Pestilence - Exitivm (2021)

If Exitivm has one particular flaw to it, its that for most if its playtime it is revisiting or recycling a lot of the riffing tropes that originated around Testimony of the Ancients and Spheres, and that Patrick Mameli has also been more-or-less revising on all of the reunion era Pestilence records. I have seen this complaint launched at the band a thousand times for the last decade, and it does hold some truth to it, although it might be a little harsh to criticize this one group for doing so, when other legacy acts in the same medium are given praise for repeating the same riffs or records ad infinitum. But sure, a lot of the sequences here are modifications, half step intervals shifts or re-grooved riffs from the band's own lexicon, and that's the one hurdle that might hold it back from achieving the level of their formative masterpieces from before they adopted this approach in their 90s era...

But that's the ONE flaw for me, because Exitivm is otherwise a completely fucking awesome, exciting album that I must have listened through two dozen times since I got it, and I'd probably have gone more if I weren't constantly splitting my time between the tens of thousands of older records and the ceaseless flood of great new releases in the expanded metal-verse. This is a triumph for the Dutch-centered act which takes a lot of the lessons from albums like Spheres, Hadeon and Doctrine and then sharpens them into the best selection of chugs, grooves and atmospheric touches the band assembled this century (so far). Knuckle-dragging, jazzy chords splayed out in insanely catchy hooks, even if a bit predictable, while Mameli slathers over them all some of his grossest-sounding vocals yet, to the degree that I think he's just about as disgusting and distinct as van Drunen was in the old days, and the fact that Pestilence are writing such neatly-honed, almost accessible material makes them stand out that much more.

It's not so uncommon for Mameli to assemble entirely new lineups for albums in the way that Chuck Schuldiner messed around with, but this new unit locks together like perfectly oiled machinery, with Michiel van der Plicht splitting my head open with his clockwork, brutal beats. The synthed out intros and segues provide a nice escape from the hammering force of the dominant death metal, and I'd say they were the best of this sort the band has ever included, superior to the little instrumental bits on Testimony or the weirdscapes on Spheres. Because they're just better integrated into the tunes, offering a little escape and relief from the blunt force trauma that you're about to be faced with, and then even adding a little to those very brute moments ("Internicionem"). All the tracks are fairly quick, with just a few rhythmic ideas in them, normal for Pestilence, but really well plotted, and the fusion-like leads are also taut and well-executed, giving the compositions even more dimensional flair.

Ambient hook. Beating. Alien hook. Beating. Repeat for a tight 39 minutes and lather with Latin song titles to create a uniform artistic vision which is both pretentious and loveable. There was not a single moment on this record that I was ever bored or less-than engaged, regardless of whether the riff motifs felt similar to their past works, or a little more novel (I'd say this is about a 60% to 40% ratio). The production is bright and perfectly fit to this futuristic sci-fi dystopian death, and it's got to rank among my favorite Pestilence works besides the obvious first two that remain high points in all of metal and music. Mameli might not be the best spokesperson for his own band these 30 years, but when it comes down to the music I am still positively thrilled by the combination of groove and cataclysmic, cosmic tension and anxiety that this causes me. Sure I've seen this steamroller before in pictures, but it still runs me over just the same.

Verdict: Epic Win [9/10]

http://www.pestilence.nl/

Pestilence - Hadeon (2018)

If it weren't painfully obvious from the cover artwork, Hadeon is a clear homage to Pestilence's early 90s output, namely Testimony of the Ancients and its jazzier, stranger successor Spheres. In this it draws some comparisons also to their divisive 2009 reunion effort Resurrection Macabre, on which there were clearly some stylistic parallels to Testimony, albeit handled in a more methodical, brutal and explosive way that I happened to really enjoy. Unlike that album, however, Mameli and company have done away with the idiosyncratic barkings of the song titles within the fore and aft of each track. Unlike its true 1991 precursor, you also won't a whole roster of experimental vignettes to distract you from the meat of the metal, and that actually ramps up the album's effectiveness.

That's not to say that some experimentation doesn't exist...like the intro, or the instrumental interlude "Sudivisions", upon which bassist Tilen Hudrap flies all over his frets until we become dizzied by his absolute mastery of that instrument. The first moment of "Astral Projection" is a strange robotic sort of proggy narrative which wouldn't have been out of place on Spheres, without the production gaffes that many complained about on that album. For most of its playtime, however, Hadeon is a relatively straightforward affair that plays it safe for fans of the aforementioned albums, but occasionally rips out a riffing progression, melody or technique that hasn't been beaten to death already. To those who abhorred their previous, mechanical groove-laden records Doctrine and Obsideo, I think this might prove a welcome relief, for while it does often feel like its paraphrased from songs they've already written, that dark, overall jazzy vibe to the sliding chords combined with the brute vocals and leads that hearken back to the fusion elements the band was so beholden in the 90s still feels fresh and unique enough to stand out against a wide landscape of bands that never quite took the carrot.

The production is punchy and polished, akin to its direct predecessors, which pairs up well with the busy but clean bass-lines which are a joy to hear throughout. Mameli still might not have the same bloodsoaked charisma as van Drunen during the band's fantastic, formative phase, but he is more than adequate to the task, adding a nice little grueling sustain to many of the lines that provides a cool counterbalance to the much tidier tension of the riffs. Septimiu Hărşan's drums are likewise up to par, an intense but controlled performance that loads in just enough fills for propulsion to what are a generally mid-paced set of rhythms, yet he could fly off the handle at will, and the double kick is sounding as effortless as you could want it on any modern death metal recording. But most important for me, is that Hadeon grew on me across successive listens, easing me out of the whole 'well this just sounds derivative' category and into genuine enjoyment. There hasn't been a Pestilence studio album that I've actually disliked, but this is far more in the direction of where I think they 'need to be' than the last two, with more fluid and intricate musicianship that they had eschewed to attempt that more pounding, grooving, hypnotic effect. The songs aren't unanimously memorable, but I think if they use this as the groundwork to launch this particular style onto an even more insane, intense plain, then I'm looking forward to the flight.

Verdict: Win [8/10]

http://www.pestilence.nl

Pestilence - Reflections of the Mind (2016)

I have little idea if there will be life post-Obsideo for Pestilence; one day it seems to be one story, and then a few months later there 'that's all she wrote'. But for Vic Records, this posthumous state continues with a slew of fan-targeted releases. First, The Dysentery Penance which gave you a chance to own the band's earlier demos where they were transitioning from their thrash metal foundation into. And now, Reflections of the Mind, a record that consists of demos and rehearsals from the second half of their Roadrunner signing, Testimony of the Ancients and Spheres. I'm not quite sure who it was that demanded the release of such a thing...perhaps it was Mameli, perhaps there really is some fan outcry for it that I'm blissfully unaware of, but the fact that it's re-mastered by Dan Swanö piqued my interest enough to dive into it and see what's become of these tunes...

And it's not awful, merely unnecessary. What you're getting here is a mash-up of a rawer form of Testimony of the Ancients and a Spheres that sounds somewhat more brash but coherent, mainly in how the death/thrashing riffs offset the experimental guitar effects that were the selling point for that underrated anomaly. Here, the tones and textures in tracks like "Searching the Soul" take on a more purely ambient hue, whether it's because they weren't finalized or 'plugged in' I cannot say. In a few cases, like "Changing Perspectives", it makes the finished product seem like more of a jumbled mess as the rhythm guitars are brought to the fore against the dryer melodies. A few tunes like "Level of Perception" and "Multiple Being" sounds really washed out with all the reverb, and others like "Land of Tears" are very obvious raw rehearsals and sound pretty crappy compared to the final products you heard on the full-length album. A few of the selections are surprises, like a rough take of "Echoes of Death" from Consuming Impulse or a clamorous cut called "Omens of Revelation" which seems to have been sliced up into other songs later.

There is probably a portion of Pestilence's audience, specifically those who scour the internet for or swap death metal demos through the mail, that would be thrilled by this or even develop a preference, not necessarily for the rehearsals which dominate a lot of the play length, but the raw/alternate takes on songs they might not have fully appreciated. I am just not one of them. Had this been a pure alt recording for Spheres, an album with some clear production issues, tweaked by Swanö, then it could have actually been worthwhile for me. But as it stands, the best I can say for it is that Reflections of the Mind might have a few takers, and it's at least better than some faceless Greatest Hits collection which just lifts the songs from the studio albums. This is something slightly different. That said, I do hope this and the Presence of the Pest live recording are the last of this glut of fan packages, and if there's to be more Pestilence it's new. Doctrine and Obsideo were hugely divisive albums, but at least that more mechanical, groove evolution of the band was slightly forward thinking.

