Question: how much of a gimmick is Imminence’s violin? Follow-up question: if you take the violin away, is anything of note left?
The temptation may be to look more fondly from the beginning. After all, there’s a presumed class and taste that the violin brings that, when the word ‘gimmick’ has only further pejorated, appears to be something different. And it does seem to have taken hold, overall. Imminence have been—for lack of a better word—legitimised within modern metalcore, far beyond the reaches of their contemporaries who began life on the Arising Empire battery farms. They’re seen as purveyors of grandeur and epic scope, with eyelines entirely on their single, different instrumental choice.
To be fair, it has worked. The potential for Imminence to vault over the competition is there, and they take advantage of it. But at the same time, any discussion of that always—always!—circles back to that violin as the main point of reference, as would any other metalcore band’s ‘twist’. And when you realise it’s very much an add-on, things do get cast in a different light. It’s not a cultural signifier like you’d find from Bloodywood, or something with such an inalienable effect on the creative process like Electric Callboy would have. It’s not even a symphonic-metal or crossover-classical thing. It’s metalcore with a violin attached, not the other way around.
The point is that, to find the best of Axis Mundi, you’re reliant on that one component that’s not always reliably there. When it is, there’s an ache to the final chorus of Twisting In The Wind that carries genuine power, or a dramatic boost in size to Crestfallen. Most of the album finds the chance to weave in moments like this, entirely to Imminence’s benefit. They’re almost necessary for the glacial metalcore being made, to zero in on a reverent, almost otherworldly expanse. Isolate those, and Imminence have some really excellent cooking up.
To their credit, too, the band try for similar elsewhere. The baseline of production on Axis Mundi approaches something more regal and embossed, or at least more so than metalcore’s cavalcade of non-efforters. It’s big and broad, and heavy to the point where calling the guitars ‘low-end’ is probably underdoing it. It certainly sounds expensive for all it brings; there’s been a lot of resources funnelled into this.
But regardless of any of that, Imminence just aren’t reaching those full extremes. They want to, but their hemmed in by a perception of what that means specifically through a modern metalcore lens. Anything encroaching on melodeath or black-metal (even just in texture) could’ve made for some considerable upward moves into harsher, frigid climes. Instead, the closest they get is in the buried screams of Shed Your Skin, immediately after the manipulated warble that’s at the total other end of the spectrum. At least it has a reason to be here, unlike Didn’t Think About You (Lately). Whoever told Imminence to bin everything that works for them in favour of shrink-wrapped drum ‘n’ bass with an equally airless vocal performance has some serious explaining to do.
Maybe it’s just an effect of frontman Eddie Berg, though, who leaves a lot to be desired as a singer across Axis Mundi. Not as a screamer; there are no qualms there. Deflated melody that unsuccessfully invokes the power behind it, though? Yeah, that’s exceptionally noteworthy. It doesn’t get better as it goes, either, culminating in botched double-header of Power Divine and Exodus. The former has an already-underpowered Berg sat like a stone amid a far more purposeful stomp; the latter, meanwhile, sounds as though he knows it’s the last song and just wants it over with.
The album’s pacing doesn’t help in that interpretation, either. This is another instance of Axis Mundi striking at extreme bombast, only to have it not play out very well. It’s the lack of consistent opulence that’s the spanner in the works. When Berg’s strings have the spotlight, Imminence’s sweeping, cinematic might feels realised; remove them, even for a bit, and you’re left with fat lumps like Devil May Try and Exodus. By the time that one comes around, the dirge has bore down something wretched, and although Axis Mundi isn’t an exorbitantly long album, it sure feels it here. That’s what happens when the most significant tempo shift happens on The Sword That Never Bends’ nu-metal bounce, just two songs in.
All of that is to say that Imminence probably had an expectation for Axis Mundi that tends not to be met. There’s a lot of faults to endure (and sizable ones, at that), many of which would demolish a lesser band on impact. But they’re still a cut above the absolute chaff of their scene, in small doses but does nonetheless. Crestfallen is a genuine hit that achieves the icy vastness of Imminence’s on-paper ambition with aplomb. There’s also If Not Now, When, a bit of a curveball in its Deftones-shaped form, and although the buzzier guitar edges are a little curt, it’s a good pivot, and certainly better than when it’s tried again on Shed Your Skin. (In general, too, it’s frankly insane that you can hear a bass on this thing at all, but it’s true.)
So, to return to the earlier question of how much of Imminence’s quality is dependent on their violin entirely—a disproportionate amount, but it’s not quite an eternal rod for their back, either. Axis Mundi wants to be enormous on its own merits, gives itself the chance to, but doesn’t always pay off in the most optimal way. It’s unfortunate, and without Imminence’s grander tendencies imposed across the board, also unsurprising. And yet, there’s the gnawing feeling that Imminence could get there with more application. It’s clearest only in fits and spurts, but Axis Mundi’s typical waterline rises higher than true metalcore backwash. Maybe there is something more to this; it’ll just take some really concentrated efforts to make it a reality.
For fans of: Architects, Dayseeker, Spiritbox
‘Axis Mundi’ by Imminence is released on 2nd October on Sumerian Records.
Words by Luke Nuttall
