro to “Dead to Me” is a nice example). You’re not going soft, are you?
I think whatever melody that does exist on this record exists for the sole purpose of giving the songs a certain dark and eerie quality that makes this album very unique and different from all the rest. There is certainly more melody in [guitarist] Bob [Vigna]’s leads, but it is done in such a way that it enhances rather than takes away from the overall feel of the album. We know our boundaries and know just how far to push before we get into that area that we don’t really belong in. These songs are just so full of feeling and emotion but it’s done in our way without losing the essence of Immolation.

What’s kept Immolation going all these years?
We love what we do, plain and simple. It hasn’t been the easiest road to travel down and for almost 18 years... sometimes I think we certainly must be nuts, but then there is nothing else I would rather be doing. That includes every aspect of what we do, from writing, to recording, to rehearsing, to touring and traveling and meeting people all over the world. I stop and think about how fortunate we are to still be doing this and to still really enjoy it and that’s all that matters in the end.

Okay, gotta ask this question to all death metal bands... What’s the worst way to die?
Alone.

www.olympicrecordings.com

2005 “Harnessing Ruin” (Olympic/Century Media)
2002 “Unholy Cult” (Listenable/Olympic)
2000 “Close to a World Below” (Metal Blade)
1999 “Failures for Gods” (Metal Blade)
1996 “Here in After” (Metal Blade)
1994 “Stepping on Angels… Before Dawn” (Repulse)
1991 “Dawn of Possession” (Roadrunner)