Verdict: Indifference [5.25/10]

http://www.pestilence.nl/

Pestilence - Presence of the Pest (2016)

As the 'second winds' of classic 80s and 90s era death metal bands begin to blow out, or even if they don't, or they transform into 'third winds', I think it's only inevitable that we're going to see a lot more posthumous, throwback live LPs, demo or rehearsal collections that sell largely upon the nostalgia of their long time fans, or the historical cravings of newer listeners with a lot of disposable income or hard drive space. Presence of the Pest is one such example, releasing nearly a quarter century after the height of the band's powers, recorded in their home territory at the Dynamo Open Air, after what many would regard as their best or at least most popular album, Testimony of the Ancients.

Now, I do not count myself among that crowd, since their first two albums are a one-two punch combo that has not been surpassed for me over decades of death metal, but it stands to reason that this is the material most of their fan base most strongly identify with and thus it's a solid choice if you wanna reap a little scratch. The set here is, thankfully, second and third records pretty evenly, packed with gems, many of which are among my favorites, and sound quite energized back in this time when the band had some obvious enthusiasm. Granted, a live album from the years Martin van Drunen was fronting the band would have been the ideal for me to drain the wallet, but the infamous Patrick Mameli's vocals here are brute and ugly as on the recordings, and he doesn't really take a torch to the older cuts. Having seen them live Stateside on the tour for Testimony, I can recall that this was about the level at which they were performing, only here you get a lot more material since they weren't opening up for a larger act in a compact set, but given some actual time.

As for the live mix, it sounds pretty good in the mid-range, and conveys a lot of the grisliness of the songwriting, especially the Consuming Impulse material; but the riffing can occasionally come across as confusing when compared to the original studio versions. Guitars carve out the foremost point of production, while the bass is audible enough to make out through them, the vocals ride just outside and to the top at critical moments, and the drums also pop through. Leads sound just as spurious and infected as you'd want, and they play across all the albums with consistency. This is ESPECIALLY great to hear on "Chemo Therapy" which sticks out as a sore thumb as the sole representative of Mallevs Maleficarvm. And that's a bit of a downer, but it makes some sense that they mostly included Testimony of the Ancients due to its freshness, and Mameli's comfort growling and performing it. I might not hold that album in such high esteem as its predecessors, but I do enjoy it quite a lot and can't scoff at hearing "Presence of the Dead", "Twisted Truth" and so forth.

Admittedly, I'm not the hugest proponent for live albums. There are several in my collection that I have found timeless and alluring to keep around, but I'm always more apt to listen to the material in its studio context, and Presence of the Pest is no exception. It's a solid offering that wont' let you down if you pine for the Dutchmen at the pinnacle of their penetration into the 90s death metal market, before stuttering with the experimental (if still cool) Spheres. But as much as I love the band's early full-lengths, an admiration I will take to my own grave, I feel that I could very much live without this. And so I will.

Verdict: Indifference [6.75/10]

https://www.facebook.com/Pestilenceofficial?fref=ts

Pestilence - The Dysentery Penance (2015)

It's kind of shocking that The Dysentery Pestilence hasn't happened until now. I mean I remember tracking down bootlegs of the Dutch veterans' demos long ago, so obsessed was I with their early LPs, but always wanted the material in some 'official' format. A desire which Mind Reflections, the Roadrunner compilation released in the 90s, was all too happy NOT to oblige. Now, in 2015, once it seems that Pestilence has gone defunct yet again (possibly for the best, but who knows), we are presented with both their original 1987 demos pre-Mallevs Maleficarvm, a couple of live tracks added on, and the whole shebang remixed by Dan Swano for Vic Records. Sounds like a plan...

Obviously, the tunes here are more oriented to the thrash metal which informed their Roadrunner Records debut Mallevs Maleficarvm, only with the first demo you've got Patrick Mameli doing a more straightforward, bruising vocal style over riffs that HEAVILY remind me of Slayer circa Hell Awaits, especially in tracks like "Delirical Life". They really hadn't gone that extra step of clinical development which cultivated those morgue room aesthetics on the first full-length, so we have a cruder riff-set that channels more of a West Coast US feel than even the more neighborly German thrash scene of that era. Volume has been brought up here, and it sounds almost like a basement gig of some crossover/thrash band in places, but you can hear some of the churning even in these early riffs which would influence later stuff, especially Consuming Impulse. That said, this doesn't really elevate beyond that garage speed/thrash level which hundreds of bands were creating in the mid 80s, and the songs leave no lasting impression even if they're appropriately abusive..."Throne of Death" is probably my favorite among them, a solid mid-paced thrasher with the riff that feel closest to me to Mallevs Maleficarvm.

For The Penance, they had acquired Martin van Drunen, and a more forceful, impactful riff set that, while not entirely in the ballpark of what they'd accomplish later, invokes a lot more anger and headbanging and probably took just as many cues from Exodus as Slayer. "Before the Penance" is a straight mosher, for example. Now, this is the earliest example of van Drunen's vocals I'd ever been exposed to, but you can already hear that unique, grotesque tone of his, only the vocals are a little thinner and not so brutally pitched. Some of the riffs in "Affectation" and perhaps a little in "Fight the Plague" were modified or borrowed wholesale to create tunes on the following full-length, and as you can already guess from my fanboyism of the first couple Pestilence records I would be much more inclined to visit this demo again than their earlier material. It's just more dynamic, evil and memorable, and while it won't stand out against fully formed bands releasing label efforts in '87, it's solid.

All in all, this was a decent acquisition for Vic records, and now that the Dutchmen are on hold (maybe for the last time), it's nice to be able to complete the cycle of their discography. The tunes aren't new to me, but Swano's mix elevates the material to a level just that you'd be rewarded with if you had previously fumbled around the underground for copies of the tapes. It's brought down by the average first demo, and the two live tracks (both tunes from The Penance) sound like shit, so I can't recommend it unless you're an enormous fan of Pestilence who must have everything. If you're entirely new to Pestilence, then any of the first three albums will serve you much better, or if you're not one of those anti-reunion slags, Resurrection Macabre probably won't let you down, it's a great amalgamation of their earlier sounds into a more punishing modern studio context.

Verdict: Indifference [6.5/10]

http://www.pestilence.nl/

Pestilence - Obsideo (2013)

Much like Resurrection Macabre was an amalgam of the first three Pestilence records in the 80s and 90s, Obsideo seems a combination of its two direct predecessors with a lot of the Spheres fusion jazz poking through in the lead guitar choices and backing ambiance. While not as steadfastly groovy and modernist as Doctrine, it certainly forwards that aesthetic by ironically tempering it with components from the bands' past, specifically the 90s when they were so forward thinking that they dropped off just about everyone's radar. Don't get me wrong: this album still has loads of simplistic, churning groove/death rhythms which stir the conscience much like they'll stir a mosh pits' collective limbs, but there is a slightly more adventurous shadow being cast by the past here, and it's the reason I've been so back and forth on Obsideo since I started listening to this. At times I've found it quite brilliant, and at others I struggle to give a damn...it's unlikely to sway the divisiveness Pestilence has faced since its regrouping strongly in one direction or the other.

Very clearly, all the cries of 'sellout' and 'cash in' and other nonsensical accusations that have surrounded the group since their 21st century rebirth have by now (or should now be) subsided, because the music they've been putting out is hardly accessible to either the mainstream metal audience or even the trending death metal crowds of the present era. It's not easily pigeonholed into brutal death, or old school death, or really anything other than to say that it's fucking Pestilence. Patricks Mameli and Uterwijk are not touring compulsively across the world on major packages, they're not being carted around in limousines while they log in remotely to their offshore banking accounts, and they're not releasing lazy industrial metal albums because they suddenly don't give a fuck. Obsideo might not be their best material, in fact very far fucking from it, but it's not like they're just constantly recycling Consuming Impulse, one of the greatest albums ever, to appease the highly critical vest-metal fashionistas that seem to hate anything which doesn't proscribe to a particular set of popular nostalgic standards, which is odd since the majority of said critics weren't even able to walk yet when Roadrunner dropped Testimony of the Ancients.

