There are death metal bands and then there are bands like Holland’s Pestilence. Emerging in the eighties as the genre was just taking flight, they first gained worldwide recognition with 1989’s Consuming Impulse. As the last decade of the millennium commenced, they saw their vocalist depart for Asphyx. Singing duties fell to founding guitarist Patrick Mameli, where they remain to this day. Two excellent albums later, 1991’s Testimony of the Ancients and 1993’s Spheres, it was clear that Pestilence offered a lot more than screaming, riffs, and double-bass. Jazz fusion and a very technical approach to songwriting ensured the presence of a high level of musicianship rarely matched in extreme metal. The band called it quits in 1994, as the ‘90’s managed to devour and destroy yet another good heavy metal outfit.
Lo and behold, the band reformed in 2008. Since then they’ve dropped two albums on our heads to both fanfare and critical acclaim. The lineup has changed once more; now completed by Mameli, guitar wizard and long-time member Patrick Uterwijk, highly talented George Maier on bass, and the inimitable Dave Haley (Psycroptic, The Amenta, Blood Duster) on drums.
Latest album Obsideo shows the fire is still very much in the belly of Mameli and crew; released on Candlelight Records. It begins with the sound of someone checking out in a hospital bed, the machines toning out his death even as his last gasps splutter out. How fitting. What follows is no ordinary death metal. While the technical flair is very much on display, the songs never get lost in their own rectums; as is the case with the slew of tech-death/math core/noise groups who fuse other styles with metal but fail to write actual songs. Pestilence has never suffered from this problem. Along with an excellent production – every note is clear yet the band still sounds dirty and mean, the way this music is supposed to be played – Pestilence have managed to pen some excellent new tunes for the metal masses to consume. One of the strongest tracks on the album, “Laniatus”, showcases the band’s technicality while also stomping your head in at the same time. Many a venue will be torn down when this baby gets chugging.
There aren’t too many hills and valleys on Obsideo. Instead it remains a strong effort throughout, with some excellent blasts working their way in as evidenced on “Distress”, “Aura Negative”, and “Super Conscious”. Mameli sounds raw and harsh without sacrificing clarity; his decades of experience as a player and a vocalist quite evident here. The guitar solos sound great, and despite all of the musical flair, the album doesn’t lose the menace so vital to the success of records of this extremity. This younger generation of bands with unreadable logos, trendy hair-dos, and tattoos in all the right places, who believe their screaming and blasting is legit would do well to look to veterans Pestilence for a lesson in sincerity. This is how real death metal’s done, kids. Cryptic Rock gives Obsideo 4 out of 5 stars.
- Candlelight Records
Written by Nicholas Franco
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