Dawn of Possession

Immolation is one of the most consistent death metal bands, along with Incantation, Bolt Thrower, and Drawn & Quartered. For nearly two decades now, Immolation has been putting out album after album of quality death metal. This is an especially impressive feat when you consider how hard it must be to compose songs in Immolation’s unique and intricate style. It’s astounding that they’ve been doing this well even since they were amateurs, when they released their 1991 debut, Dawn of Possession. Ironically, the two consistent members of Immolation, Ross Dolan and Robert Vigna, didn't even form the pre-Immolation band, Rigor Mortis. Andrew Sacowicz and Dave Wilkinson formed Rigor Mortis, then recruited Robert Vigna as their guitarist. After changing their name to Immolation, getting Ross Dolan to join, recruiting Neal Boback, they recorded some fantastic demos. Unfortunately, around the time Immolation was about to record Dawn of Possession, Neal Boback felt inadequate and left the band, which was when Craig Smilowski came to replace him. By the time they released Dawn of Possession, Immolation had none of the founding members from Rigor Mortis. Despite all of this, Dawn of Possession ended up being a hell of a debut, and rightfully heralded as an all time classic by death metal fans. Dawn of Possession still holds up today among the best of Immolation's albums, as well as the best that death metal has to offer.

Dawn of Possession is a stand alone album in Immolation's discography. It took five years after Dawn of Possession's release in 1991 for Immolation to release their sophomore effort, Here in After, in 1996. In this time, they evolved their sound quite a lot, which resulted in Here in After being very different from Dawn of Possession in style, songwriting, and tone. Because of this, Dawn of Possession is really the only album like it in Immolation's discography. The closest comparison to be drawn is probably Morbid Angel's debut, Altars of Madness. The raspy, primitive growls and chaotic, technical guitarwork that's much more intricate than their contemporaries are the main similarities between these two albums. Dawn of Possession is technical and fairly dissonant, but much less so than the albums that would follow it. The time in between Dawn of Possession and Here in After allowed Immolation to incorporate more and more dissonance into their sound, which, in turn, also made their music more atmosphere driven. This trend of adding dissonant atmosphere would continue until they hit their peak of dissonance and atmosphere with the albums Close to a World Below and Unholy Cult. I'd argue that the lack of a palpable atmosphere actually works in Dawn of Possession's favor. Rather than being driven by atmosphere, Dawn of Possession is driven by sheer chaos and aggression. Despite not having any blast beats, Dawn of Possession is arguably Immolation's most aggressive album, since it's almost entirely based on being violent and in your face, rather than enveloping the listener in a thick atmosphere. Though most of the album is fast paced, Dawn of Possession never feels monotonous or tiresome. Immolation uses their abstract, unconventional riffing style to create unique mid-tempo riffs and slower dirges, and mix those in appropriately with their blazing fast, frenzied riffs to make Dawn of Possession a consistently entertaining, engaging, subversive, and varied experience.

Immolation’s ability to write strong, cohesive songs also translates into their ability to write cohesive albums. Dawn of Possession's iconic opener, Into Everlasting Fire, starts the album off with a bang; no intro, no slow buildup, no beating around the bush. Four explosive power chords, followed by the rest of that frantic riff, are the perfect way to start the unrelenting assault on the ears that is this album. Following Into Everlasting Fire are Despondent Souls and Dawn of Possession, two of the most straightforward and aggressive songs on the album. The mid-tempo intro of Despondent Souls is an appropriate followup to the climactic end of Into Everlasting Fire. After some build up, Despondent Souls gets back into the face-melting speeds that are present in most of the preceding track, but continues to dip back into mid-tempo territory to keep the track feeling fresh. The title track is the second shortest song on the album, at only a few seconds over three minutes. It’s also the most continuously speedy song on the album, only going anything below extremely fast for a few seconds before getting right back into it. Those Left Behind provides the listener with a bit of a break from the uninterrupted insanity of the first three tracks, by starting off with a slow, ominous intro riff, then slowly speeding up to mid-tempo territory, until finally ending with an eerie dirge. After this, Internal Decadence, also the shortest track on the album, is similar in nature to the title track, but manages to be a bit more varied in its sonic onslaught. The album effectively continues with a similar pattern of using appropriate variation throughout the songs in a fashion that keeps any part of the album from feeling dry or repetitive.

This is, in my opinion, Immolation's most sinister and frightening album. On the albums following Dawn of Possession, Ross Dolan's growls got lower pitched and started sounding more enraged. Though these are great qualities to have, and they do fit well in the later albums, they also ended up making Ross lose the raspy, slithery, utterly evil sound he had on Dawn of Possession. Unlike the similarly raspy vocals delivered by David Vincent on Morbid Angel’s debut, Altars of Madness, Ross’ vocals on Dawn of Possession are very guttural, even despite how primitive and raspy they are. The lyrics on Dawn of Possession are incredibly written, just like every album to come after it. However, the style of blasphemy is a bit different from what would come later. Here in After conveys themes of the immense burden of Christianity and feelings of indifference towards a cruel, unloving God. Close to a World Below is centered around feelings of anger, pain, and betrayal inflicted by said cruel, unloving God on the self-destructive world he created. Rather than making genuine and thought provoking arguments against the futility and toxicity of Christianity like the aforementioned albums, Dawn of Possession keeps it simple for the most part. Blasphemy in a more traditional sense can be cringe-inducing and terrible, like the works of bands like Deicide, or it can be like Dawn of Possession, dark and ominous without being tasteless. There’s not much to read into when it comes to the lyrics on Dawn of Possession, but that doesn’t detract from their quality. The sinister tone created by the lyrics on Dawn of Possession is matched by the instruments. Robert Vigna’s frantic riffing and ominous, wicked solos, and Ross Dolan’s raspy growls at their peak are what make this album what it is, tonally.

Dawn of Possession is an incredible, classic album and it means a lot to me. It was my first Immolation album, the one that got me into them. As soon as I hit play on this album and Into Everlasting Fire started, I knew I found something special. Part of my love for this album comes from the scarcity of it. There’s really no album, not even another Immolation album, that sounds all that close to Dawn of Possession. As one of Immolation’s unique masterpieces, and an all time classic of death metal, Dawn of Possession is an essential album that should have a place in every death metal fan’s collection.