Oh, there IS recycling here, the majority of the rhythm guitar patterns paraphrased from prior albums, but not in a matter that speaks of trying to turn a quick buck. I simply think Pestilence has run itself against a wall in attempting to constantly reinvent its pummeling post-modern aesthetics, and that has translated into the sheer redundancy in chord choices which are nothing new to anyone following the band since 1991. I had half expected Obsideo to be highly experimental, to push their sonic envelope much like Testimony's 'refinement' of the 80s records, but instead it clings too tightly to its predecessors, and lacks the songwriting punch of Resurrection Macabre, which was exceptionally energized and memorable other than the strange choice to repeat the choruses at the beginnings of the tunes. I still spin that album a lot, especially for that one-two combo leading it off, whereas the more recent Doctrine earns only an occasional curiosity spin. After about a half dozen treks through Obsideo, I feel I very well might consign it to that same fate...it tries pretty hard, and it's ultimately worth hearing, impossible not to headbang to if you've got a personal connection to Mameli's riffing style, but it does come up short on those transitive, unforgettable moments that defined their earlier incarnations...

Bear in mind that there are new dudes entering the fold here, most notably David Haley of the Australian tech killers Psycroptic, Ruins, Blood Duster and The Amenta, who naturally proved attractive due to his high level of skill and attention to details. He does a fantastic job here, his fills and tempo mastery helping to really enhance what are evidently a very simple set of chugging, oft discordant rhythm guitar riffs, complex only in that they avoid a number of the genre tropes and set up the sporadic, jazzy leads which Pestilence has been shoveling upon us since Testimony and Spheres. I'm not familiar with the new bassist Georg Maier, but he's definitely got an agile style here which brings to mind Tony Choy, only with the benefits of the more muscular modern definition in the low end mix. The rhythm section certainly feels mechanical in nature, loud and in a few cases brickwalled, but I think with a record as once-futuristic as this that industrial precision is not at all unwelcome in its execution. Put bluntly, Obsideo sounds absolutely fantastic if you're not afraid of death metal records sounding like they were recorded in 2013 and not 1993. I mean I love that stuff too, to this day, but Pestilence is not a band that I really need to dwell too much on studio reversion (though they are clearly doing this in the riff construction).

Much has been said of Mameli's vocals and how they compare to his esteemed predecessor, one of the greatest death metal growlers of all time (who continues to forge on in that capacity with Hail of Bullets, Asphyx and Grand Supreme Blood Court). That said, even if he's no Van Drunen, Patrick is simply gruesome on this album, his guttural the one 'wild' contrast to the absolute control the musicians have over their instruments. Occasional higher-pitched snarls are used to double up on his standard pitch, but really it's that low end, ugly sustain to his voice that complements the box-like palm-muted grooves and airy, winding solos. He seems to improve across the album, with tunes like "Super Conscious" and "Saturation" having the most impact. Believe me, as much as I prefer the first two albums musically, the shift in front men was never really a problem unless you just hated half of Mameli's foot-in-mouth rants over the decades. To be fair, it's no surprise at all that he alienated a chunk of his audience with his standoffish comments, but he's hardly a hack on the microphone, and I say that not based solely on the studio performance, but also in having seen him live a few times.

As for the riff-set, you've got a lot of those transmigratory, time signature warping palm mutes colliding all over the place with Haley's devastating capabilities. Like I hinted above, the bottom line on this disc is not exactly difficult or technical in terms of the number of notes being strewn over the beats, but more concerned with repeatedly jerking you around, boxing in your eardrums and planting a boot in your gut. Leads are more alien and playful, naturally, like a lot of the 80s fusion guitarists that inspired the original members, but that does not always make them particularly inspiring or interesting, since we've been down this road before. I believe there is enough chugging force to the down-tuned guitars that fans of niches like djent and nu metal seeking something more unusual might feel this record, but that's not to say it belongs to either of those categories, it just doesn't have any apprehension at using whatever modern techniques or tools are available to it. All told, whether or not the grooves 'lay into you' will determine whether you love or hate this: say, for instance, the advance track "Necro Morph" and its semi-familiar Pestilential rhythmic step...did you feel that? Did you neck just shake? Yes? Pursue further. No? Forget this exists.

My neck shook, my temples throbbed, my fists clenched, and I felt fully immersed in the experience WHILE having it, but 20-30 minutes later I just didn't seem to care, much the same as I responded to Doctrine. It's a good album, but from a band that for 21 years gave me nothing but great albums (even a couple that I'd still consider flawless, timeless examples of distinct death metal), it doesn't feel completely adequate. Certainly not a letdown, because after Doctrine I did not have high expectations, but I felt like they'd go for something more bizarre this time out (like a Spheres) and it still seems they are tinkering with the same rhythmic toys. A band like Pestilence might be better served moving continuously forward...regardless of what or who they leave behind. Back to space, boys! We'll catch up. Resurrection Macabre already paid their early years ample tribute, and that and Doctrine are really too recent to demand their own...which Obsideo ends up being, though it's as taut and professional as you might hope for.

Verdict: Win [7.5/10] (the test of time, already lost)

http://www.pestilence.nl/index.html

Pestilence - Doctrine (2011)

Resurrection Macabre was easily one of the more divisive of the death metal 'comeback' albums in the past decade, with one half of the listener base decrying it as a cash-in or mindless afterthought, or harboring ill will towards various questionable statements made by Patrick Mameli during the band's long hiatus; the other praising its mesh of ingredients from the band's first three, legendary full-lengths. I happened to fall deep in the latter category, and immune to the exaggerated hyperbole of the former. I found the album immensely enjoyable and am still spinning it in a regular rotation today, despite a few minor flaws (semblance to a few Testimony of the Ancients tracks, excess if intentional repetition of the track titles in the lyrics).

Besides, if you gauge the reality that Resurrection Macabre and its ensuing tour earned barely enough to cover the bands production fees and travel expenses, the implication that it was some sort of cheap cash-in is entirely laughable. As for Mameli's unfortunate statements...if I based my metal listening choices on the irrational and emotional outbursts and tongue slips of musicians involved, my play list would be carved down to like a half dozen bands. Was the comeback as remarkable as the band's Martin van Drunen-fronted fare? Not on your life. But as a strangely mechanical contortion of the band's hypnotic rhythmic sensibility, high production values and great riffs and vocals, it was about all I could have hoped for as a long time fan of all their prior full-lengths (yes, even Spheres).

Two years later, and we've got Doctrine, the sixth Pestilence effort, and one which follows rather closely in the footsteps of its direct predecessor. In fact, this is the least evolutionary or retro-evolutionary step in the band's career. Like Resurrection Macabre, the focus is on primal, punctual palm mute patterns ("Sinister", "Salvation") interspersed with eerie octave chords ("Amgod", "Malignant"), sparsely erupting into more frenetic tech thrashing fare ("Doctrine", "Confusion"). A number of curious aesthetic choices were made here like the simple, almost unanimously one-word titles redolent of their interludes on Testimony or the furthered inclination towards the repetition of the choruses, which admittedly grows annoying in the closing moment of "Sinister". Patrick Mameli has actually claimed a wider emotional range than the past three albums, the growls scaling and descending intense heights, even displaying an unexpected ability to scream at higher elevation, and the technical performances, especially of the rhythm section (Jeroen Paul Thesseling and Yuma Van Eekelen) are incredibly tight.

The band does actually reach back into their jazzy guitar synthesis here. Not to the extent of Spheres, but there's no doubt that the bridge of "Salvation" is intended as more than a wink and a nod to prior Pestilence experimentation. This is not unwelcome, as it adds a bit more depth than the largely muted rhythms of the verses are able to manifest alone. Unfortunately, if I were to compare this to any of their older works (even Resurrection Macabre), the songs just don't add up. They're interesting, and grow even more effective through a few listens to the album, but I constantly felt myself awaiting hooks that seemed to hover over the precipice of possibility and then never manifest into the actual songs. Whereas songs like "Horror Detox", "Devouring Frenzy" and "Hate Suicide" were both immediately catchy and enduring, there are too few here that stride the same path of quality. Thus, the better tracks throughout Doctrine are those that exhibit the most dynamic range, escaping the subdued monotony and primacy of the bludgeon grooves that comprise most of the experience.

