Atonement

On their tenth album, Immolation made a lineup change after several years of stability. Guitarist Bill Taylor left after five releases, and was replaced by Alex Bouks, formerly of Pennsylvania’s Incantation. The primary effect is to add a few slightly shreddier solos, but the core Immolation sound — an ominous rumble punctuated by avalanche-like riff-and-blast-beat sections — is pretty much the same. The band’s generally pessimistic worldview, revealed in track titles like “When the Jackals Come,” “Destructive Currents,” and “Fostering the Divide,” is unmistakable, but there’s an undercurrent of sorrow that feels new. “Lower” in particular is a highlight, a first-person depiction of greed, treachery, and self-loathing from someone who’s abandoned himself to materialism and can’t stop himself from descending into a pit of his own making. Death metal lyrics are usually embarrassingly dumb, either opting for rote anti-Christianity or adolescent gore fantasies. “Lower” isn’t. It’s damn close to poetry.