by William Jotzat

Immolation is one of the most popular and consistent U.S. death metal bands. They've been around for nearly 25 years in various incarnations. Originally formed as Rigor Mortis, and then changed their name to Immolation. In that time, the band managed to release 10 albums. The latest being "Majesty and Decay." The new album continually pushes the boundaries established by Immolation back in 1991, when their first album, "Dawn of Possession," was released. Immolation is truly dedicated to their craft, the band is always improving their instrumental abilities, and their live delivery. Such determination and dedication has been rewarded by a very long and successful career. The band had earned a worldwide respect from their peers, the critics, and the fans alike. The band's lineup includes Robert Vigna on guitar, Ross Dolan on bass and vocals, Bill Taylor on guitar, and Steve Shalaty on drums.
Guitar player, Robert Vigna, talks about Immolation's quest for longevity, and the passion that drives the band forward.

When the band formed back in 1986 what was the original vision for the band and how has that have changed if at all over the last 24 years?
Robert Vigna: The main reason we got into music because we love playing music, that's the bottom line today as it was 24 years ago. After we did our first demo, we starting getting letters from Poland and other countries in Europe. Tapes were traded by hand, it was different back then, no e-mails and internet, all word of mouth. It helped us keep going in the early days and each album we have gotten more press, better tours, album sales and played bigger and better venues. It's still not at the point where we don't have to have day jobs, but the music is still a large part of our lives. We do well when we do go on the road, but we can't just tour four times a year and give up our day jobs, and do nothing between tours.
What has Immolation done to strive to sound unique and stand out from other death metal bands?
We are very passionate and proud of how the new album, "Majesty and Decay," turned out. We generally write what we feel and it's our own style I guess. We strive to do something different each album that we haven't done before and create new sounds and textures each time. This album was the first time we were able to write the whole album all on computer. It made the whole process very easy, and took a lot of the guess work out for the other guys. For instance our drummer, Steve, lives in Ohio, so I would send him the songs with rough drum parts and he would add the human element and his own touch to the drumming. He has a very unique style and would add his own ideas so it worked out really well. When we got together, we could easily edit and try out several different ideas before we settled on a certain part. I used a program called Ableton Live which I use at my day job at a production company. We could alter parts, do alternate leads or fills on parts, I could work on it ahead of time then just e-mail it to Zack Ohren who mixed and mastered us, and not re-do parts in the studio, it made the whole process so easy. The production came out very strong on this album, much better than many of our previous albums.

What drives Immolation as a whole or each of you to continue to keep touring, recording and doing it this long?
As long as we still love the music, can work well together, do the tours, keep our day jobs and pay our bills, we'll keep doing this as long as we can. We still do this for the love of music, we are lifers.
Immolation is known for its dissonant sound yet often sounds more melodic and catchier than most American death metal bands, so how does a ”typical” song come together for the band, and how do you know when it’s done?
For the past ten years or so we don't get into a rehearsal room on a weekly basis like most bands do. Our drummer, Steve, as I said before lives in Ohio, and our guitarist Bill lives in Florida. Myself and our bassist, Ross, live in Yonkers, New York, and we write the music. We e-mail the other guys the rough songs and everyone practices their parts on their own. Once we have all the music together for a tour, we get together 4-5 days before we leave on tour and work on the songs. The songs come together quickly as we played them on the last tour. We don't get into a room and overkill practice 2-3 times a week. I work long hours so I just write when I am inspired to. Some tours I've gotten back from and not touched a guitar for 6 months to a year. But when I feel like the time is right, I'll start writing for the next album, it makes it feel fresh. If I had to practice every week, it would ruin it for me.
What do you guys do in your spare time outside the band and do any of you have a musical side project, or other hobby or hobbies that is as important as music is to you?
For me, I work for a small production in Brooklyn. We do sound, lighting and video for private and social events. It ties in well with the band for me. We'll use some of the lighting from my company with our banners on stage and I use my editing skills for our trailers and videos. Ross drives a delivery truck in Manhattan. Steve, the drummer, works at a motocross dealership and is heavily into riding motocross motorcycles. We all have our outside passions, but it all comes together for us to play music when we want to. There are no attitudes or bullshit in this band, we play music because we love to.
What bands or music genres inspire you these days, what do you like collectively as a band or individually?
Well, we all like different types of music outside of death metal, and it all seeps into our music subliminally. If for instance I go see a jazz band I might be inspired by something I saw or heard to try in Immolation. We might do it our own way but it was inspired by something I heard or saw done elsewhere.
What hasn’t Immolation achieved or done that is something you’d like to see happen for the band?
For the band we want to tour some places we never been to before. The middle of next year, we'll be going to Asia, New Zealand, and Australia. There is still a lot untouched places we haven't toured like Iceland or South America. Also, we have tried to use different instruments subtlety on past albums such as cello, but we won't use instruments or sounds if it doesn't sound right in Immolation. We won't force things into our music if it doesn't feel right, but I am always open to trying new things.

If you had to pick one song, what song do you feel best embodies the whole Immolation philosophy?
There's a couple of good ones such as "World of Agony" from the last album, also "The Purge", the first song on our new album. That song is very intense but has a lot of elements we use like slow and fast parts, medium tempo breaks. I'd say that one really embodies us as a band.
How has the band’s view of the music scene and recent incredible drops in CD sales changed the marketing philosophy if at all of the band? In other words how does Immolation stay afloat these days and what have you done to adapt to the changing times in music?
We haven't done really anything different since we don't make really any money off of album sales. It's the tours and merchandise where we make our money. So we haven't really changed anything from day one. We just write good albums and get out on the road. Album sales are irrelevant to us.
If for some reason you couldn’t play music anymore what would you do or want to try to do?
Well, I would do what I do at work, with video, lighting, editing and recording. I could see myself doing any number of other things unrelated to music, but what I do for work is what I'd keep for sure. I'd love to own my production company someday.

Link:
http://www.myspace.com/immolation