There is still much going for Pestilence, and I for one am glad they are still 'going', but I can't sugarcoat the recognition that this is their least impressive effort to date. Fans of modern death or thrash metal with jazz and progressive influences, still moored in brutal breakdowns, with slick production values and talented musicians capable of restraint, will certainly want to check this out. Think a mix of Testimony of the Ancients, Destroy Erase Improve era Meshuggah or Fredrik Thordendal's Special Defects, and you're in the right ballpark. But in lieu of this Dutch staple's mighty legacy, I expected a lot more, especially after the the 2009 comeback already served as their midlife crisis management, finely fusing their past ingredients into a fun pummeling. Doctrine seems more of a sidereal glance than a stride in any direction, but its not without a few exceptional hints of headbanging mirth.

Verdict: Win [7.25/10]

http://pestilence.nl/

Concert Report: Pestilence, Warbringer, Vital Remains - June 7, 2010

My body is bruised and swollen, my voice is gone, I've got whiplash and above all I can't hear shit. This show was sick.

The Ultra Violet Social Club is a misleading name for a metal little gem of a venue located a stone's throw from Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. It looks like a converted warehouse, and isn't much more than a little black concrete room with a stage at one end and a bar on the other. I came in as Vital Remains were setting up, having missed the first two acts: Sacrificial Slaughter, a group of nice guys from Corona whom I spoke with briefly, and Enfold Darkness, which I can't say I regret (a judgment made solely on their facial hair). Local heroes Warbringer were set to play after Vital, with Pestilence (who of course needs no introduction) headlining.

Vital Remains didn't make me wait long. The Rhode Island natives were the most theatrical of the bunch, with vocalist Scott Wily leading the venue in almost a moment of prayer as their intro track played, then breaking the calm with an explosive inquiry of "Where is your god now?" and shattering every cross in a 666 mile radius with the title track from Icons of Evil. I was too busy channeling the quintessence of Satan to count, but they continued with another four or five tracks, including Dechristianize (complete with the great intro from the album) and Devoured Elysium. You owe it to yourself and to Satan to see these guys live, and I'm not just biased because they pulled me up on stage.

Up next was Warbringer, the thrashers from my old stomping grounds down in Ventura County. They played a song or two from last year's Waking Into Nightmares but their set was mostly tracks from their debut War Without End with Total War, Shoot to Kill, At the Crack of Doom, and Combat Shock. People fuckin' love these guys and it's easy to see why; they put on a great show, with more energy than a nuclear meltdown. The crowd went insane, I was up front, close enough that a mosher impacting me from behind was enough for my skull to meet a tuning peg from guitarist John Laux's weapon of choice. I hope it leaves a scar.

The crowd swelled to maximum as Pestilence took the stage, opening with Devouring Frenzy which broke any necks that hadn't already been there for the previous bands. They had a great set, running through Horror Detox, Dehydrated, The Process of Suffocation, Hate Suicide, Resurrection Macabre and I believe Malleus Maleficarum / Anthropomorphia, including others. Their presence was grim and from the oldest of schools, Patrick Marneli has great presence and sounds in person exactly like he does on the records; if I hadn't been watching him I could have sworn he was being eaten alive by a swarm of locusts or dragged to hell by the white horseman himself. They said a quick goodnight at the end and departed the stage, but returned just as fast before announcing the final song: "OUT! OF! THE! BODY!!!" The survivors in the crowd just fucking lost their shit, tearing each other limb from limb as that timeless riff pulverized our remains into so much human salsa.

Sound quality was an issue throughout the night. The sound was full and meaty as fuck, but the bass drowned out the higher guitar notes (Warbringer had some good solos that I could only hear because my head with two feet from the guitar,) and even the vocals lost a bit of edge to the imbalance. Only so much acoustic quality can be expected from a tiny converted industrial building, but it was an unfortunate price to pay. Still, it was far from a dealbreaker, and the intimate nature of the show was priceless. This show fucking killed. If modern medical science can replace my eardrums by the time any of these bands come my way next, I'll eagerly sacrifice them all over again.

http://www.ultravioletsocialclub.com/
http://www.myspace.com/championsofmetal
http://www.myspace.com/enfolddarkness
http://www.myspace.com/vitalremains
http://www.myspace.com/warbringer
http://www.myspace.com/pestilenceofficial - http://pestilence.nl/

Pestilence - Spheres (1993)

Testimony of the Ancients might have taunted the listener with traces of jazz, progressive rock and other outsourced influences. It might have seemed the beginning of a departure from the brute force of the band's roots in death and thrash metal. But though that album might have rode the rocket out through the solar system, stopping somewhere around Jupiter for a coffee and then turning back to our more immediate neighborhood in the void, the band's 4th full-length Spheres abandons our neck of the universe altogether, building enough thrust to carry it into unexplored pastures. Spheres is the band's 'jazz death' album, and yet it has very little in common with similar forays towards the form by a Cynic or Atheist, or the more spastic, later approach of a Dillinger Escape Plan, or the jazzcore/rap of Candiria.

No, this was something unique, and in hoping to give it that rare spin, Mameli and company recorded it with their 4th producer in four albums: Steve Fontano. Fontano is a more seasoned, diverse knob twiddler than Trapp, Johns, or Burns. He's done everything from R&B to Southern rock to ska in his day, but I'm willing to bet Pestilence were most interested in his work with shred and jazz influenced artists like Tony MacAlpine or Greg Howe. He's done an interesting job with this album. I was surprised to find that it's not as polished sounding as Testimony of the Ancients; there's a particular grit to this journey due to its highly synthesized embellishments. Not KEYBOARDs, mind you, as Patrick Mameli was so adamant to inform us all in the liner notes that no keyboards were used on this recording. Those miserable keyboards, always killing the music, right? No. And considering that the album is so full of synth guitar waves, one wonders what is really the difference, and why one might seem opposed to the use of one, but supportive of the other, especially when the band had used the former in the past. The band had also changed bassists once again, replacing Tony Choy with the equally mesmerizing theory of Jeroen Paul Thesseling, and he's a good fit for this particular album, with his honest 4 and 6-string tones anchoring the spatial chaos that erupts.

The guitar synths actually work well in favor of the album, creating all manner of cosmic vibrations through the more metallic segments. A shimmering array of stars here, just at the edge of a groove. A pulsar out beyond Mameli's leering growls. A black hole sucking in all light through a fusion/rock break. It's fascinating, if you've the patience and wherewithal to let the album absorb you into its manic, extraterrestrial dementia. And it begins with one of its more aggressive expeditions, "Mind Reflections", which creates a sense of terror above its hacking, morbid rhythms and waylaid grooves, the coolest happening before the :40 mark. "Multiple Beings" is a more playful romp across a subdued, melodic thrashing, while the bass pumps away in an almost repressed funk and the synthesized strings interact with Mameli's intonations, stopping only for various fusion bridges. This is quite a good song, though I can see how it would turn someone off from the album if they're expecting "The Process of Suffocation Pt. II".

Revelation, of the inner transformation
Betrayer, of your self-creation

"The Level of Perception" continues to formulate this pattern of excess groove, through a very frightening progression of flowing guitars and spooky synth tones that hover just at the edge of the aggression. The title is only too fitting: the more you focus here, the more you'll get out of it. "Aurian Eyes" is a brief, space opera instrumental conducted through the synths, but "Soul Search" returns to the cutting rhythms, slowly building to a great climax groove at 1:50 where a lead erupts. "Personal Energy" is one of the true highlights of the album, a soothing track with clean guitars and synth that arrives at a fantastic bridge, where the vocals lie partially obscured by the glistening, celestial melodies that conspire to consume them. It's nearly hypnotic, as is the following Patrick Uterwijk free form guitar ambient piece "Voices from Within". The title track is probably the closest to the material on Testimony of the Ancients, with another of the band's solid, simple chord patterns leveraged with a few mind-warping, jazzy partitions.

"Changing Perspectives" is a track much like others on the album, cycling about a series of thrash/grooves saturated in the storms of synth and an arabesque, clean guitar. While it's good, the riffs do not immediately leap out to mind like so many that had come before them. "Phileas" is the last of the three brief instrumentals (as opposed to 8 on the previous album), and while soothing, it's the least interesting. The "Demise of Time" offers closure, one of the crueler tracks as far as the mocking rhythm and otherworldly gore-tone of the vocals. The main verse rhythm is great, and the jazzy segue around 1:20, but the rest is not so memorable.

