Band: Immanis
CD Title: War Machine
Year: 2007
Website: www.immanis.eu
MySpace: www.myspace.com/immanismusic
Label: Nemesis Productions
Featured on: Currently a Loucifer Speaks Exclusive
Rating: 8.9 / 10
More Links: There are no related Immanis links on Loucifer Speaks. Please feel free to start a thread on the Loucifer Speaks forum

Immanis recently played at the Hard Rock Hell festival in the UK. I was gutted when I found out I couldn't go and because of my absence I missed out on discovering Immanis until now.

This quartet from Edinburgh (Scotland) certainly knows how to pack a good slice of groove into their metal. The first time I heard the opening track, "War Machine", I immediately found myself moving around at my desk. As I’m currently learning to play bass (although I feel I'll be 'learning' for the rest of my life – which is no bad thing) I tend to listen out for the bass when I'm listening to music. The bass tone in "War Machine" really stood out to me, so Immanis gain extra points because of that!

"Endless" is deliciously heavy. The riff pounds into your skull and I love the squealed harmonics! Fantastic stuff! The vocals in this track mainly find themselves in Traditional Metal territory, but they often launch into the odd Death Metal or Hardcore moment. The drums in "Endless" are superb and I can't wait to shake off the shackles of this office and headbang along.

"Solidus" begins with a massive majestic intro and the drums give you the impression that you're about to march into a historical battle. Then when the song really takes off you can't help but want to move. The vocals in this song really lend themselves to the Hardcore genre. This is music to pound your skull to. This song is simply mind blowing! It's definitely one of my favourites on this album.

After the colossal "Solidus", "Thirteen" just seems to be a little diluted. It's not that it's a bad track – not by any stretch of the imagination – it's just that it hasn't captivated me as much as the previous three tracks on this CD. It still manages to pack a punch though.

"Bleeding" starts off relatively slowly, but you're left with the feeling that it's going to build up into something monstrous at any moment. The suspense almost becomes unbearable, but in a good way – if that’s at all possible! Then, at around 1 minute 24 seconds everything changes and the monster is unleashed. While "Bleeding" may not be the fastest track on the album, it certainly is heavy and it holds onto that Traditional Metal sound that I mentioned earlier.

"When Kingdoms Fall" is another of my favourites on this album – I just like the way that it goes through a number of changes and constantly remains interesting.

Then we are left with the mysterious Track 7, which isn't listed on the CD. It's a strange little number, but it provides a wonderful ending to the album.

At first I was a little bit worried that this album would disappoint me – mainly because there are only 6 (or 7!) tracks on it, but the tracks are all of a substantial length so this never becomes a problem. The reason why I am not giving this album full marks is because there are a couple of things that I would change about it. Sometimes I felt that the tracks could be a little bit shorter and still have the same effect. I'd imagine that live these tracks would work marvellously well, but on CD they do occasionally seem to be a little longer than necessary. It is, however, relatively easy to knock this thought out of my brain while listening to the title track, "Solidus" or "Bleeding".

Immanis are definitely a band to watch out for!