Imminence – Axis Mundi
Release Date: 2nd October 2026
Label: Sumerian
Order/Stream
Genre: Metalcore, Violincore.
FFO: Architects, Bad Omens, Spiritbox.
Review By: Jeff Finch
Full disclosure, I genuinely enjoyed (and purchased), the 2024 release The Black, so the name Imminence has been on my radar consistently thereafter. Thus it is with disappointment that I have to share their newest album, Axis Mundi, is an exercise in unrewarded patience from a band who clearly knows how to put it all together and make a great album but who just didn’t pull it off this time.
First the good, though: there are a bevy of colossal riffs on this one, chunky and distorted and used for maximum aural impact in these mini breakdowns peppered throughout (think of how Sleep Token’s heavy moments are presented), used in tandem with the uptempo chugging coursing through the record, the production ever thickening the output so you feel smothered by those massive sustained riffs. They’re djenty, layered dissonance, and take full advantage of the song structures with precision stop-start chugging rhythms locked in with the percussion, and when they explode through the speakers, cue stank face. The band is more than capable of transitioning effortlessly from poppy, electronica sounds and stringed orchestral sections into mammoth melodies and crushing rhythms, each one a little more impactful than the last. The band switching up their sounds with such frequency and passion that this change into the super heavy just feels like the band has got this thing all figured out.
And for the most part, especially using The Black as proof, they do. It’s just that with Axis Mundi, they stray too far down paths of uninteresting vocals, overuse and questionable placement of violins, and the decision to render some of their non-heavy moments genuinely dull. I look no further than Didn’t Think About You (Lately) as a prime example. Electronic samples and beats and nothing but clean, studio-tweaked vocals yield a song whose superpower is getting a listener to stop doing so. His clean singing voice isn’t strong enough to lead an entire track, especially one so musically barren. A song like Exodus is where the band is truly at their best, a mishmash of all their musical ideas and excellent screams to boot. But if there is one gripe I have that may make you think, but Jeff, haven’t you listened to them before? It’s the decisions made on where and when to turn up the volume on the stringed orchestral sections. They’ve done it well before, but on this record the inclusions seem forced, misplaced, and altogether unnecessary, opening track If Not Now, When is an excellent example; they’ve just gotten done with a killer breakdown and some of the best screams on the entire album only to clumsily transition into violin overpowering the softer beats and clean vocals with its very presence. Symphonic elements in music can be utterly brilliant, which the band has shown, but for some reason, they just don’t fit on this album. Perhaps due to the lack of consistent flow between tracks, a couple of bangers followed by a couple of yawners, but whatever the reason, their inclusion either should’ve been more properly written or completely left out.
It’s with these parting thoughts that I say this album proved to be profoundly frustrating and quite a letdown. There are moments of brilliance on the record that changed my mind on my overall opinion of the album in real time, but they’re too outnumbered by those moments that yield an audible sigh. Imminence is incredibly talented and proves that here, but the ideas and their execution unfortunately yield little to walk away happy about.
(2.5 / 5)