In addition to their most adventurous, this would also be the 'last' album for Pestilence, until Mameli decided to reform the band for Resurrection Macabre, which sounds like a hybrid of their first three records and completely neglects the sound of Spheres. It's a little hard for me to complain about that choice, as I enjoyed this the least of their original full-lengths. Part of me is actually disappointed that I would not hear a follow-up to this, perhaps under another band name. The music is undeniably fascinating, and I'd be very curious to hear what a further mutation might have wrought through these very same musicians. Still, this is strangely the album that most find 'annoying'. It's melodic and catchy, but I can understand how the rhythmic progressions and common forays into the realm of jazz and fusion would turn off many listeners. Hell, this is the last album I recall which my girlfriend actually demanded I take out of my car CD player because she couldn't bear it. Fucking squares, man! They'll never understand us cats.

Very few traces of death metal remained in the band at this point. The most glaring would be the vocals, which have not changed from Testimony of the Ancients. If anything, they've grown even wilder. And then there are a few of the riffs, which are arguably closer to progressive thrash than anything hinging on brutality. But nevertheless, it's the band's most original excursion into aural atmosphere, and one of the few albums of its type that truly holds up through the years (far more than Atheist's Elements of Unquestionable Presence). In fact, the only other jazz/death love-child I adhere to would be Cynic's more recent effort Traced in Air, which we'd might as well just label progressive rock, though its borne of the same spirit. As far as I'm concerned, Pestilence had already conquered thrash and death metal with the first two albums. After recovering from the shock of their split with Martin Van Drunen, I grew to accept that this was not a band inclined to tread their old proving grounds, and Spheres is the logical and successful extension of this modus operandi. Of course, with Resurrection Macabre, they will actually take a piss all over this pattern, and set up camp right back where they started. But that album is such smashing fun that you'll hardly care.

The bottom line: if you dig jazz, progressive death metal, progressive guitar rock, or outer space in general, Spheres is worth passing some time with while you chew your biscuit and sip your tea, watching the moons and worlds stream past and the stardust shimmer outside your window on the bridge. Make it so!

Highlights: Mind Reflections, Multiple Beings, The Level of Perception, Personal Energy

Verdict: Win [8.25/10] (a domain of harmony)

http://www.myspace.com/pestilenceofficial

Pestilence - Mind Reflections (1994)

You can just imagine the board meeting for something like this...

Suit 1: Guys, Pestilence haven't really done much to fill out that record contract, we're going to have to either hire a band to pretend they're Pestilence, or put out a bunch of stuff that we've already put out...

Suit 2: Ugh. Not another compilation. The band only has four fucking albums...and anyone who cares already owns them. Just how stupid do you think their fans will be?

Suit 1: Their fans are probably goddamn idiots anyway. I mean, who cares about death metal? Nu-metal's on the way in, and we've got lots of new signs coming up. And judging by these sales records, hardly anyone bought their jazz album Spheres last year. Who wants to listen to a death metal band play Al DiMeola in space?

Suit 2: True. Well, let's give them something. I've got it. We'll pull a track off a compilation or demo, and then fill in the end of the compilation with some random live material.

Suit 1: Neat. Book the cover artist. Now, about Fear Factory and Machine Head...

And lo, it would be. The first official compilation of Pestilence material, culled primarily from their four studio albums on Roadrunner. As if there were that many followers of this band who really wanted to buy it all twice! But of course, if many lesser bands were given the treatment, why not Pestilence? One might argue that Mind Reflections is a worthwhile purchase for the initiate, but then again, for just twice the price, that same initiate could spend his or her money on two of the best death metal albums out there. Either way, in the end, it usually doesn't matter who approves of a compilation like this, because for the most part, it's a damned ripoff and not worth the time or investment. But somewhere amidst its depths, Mind Reflections has an ace up its sleeve, a fat, taunting carrot that almost snaps the stick in two.

Let's first examine the re-released material. From Malleus Maleficarum, they've included both "Parricide" and "Subordinate to the Domination". Both good choices, but ask yourself, would a poor choice even be possible from such an album? Still, "Chemo Therapy" seemed like it was a fairly popular song from the album, so a little surprising that it wasn't included (though a live version is). You can't really go wrong with anything off Consuming Impulse either, with the possible exception of "Proliferous Souls", which is simply because it's an instrumental/intro. They've gone with "Dehydrated", "Out of the Body", and "The Process of Suffocation", all of which are superb. And thus ends the Martin Van Drunen era. "Twisted Truth", "The Secrecies of Horror", and "Land of Tears" are all included from Testimony of the Ancients. Perhaps "The Secrecies of Horror" could have been replaced with another track like "Lost Souls" or "Presence of the Dead", as it's not a great selection, but otherwise, no complaints. Spheres, which only released the year before this compilation, is represented only by the title track "Mind Reflections". Nine tracks does not seem like a very thorough amount to include on a band's compilation, but since this is basically a means to some quick cash, it was unlikely they would extend it to two discs.

However, nestled among the pre-released studio material is a rare track from the Teutonic Invasion II compilation from 1988, titled "Hatred Within", which seems like an outtake for the Malleus Maleficarum recordings. It's a pretty badass tune, with some wicked, Slayer-like riffing molded into a brute death/thrash engine, with messy solos and Martin Van Drunen's killer presence as the master of ceremonies. In particular I enjoyed the brief melodic bridge after 1:00, and the bridge where the track picks up the pace, but the song seems just subpar enough with comparison to the debut album's material that you can ascertain why it wasn't included there, and the compilation came out the same year as the album...so it was unlikely to come with the original CD as a bonus track. As for later pressings...it would have been excellent.

The final six tracks of Mind Reflections are live from the Dynamo Open Air festival in Holland, 1992, with the Testimony of the Ancients studio lineup. So if you hadn't ever had the chance to see the band perform, and had not yet heard Mameli's vocals over the band's earlier material, here was your first chance, and since these still sound better than the live material on the Chronicles of the Scourge compilation, they add a touch of value to this disc. The live tracks are "Dehydrated", "Chemo Therapy", "Presence of the Dead", "Testimony", "Chronic Infection" and "Out of the Body", and it makes for a pretty effective little set, even if the recording is not top notch and Mameli sounds a bit more deep and bloodied than his studio vocals. Which might be a good thing, come to think of it, as it brings him closer to Van Drunen's originals.

There's no real reason to waste any of your pay on Mind Reflections unless you're a collector, or like myself, you were so starved for rare material that "Hatred Within" was all too tempting to pass up. Otherwise, your money is better spent elsewhere, perhaps on the 2-in-1 release of Consuming Impulse/Testimony of the Ancients which is a complete steal at the same relative price. The live tracks are decent, but only because you've got no other alternative. These days there is the Chronicles of the Scourge double-live album, which has old 80s sets with Martin Van Drunen at the microphone. But the sound is just too rough. Nine of these 16 tracks were an immediate throwaway, and the six lives are mediocre quality...that doesn't leave much to sink your teeth into. Pull the fleece from your brain, and buy another death metal album instead, especially a Pestilence.

Verdict: Fail [4/10]

http://www.myspace.com/pestilenceofficial

Pestilence - Testimony of the Ancients (1991)

When news arrived that Pestilence had parted ways with Martin Van Drunen, I admit my heart skipped a few beats. What the hell were they thinking? This was one of my favorite bands! How dare they do this to me? Well, it turned out that I was not the center of the universe after all, and they probably had a pretty good reason for the split, but I was loathe to hear what the band might become sans those bloodied, hostile, unforgettable vocal tones. Patrick Mameli was to replace Van Drunen, manifesting his destiny as the multi-tasking frontman, and Drunen's almost nonexistent bass skills were assumed by Tony Choy of Cynic and Atheist, a rather excellent choice for the progressive direction Mameli had planned to take the band in, with a fusion of jazzy principles and guitar synth. However, this transformation would not be fully manifest in Testimony of the Ancients. Only hinted at. Once I caught an advertisement for the great new cover art and album title, I allowed my hackles the chance to recess back into their lair, still poised to strike out in desperation.

