Robert Vigna (Immolation)

[tom schelfaut]

In my opinion one of the most unorthodox players in the genre, unique in his style. Really great lead phrasing as well! What do you guys think? He seems very underrated, very little talk about him... I did prefer his style on the older albums though, strange way of creating riffs.

 

[gunch]

One of the more interesting stage presences in DM

While I also only really like Here in After and Dawn of Possession and their last few albums have been indistinguishable from each other, Vigna is a master of evoking a mood/ atmosphere with his playing.

 

[Ralyks]

I'm surprised my area doesn't talk about any of them more, considering they've recorded almost all of their albums at the studio in my town.

 

[DiezelMonster]

Bob is my favourite player, he has maintained a unique style that, to my knowledge nobody has stolen yet.

There were a few "hiccups" although I have enjoyed their entire catalog.

Just wish he still played that Mockingbird! haha

 

[Rosal76]

I forgot to mention his stage presence! He looks like a dark wizard casting spells

LOL! I'm part of a death metal fan page on Facebook and someone posted one of those, "Anyone here like Immolation?" type things a few weeks ago. One guy hated Immolation and said of the Youtube video: "The whole maestro and swinging his guitar like a rifle barrel is funny for a song or two but that's it". LOL!!!

But I love Immolation. They definitely have their own style. And stage antics. LOL. Newbury comics released a signed C.D. for their Atonement album back in 2017 that I purchased that pretty cool.

 

[sonoftheoldnorth]

Close to a World Below and Unholy Cult are peak Immolation IMO. Bob is great, not the best or most technical player, but very different and a LOT of cool ideas, textures and atmospheres.

 

[Zer01]

Strange! Looks like they speeded up the video for his parts. Someone put some Benny Hill music on that!

 

[tom schelfaut]

Close to a World Below and Unholy Cult are peak Immolation IMO. Bob is great, not the best or most technical player, but very different and a LOT of cool ideas, textures and atmospheres.

I actually find his work on 'Here in After' the best he's ever done. There's such an odd sense of melody and timing in the riffs on that album. And the solo from 'Nailed to Gold' is literally one of my favourite solos ever! Just the way it kind of hovers around the rhythm of the song, it's exceptional!

 

[GÜMERSINDO]

From Dawn of Possession to Unholy Cult; their first fiver records are quintessential.

 

[cindarkness]

As someone who speaks sign language, I can almost understand him.

 

[works0fheart]

Got lucky enough to see him several years ago (2015ish?) and they put on such a good show. I actually really like his stage presence. His riffing is some of the most original out there, but I think a decent chunk of bands have taken from his style and made it their own by now. Ulcerate comes to mind first, and even some bands from the same era have somewhat similar sounds, ie. Cryptopsy and pre-Obscura Gorguts.

Still a sick player though and he's definitely overlooked, but that's how it goes with death metal bands like that unfortunately. Same can be said of the guys from Nocturnus, Disincarnate, Incinerate, etc.

No disrespect to Rob, but I think part of the charm of death metal is how relatively unknown some it is so. It's cool to stumble across some of these bands that people have either forgotten or overlooked in a "Oh hey, this is different than what I've listened to lately" sort of way. I'm recently doing that myself with Deeds of Flesh and Incinerate. I'm familiar with both bands but they'd fallen off of my radar for a while and I'm enjoying going through their material right now.

Anyways, tl;dr, death metal is cool, Rob and his band are cool.

 

[akinari]

Failures for Gods and Close to a World Below are 2 of my favorite albums in any genre. Bob's a phenomenal songwriter and I've always loved his playing and arrangements. There's a very emotive quality to his songs and playing, much like Trey, Piggy, Garrett from Flourishing, Steeve Hurdle, Todd from Starkweather, Rob Marton etc all personal favorites of mine

 

[DiezelMonster]

I actually find his work on 'Here in After' the best he's ever done. There's such an odd sense of melody and timing in the riffs on that album. And the solo from 'Nailed to Gold' is literally one of my favourite solos ever! Just the way it kind of hovers around the rhythm of the song, it's exceptional!

Agreed, Nailed to Gold is my favourite song of theirs, and that solo is INSANE the way it weaves in and out, I think it's genius and it also sounds like it was off the cuff and not necessarily pre written. It makes the hair stand up on the back of my neck.

 

[Crungy]

I don't anything about Immolation but I like what I'm hearing so far.

Also his moves head reminds me of this