The first thing one might notice about this album is that there are 16 tracks. Sixteen whole new songs? Well, not exactly. There are eight new death metal tracks and then eight interludes which alternate between the songs, most labeled with simple titles like "Blood", "Bitterness", "Soulless", "Mindwarp", "Darkening", and so forth. The purpose of these bits and bytes is twofold: to create some poignant scenario that lends additional weight to the real tracks, and to showcase the band in their newfound extravagance. Their 'open minds'. A willingness to temper their masterfully crafted, if brutal metallic core with all manner of experimentation. Surprisingly, many of these work, despite the girth of their variation. For example, "Bitterness" is a scintillating flourish of angelic synth and acoustics that perfectly sets up the hard and slow "Twisted Truth". "Impure" offers morbid smut. "Darkening" creates a chaotic tension. "Soulless" allows Tony Choy to take flight, his hammering finger spasms adjoined to a subtle, well plotted ambiance. Unfortunately, they're not all that great, and many are so short that they might better have been saved for full length songs on a more experimental album, post-Spheres, perhaps. After a few of the better breaks like "Bitterness" and "Impure", the rest seem pretty scattered and distracting.

Another distinction to this album is the production, which sounds quite a lot cleaner than Consuming Impulse or Malleus Maleficarum. This is because the band decided to record the album with Scott Burns in his legendary Morrisound studio. Having already met with two excellent producers in their career, why not a third? Burns was already responsible for work with Atheist, Cancer, Death, Deicide, Cannibal Corpse, and other acts from Florida and beyond, so he seemed a pretty natural choice. As one who preferred the harsh, grinding tones of Consuming Impulse to almost any other metal album ever recorded, I was dismayed by the level of polish on this album. It does make a few of the better songs on this album seem a little sterile, though it's probably a better match for the band's increasing jazz tendencies and Mameli's desire to move outside the 'safer' parameters of brutality that were spawning a thousand new bands into the death metal fold internationally.

Fortunately, this is a Pestilence album, and the band still knows how to write a damn fine song. In fact, almost every one of the full-length tracks on this album is good, even though they might not be nearly at the level of the first two albums. "Secrecies of Horror" has an excellent fade in intro, before the circus-like, clunky rhythm of the verse arrives. Not one of my favorite riffs, but it does transform into a string of serious octave chords, an atmospheric bridge with a synth, and a pretty sick lead segment followed by a more mechanical, thrashing rhythm at about 2:10. "Twisted Truth", on the other hand, is pure fucking greatness, with one of those super simplistic riffs that will have you scratching your head, wondering why it hadn't been done before in quite that way. That the band creates such momentum through such a slower pace is a marvel, and the bass is quite good throughout, in particular as it struts below the proggy sounding solo sequences, of which there are two. "Lost Souls" bristles with a faster beat and thriving energy, replete with escalating, simple chords and further excavations from Choy, resolving in large, atmospheric chords that suffocate the listener like rust-tinged clouds of acid. "Land of Tears" opens with another bouncy, circus-thrash riff, but then breaks into one of the better sheer death metal rhythms on the album, a fairly powerful charge despite the sterility of the studio sound.

Indulge in the tempation
Your mind will show you the way
Ghosts of the damned will guard you
In this journey into decay

The second half of the album took a little more acclimation than the first, for the songs don't feel as immediately memorable. "Prophetic Revelations" starts with a slow, lunging half-groove before it picks into a verse rhythm similar to that of "Lost Souls". Again, there is an extremely polished and almost mechanical subtext to the writing, as if the band were afraid to get their hands dirty beyond the vocals. Ultimately, the song is a winner due to its furious lead break at 2:15, and the return to the sluggish dementia of its intro. "Testimony" is a chugging horror that mutates into a decent floe of progressive thrash metal, with sizzling leads and an excellent, atmospheric bridge. "Presence of the Dead" is one of the better overall songs on the album, with another of the simple sliding octave chord patterns that would reappear often on the band's 2009 reunion effort Resurrection Macabre. However, the true strength is the jazzy bliss of the bridge, the mystique of the leads and the tight, playful thrashing that reminds me of something which might have appeared on Consuming Impulse, albeit in a much cleaner form here. But it is perhaps the final full-length track "Stigmatized" which most closely resembles the band's past albums, at least until the extended fusion of the bridge, which I might add features one of the best lead licks on the album just before 2:30.

One thing I must admit is that, while he's no Van Drunen, Patrick Mameli does manage to somehow pick up the vocal slack and offer a distinct performance here. It's honestly the most brutal element of the album, though it's got a more reserved tone ala Chuck Schuldiner or a less passionate Chris Reifert. I was fully expecting to hate the vocals, and yet I wound up impressed that he could pull it off (turns out he can also pull it off live, as I found out when the band toured North America on this particular album).

In the end, Testimony of the Ancients is just too tidy and 'ambitious' to compete with its predecessors. If you're a sucker for a very sterile, procedural tone to the guitars and mix of your death metal albums, then you'll still be a sucker for this one. And to be totally fair, it's a very interesting record. The cover art is cool, and the 16-track setup intriguing, even if several of its constituent pieces are rusting at the hinges. The actual metal songs here are almost all very good, barring a few lackluster riffs that made me feel like I was at a carnival. While I greatly prefer the spontaneous violence of the band's earlier solos, the leads here at least accessible and catchy. I feel like there is an obvious parallel here to Death. Both bands got their heads out of the graveyard and into the clouds, deciding to expand outwards of their genre without wholly abandoning it. I feel like Testimony of the Ancients was the more successful of the band's first 'breakout' albums, as I believe Human to be a tedious bore with a few pretty solos at best (Remember kids, stoning is illegal here in my country.) At least with this album Pestilence retain a little of their menace.

The lyrics are not as good. The songs...not as good. The production all too underwhelming. But Testimony of the Ancients earns its stripes for the attempted cohesion of so many wandering parts into a streamlined progressive death metal experience, and I still listen to the album rather frequently these days. Far more than I would listen to Human, Atheist's Unquestionable Presence, or Cynic's Focus, at any rate. There was very little chance that Pestilence would surpass the power of their first two albums, which remain flawless to these ears over two decades later, so the forging of this new path was hardly a slap in the face to the fans that so idolized their work.

Highlights: Twisted Truth, Land of Tears, Lost Souls, Presence of the Dead, Testimony

Verdict: Win [8.75/10] (a language unheard before)

http://www.myspace.com/pestilenceofficial

Pestilence - Consuming Impulse (1989)

Ah, the spoils of youth. Friday nights as a teen. The unceremonious dumping at the local mall by my family, to walk around in endless loops and socialize with about half my high school, who were there at any given time. When lucky, I was able to bring a friend, or join him when his own family performed a similar ritual. Most of the metal heads were in attendance on the weekend, so it was hardly a death sentence, and there was almost always someone to talk to, but the real attraction was a chance to spend some of that paper route profit, or weekly allowance, on a new metal album. My friend and I would scan the shelves and bins intently, awaiting any new arrival.

The format of choice: cassette. CDs were a blip on our radar that had not yet overtaken our lives, and vinyl was simply a liability for afternoons of skateboarding or shooting hoops. We discovered a great many gems in those years, but more often we would grab legit albums we had gotten the chance to preview (and record) from the local college metal radio show, or through tape trading with friends at school. We scored and scoured Coroner albums. Deathrow. Sodom and Kreator. Tankard and Destruction. Dark Angel and Heretic. It was like an endless beer-bong of inspiration being fed directly to our throbbing brains, eager to ingest all of the information, process it into headbanging release, and then bring it to school, to enlighten our friends and peers, whose idea of 'underground' at that time was Slayer and Testament. We threw around the 'P' word far too often. We were pricks about it. But everyone was.

One rainy Friday, just after Christmas, I found this cassette on the shelf at Record Town.

Now, death metal was not necessarily a new thing to me. I had owned a few Death cassettes, one of which I completely adored (Leprosy). I had also become familiar with bands like Possessed, Carcass, Sepultura and Autopsy, who more or less filled that mold. Earlier in that very same year, I had purchased Slowly We Rot, which had initially scared the fuck out of me, but I had come to enjoy it. In fact, Pestilence was not a new thing to me, as I had a tape copy of Mallevs Maleficarvm which I had been absorbed in for some time. Needless to say, this was going to be allowance well spent. On the ride home, before I could listen to the album, I perused the liner notes of the cassette.

I wondered at its cover art, which it turns out was never the band's intention, but a rushed record label decision that has become iconic regardless. I still use it as the back patch on my denim jacket, after salvaging it from an old t-shirt that no longer fit. I wondered at the blue staff-line images woven behind the lyrics. The band had a new guitar player, Patrick Uterwijk, which I didn't realize at the time. The band had also gone to Harris Johns to produce this disc. If you don't know Harris Johns, well, the man is amazing. He was responsible for numerous classics by Helloween, Tankard, Voivod, Sodom, Coroner and Kreator. All top shelf bands, and all albums with a timeless, if raw sound to them. Yes, all the cards seemed to stack in the favor of Pestilence, and I couldn't wait to get back to my home stereo.

You can probably guess the rest. Consuming Impulse is my favorite death metal album. Ever. It succeeds where so many have not, in concocting the absolute perfect blend of eerie, morbid atmospheres, brutal and irresistible riffs (still very much cognizant of the band's thrashing foundation), and the most amazing performance by Martin Van Drunen on any album of his career, taking the same tortured path as the debut album but cranking it up so far that it sounds like a man literally ON FIRE or dying by some other means as he is forced to vomit into the studio microphone. Like it's predecessor, Consuming Impulse is a flawless, intelligent exercise that jackhammers straight into the memory. The riffs are more than mere barbarism, more than the dream-stuff of neanderthals, but melodic, twisted expressions that haunt and harrow, fully supportive of the dire and hopeless lyrical passages.

Say what you will about Patrick Mameli and the various statements he has made throughout the years. About his tireless quest to continuously evolve this band, seemingly malcontent with each previous work. What he wrote on this album is true proof of a muse tethered to the man's spine. Not some angelic muse bearing a lyre, but a leering, inhuman fiend with scalpels for fingers and formaldehyde for blood. The RIFFs, for fucks sake.

"Dehydrated" opens in a grinding salvo of brutal vocals and flesh churning guitars, and through the phrasing of the guitars, one can feel those last minute, desperate attempts by the mind to reckon with the body's environment before all moisture is finally drained to leave the barren husk. The bridge is laden with a slow building momentum as Van Drunen's heavy breathing morphs back into his blood-soaked intonations. Congratulations, you have just had your skull kicked in for the first of nine times on this album. "The Process of Suffocation" continues, with yet another variation on how to lose your breath, delivered through seamless, brutal thrash that balances a bevy of bombastic chords with a taunting, two-note melody. The solo here is entirely off the hook, bringing back the best of Slayer's sporadic style, while the grinding bridge and closing thrash hook have more meat to them than a Super Bowl tailgate party. "Suspended Animation" continues, with a glorious, melodic depth to its surging verse, and an amazing breakdown at 1:40 where the guitars retch and writhe like serpentine assassins, and an angelic choir-like synthesizer cuts through the mist of decay, before a thrashing climax ensues with more insane leads carving incisions upon the listener's cerebral cortex.

The blood is no longer liquid
No palpitations of the heart
Stone cold hardened intestines
There will never be a new start

Yeah. It's not through with you yet. "The Trauma" is one of the most terrifying death metal arrangements ever, with carefully affected drum swells behind the sparse verse vocals, soon transforming into a huge groove and continuing to gain momentum until the brilliant chorus, in which a laconic sounding voice is countered by Martin Van Drunen howling 'Trauma', shadowed by the creepy chords. "Chronic Infection" is a raucous display of how a groove in death metal, when properly manifested, can lay waste to entire cities like a nuclear storm. Notice how the vocals are almost 'rap-like' here, and yet incredibly incendiary before the chimes arrive over the very doomed rhythm at 1:05, and Van Drunen's growl echoes into oblivion. There is sick, and then there is SICK. This goes beyond that, to TERMINAL. And then the band brings its mosh favorite, "Out of the Body", with the intense and desperate melodic bridge riffing and the cycling, unforgettable bludgeon of the main verse riff. Just try and sit or stand still to this. And that riff around 1:45? Forget it.

I admit that I originally found the final 'third' of this album to be less standout than the rest, but time and wisdom have slowly slaked the stupid out of me, and you'll find it is no less impressive. "Echoes of Death" creates an astounding force behind the simple splash of chords across the vocals in the verse, and then the grimy thrashing begins, with another screaming synthesizer line that leads into the next verse. "Deify Thy Master" is nearly as frightening as "The Trauma", with a similar wah wah effect over its bleeding intro chords while the rhythm guitar rolls alongside it like a juggernaut of festered flesh. The breakdown/chorus is once again incredible, and shows us once more just how effective death metal can be when you don't forsake the actual songwriting for brutality alone. Also of note, the killer, clinical slowdown thrash at 1:30. Instrumental "Proliferous Souls" offers you a brief, 2 minute pause to 'relax' while the organs shimmer and the guitars wank off slowly before the final, crushing weight of "Reduced to Ashes" arrives, through some of the most powerfully chugged chords I have ever heard on an album. The rest: pure, forceful heretic incinerating violence.

The question of the interrogators
Extorted the false confessions
Broken upon the will they ended
Without even knowing the accusation

Nostalgia can only partially color my feelings for this album, for it exists on a pedestal of craft and brutality that I simply do not hear anymore. And believe me, I've been listening. I listen to all I can. I've been waiting 20+ years for something to come along and knock this titan off its rocker. I've heard the arguments for Morbid Angel, Death, Autopsy, Immolation, Vader, and countless others, but there are single songs on this album I enjoy more than the sum of certain of those bands' entire careers, and I say that after hearing this a thousand times or more, at a point where I should be far beyond bored with it. Consuming Impulse is by no means the only flawless death metal effort by my own standards of rating albums. I venerate Left Hand Path, Realm of Chaos, Leprosy, and many more. But if it came down to the wire and I was told I could take a single death metal record into the afterlife, or to a desert island somewhere, this would be the one I grab, without hesitation. I probably have not done this album justice. But I'm happy to have tried.

Highlights: The mall where I bought the album closed long ago, first converted into an ice skating rink, and now a new shopping plaza with a Starbucks and Borders. Bright women and caramel macchiatos are a plus, but this album is a ++.

Verdict: Epic Ants Crawling On My Face [10/10] (respiratory ailments, suffering cries)

http://www.myspace.com/pestilenceofficial

Pestilence - Chronicles of the Scourge (2006)

It's pretty hard to imagine the downside of releasing a Pestilence live album, even if its almost two decades past due, and the live shows in question were recorded in the late 80s. In fact, if I kept a short list of live album demands from any metal acts, this is one that would be close to the top. And since Metal War was likely releasing this album straight to the collectors and old school death metal maniacs who were still lauding and supporting the Dutchmen after all these years (before the 2009 reunion effort Resurrection Macabre), one cannot really fault them for releasing these performances as is, with no modifications.

But sadly, Chronicles of the Scourge turns into a double edged sword with regards to the actual quality of sound. The material here is culled from two live performances: the first (10 tracks) at Holland's 'Kix Festival' back in June, 1989, and the second (8 tracks) from an earlier German performance in November 1988. All the songs are very much identifiable to their source material, with a chunky and dark live tone, but having actually seen the band perform in North America back in the day, I can honestly say that the quality of the recording does not do them justice. For one, Van Drunen's vocals sound rather terrible on both performances, in particular the Dutch show, where he sounds a lot deeper and raspier, almost like another vocalist. His vocals are captured with more clarity on the German performance, but even then they don't sound all that great, and the overall tone of the band feels rather cruddy and blocky. The drums and guitars are audible, and something low that resembles a bass is racing along beneath them, but if I wasn't already intimately familiar with the band's earlier albums I would have a hard time following it all.

Since the band had limited material out in an official form back in these days, their set list was drawn from only the debut Malleus Maleficarum, with a few tracks from Consuming Impulse. This means a little of an overlap in the track listing, with "Parricide", "Chemo Therapy", Subordinate to the Domination", "Cycle of Existence", and "Antropomorphia" all appearing twice. To this extent, the more recent performance in Holland benefits from having some newer material: "Echoes of Death", "Out of the Body", "Suspended Animation" and "The Trauma", but they all sound rather raw and fresh, especially with the off-putting vocals. Though they don't benefit from Martin Van Drunen's presence, the live tracks added to the 1994 Mind Reflections compilation sound better than these in every imaginable way, so we'll have to just appreciate those until the inevitable reunion tour DVD/CD.

However, Metal War were not negligent of this live compilation's rather limited appeal, and decided to include a few rarities that it might be more easily digested. This includes the raw and gritty instrumental "Consuming Impulse", which did not appear on the album, but is quite a tasty, menacing morsel, albeit rough (it seems parts of this track might have been dissected and reconfigured for the Resurrection Macabre album). Beyond this, they included an entire bonus disc called The Consuming Rehearsals from 1989 which is pretty cool, if extremely rugged, with the vocals difficult to make out. Interestingly, "Testimony of the Ancients" appears with the material that would actually appear on Consuming Impulse, as well as the "City of the Living Dead" acoustic intro that appears on one of the live performances.

Chronicles of the Scourge is sadly not the ultimate fan package Pestilence fans of old might have been awaiting, and not even a good one. But the label at least attempted to make it something other than a ripoff. The bonus rehearsal material is nice, the live material not so much, and nothing here would distract you from simply spinning Malleus Maleficarum or Consuming Impulse in its place, but if you're a collector of live or bootleg material from your favorite bands, it might be worth buying only for a sense of completion. Otherwise, just try and see the damn band live, even if YOU are a few decades over due. I hear they are back together...

Verdict: Indifference [5/10]

http://www.myspace.com/pestilenceofficial

Pestilence - Malleus Maleficarum (1988)

I often liken the world of metal music to the Greek pantheon. In it, there are gods, titans, heroes, priests and worshipers. Worshipers do their best to imitate the various gods, patching together their many aspects into something resembling metal music, but rarely worthy of any but the most dim recognition. This is how we got Trivium, for example. Heroes are those bands which rise to the challenge of the gods, upping the ante with faster speeds, technical arrangements, and modern production values that their deities simply never had at their disposal. Priests act as ciphers, directly aping the words and music of their exalted, keeping it alive throughout the decades and causing endless rebirth cycles of their genres, elements, and so forth through the crowds of worshipers. The gods would be the most famous, successful or even notorious bands. The big names: Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath, Metallica, Slayer, Judas Priest, and so forth. Bands so famous that they can launch and sell out world tours, support their great grandchildren through college with ease, and will survive on VH1 'best of' specials until the end of time. But then there are the titans...mighty forces of old who were 'defeated' or cast down by the gods, despite their infinite prowess and crafting of the very foundations of the form.

Within metal music, this translates to those bands who wrote classic, excellent albums that for whatever reason went over the heads or out of reach of the starved masses in the 70s and 80s. There are a great number of these titans, and though their power source may seem long since diminished, some have seen a rebirth in the years of late, through the concentrated worship of an underground of devout cultists that have simply never given them up. For myself, Pestilence would be one such entity, both my favorite Dutch metal artist since the dawn of the power chord, and the band responsible for two of my hands-down, absolute favorite metal albums period, in death, death/thrash or any other sub-genre. But Pestilence are also a band of transitions. No two albums really sound the same, unless you count their latest Resurrection Macabre which seems to be a time capsule back to the pristine dementia of their first two full-length efforts.

By 1988, Pestilence were a band entering a transitional phase that bridged the thrashing roots of their demo days with the surge in extremity many artists were twisting into what we have now long lavished as the death metal genre. Here on their debut Malleus Maleficarum, you can hear both the sire and the child; the former through the crisp, punchy precision and frenzied mosh pit energy that explode at nearly any second on the album; the latter through the hoarse, festering vocals, the cold and clinical lyrics and production, and the muted speed sections which are stupendously good. Martin Van Drunen, at his career best on both the Pestilence records he was involved with, was in my opinion the most distinct and impressive frontman in death metal. Others have been impressive, no doubt: John Tardy, Craig Pillard, Chris Reifert, Jeff Becera, or even Chuck Schuldiner before he decided he was going to become a pseudo-intellectual cosmonaut. But for myself, it was Van Drunen who brought this all together, with a bruising, tortured weight to his vocals that is rarely matched about 20 years and 20,000 death metal bands later. His vocals were a little fainter here than Consuming Impulse, sounding much like a chain-smoking malpractice surgeon serial killer who just escaped hell and wound up at the local emergency ward.

But he's not the only engine that keeps this titan lurching forward. Marco Foddis is a hammer-adept who operates at a high level of precision running either high or low speeds, with a clean polish that seemed rather uncanny compared to many of death metal's other prototype drum mixes. Patrick Mameli, the band's core and general, has written a non-stop, 38 minute barrage of surgical riffing which stands among the best in all of death and thrash metal, with an obvious proficiency above and beyond the average axe-slinger of his day. He performs both bass and guitar here on the album, and while the former is a little subdued in the mix, the rhythm guitars are enforced by Randy Meinhard (on his only Pestilence album, before Patrick Uterwijk would step in) and barely give you the time to notice. Armed with a proper Kalle Trapp knob twiddling (he has also mixed and produced work by Destruction and Blind Guardian, among others), Malleus Maleficarum has a pinpoint, eerie but honest tone to it, which seems strangely haunting even by today's far more advanced parameters.

But really, it's all about the vocals and the riffs. While the album is not necessarily as brutal as its brilliant, crushing successor, it creates a faster paced, technical environment in which the mad doctor flourishes his scalpels and begins a series of careful, taut incisions that maximize the pain and bleeding of the unfortunate patient. Tracks like "Extreme Unction", "Systematic Instruction", "Cycle of Existence" and "Bacterial Surgery" move with some the most violent, breakneck speed thrashing since Slayer's Reign in Blood a few years prior, all the while vomiting forth a series of unforgettable riffs that are both menacing and rather unique for their day. There is far more than just speed to this band, the compositions themselves are impressive, and the album never leaves you hanging on a guitar line even bordering on uninspired, as Van Drunen howls above the seething mass a slew of serious business lyrics that made most thrash and death metal of the 80s seem absolutely infantile by comparison.

Followers of false belief praise idolatry
Worship statues made of stone the adoration
Depiction of the gods in human shapes
Inhuman rituals, biblical transgression
A weapon in your right-hand, in your left a rosary
The polytheistic-monotheistic war
Believers of Almighty prepare to die
Explain to me, what are you fighting for?

For a closer examination, try the bridge riff and terrifying lead at 1:00 of "Subordinate to the Domination", which breaks for a dual speed/chug tag-team like a sped-up "Raining Blood". What of the frolicking, plague-stricken rhythms of "Chemo Therapy", which play out like a cancer ward patient uprising? What of "Commandments", with its creepy acoustic plucking that cedes for an escalation into turbine powered thrashing violence? The wormlike, gnawing death mutes that thread themselves through "Parridice"? The album even offers a few hints at instrumental grace, like the doomed acoustics of "Osculum Infame" placed against a background of swelling synthesizer and screeching, wailing electrics. Or the morbid, brightly blooded chords and dire melodies of the title track, which serves as an intro to the thrashing lead-in to "Antromorphia".

Malleus Malifecarum is unstoppable. It's a beast, superior to more successful thrash albums of 1988 like ...And Justice for All, So Far So Good So What, or The New Order. Yes, it was that good, even among the highly admirable company of that year's many other masterworks, like Death's Leprosy, Coroner's Punishment for Decadence, and Voivod's Dimension Hatross. The album delivers on all fronts: musically and lyrically. I would cite 'emotionally', except that the album is so highly successful at estranging emotions in favor of its volatile, murderous melange. There is not a single note here, even within the lead bursts that I would alter. It's a prime example of almost everything I loved about the late 80s progression of thrash metal from its crude roots of broken glass, street fighting feel-good misanthropy through its bachelor's, master's and finally pHD in artistic expression. Though this isn't my favorite Pestilence album, it's every bit as flawless as Consuming Impulse, disintegrates the vast percentile of other metal albums of the past 22 years until they become dust, and belongs at the forefront of any thrash or death metal collection of taste. No gods, new or old, can keep this titan buried forever.

Highlights: Every second on the slab. This is one operation you will NOT forget, even if anesthetized until even the sheep are counting sheep.

Verdict: Epic Win [10/10] (mutual aversion and disgust)

http://www.myspace.com/pestilenceofficial