|
A hard hitting return from Pestilence worth headbanging to.-
|
| Pestilence: Resurrection Macabre |
Death Metal
Mascot Records
March 16th, 2009
- Devouring Frenzy - 2:54
- Horror Detox - 3:20
- Fiend - 3:29
- Hate Suicide - 4:18
- Synthetic Grotesque - 3:57
- Neuro Dissonance - 3:28
- Dehydrated II - 3:47
- Resurrection Macabre - 3:47
- Hangman - 2:52
- Y2H - 3:39
- In Sickness & Death - 5:00
- Chemo Therapy (Bonus Track) - 4:59
- Out of the Body (Bonus Track) - 4:31
- Lost Souls (Bonus Track) - 4:33
|
| Links |
| Review Information |
Release length: 54:34
Review posted on May 18th, 2010
- |
|
| | Initial Score: 4/5 |
 |
| 2011 Grading Scale: 8/10 |
|
|
|
|
| Discography |
Discography covers all information available up to day of review and is updated if future albums are reviewed. |
| Full-Length(s): |
Malleus Maleficarum (1988) . Consuming Impulse (1989) . Testimony of the Ancients (1991) . Sphere (1993)
Resurrection Macabre (2009) . Doctrine (2011)
|
| Demo(s): |
Dysentery (1987) . The Penance (1987)
|
| Compilation(s): |
Mind Reflections (1994) . The Consuming Rehearsals (1989) (2006)
|
| Live CD(s): |
Chronicles of the Scourge (2006)
|
|
| - |
| Review |
Pestilence is a bit of a mixed bag when it comes to the Metal world. The act is most widely known for their days of Death Metal, but that's not all this band has played. For those who are unaware of the band's prior existence, there's much more to this act then just Resurrection Macabre. The band originally started out as a Thrash Metal act, then became what would be their career defining Death Metal sound before shifting gears for one album (Spheres) in 1993 as a Progressive Metal act. The band broke up back in 1994, and reformed roughly fourteen years later with only drummer Yuma Van Eekelen being the only member of this formation that was not once part of the band's line-up. With that little history lesson out of the way, it leaves one to wonder if the band still has what it takes to return to their former Death Metal glory, and with Resurrection Macabre, the band answers that question with a dominating fist right in your face.
Once the initial shock of this being a new Pestilence album gets out of your system, you will come to find Resurrection Macabre is a very strong comeback album that does a good job at blending Thrash inspired riffs with the early Death Metal sound. On your first listen, it'll start to feel a little boring, almost as if it's missing any form of bite, but when you really just sit down and listen to it, everything does start to make sense. While there's no complexity to the music, this is simply an old school Death Metal romp that relies solely on intensity and Speed/Thrash fused riffs that come at you with a breakneck pace to create tracks that sound absolutely menacing and often evil. The best representation of all this is the song "Hate Suicide". The song actually goes at a slower pace then much of the music on here, but it's the riffs used that really make the song work since, for as simple as they are, they just sound heavy thanks to the distortion used, and really alter the flow of the song due to the somewhat odd chords used. The real intensity of this song actually kicks in during the chorus, which really just picks up the speed and fury and is matched by the vocals that come off much deeper and layered to come off evil.
Another positive aspect to this release is the additional of blast beats. Pestilence manages to work this concept into just about every song, and does it well. While this may sound a little repetitive, it's the guitars the make these songs have their own sound. The only time this doesn't really work out too well is during "Neuro Dissonance" which, aside for a great guitar solo, comes off a little weak and repetitive due to any real innovation in the guitar work, causing the track to sound the same right from the start until the end with the only change in the music being during a bridge to the solo and at the very end of the track when the blast beats really pick up more, but even that part is very short. Then there's "Dehydrated II" which is simply an intense as all hell song right from the start that really utilizes the blast beats to full force and incorporates a good amount of changes in the music, unlike in "Neuro Dissonance" which came right before it, as well as a somewhat awkward sounding guitar chords that sound like they would be in some sort of twisted nightmare involving clowns or some kind of circus like environment. That is the best way to explain it, and, while it doesn't really do much as far as making the album stronger or weaker, it's elements like this that show the latter Progressive side of the band is still slightly active in the musical composition scheme of the band.
This isn't the first time that kind of Progressive element is introduced into the music of the album either. You can hear these kinds of trace elements in other songs on the release, but none really seem to push that Progressive aspect, and even the band's iconic jazz ideas then the title track, "Resurrection Macabre", which has some add sounding guitars that sound hollow in the background of the album, and what sounds almost like a brief jazz element before and even during the guitar solo to the track. There seems to be some various guitar effects used through the album like that as well, as there also comes the next track, "Hangman", which carries that seem kind of sound, but it's just not as hollow and sounds almost science fiction like in essence. It's hard to imagine this release without this aspect to the music, and without them, it really wouldn't be as solid a Death Metal album as it is. While some of these louder guitar chords mentioned can sometimes get irritating, much like on "Dehyradted II", it's almost impossible to look at these songs and say it would be better without them.
| Limited Edition: |
|
The limited edition version of Resurrection Macabre comes with the additional tracks "Chemo Therapy", "Out of the Body", and "Lost Souls". These three tracks are good, but aren't quite as intense as the rest of the album, coming off more as straight forward Death Metal, losing much of the blast beat influence and the more Progressive guitar elements. "Out of the Body" is easily the best of these three mostly due to just how good the song actually is and the amazing guitar solo. Of course, all three of these tracks do have impeccable solos, but this one just seems to really stick out. The last of these three does start off like a song that would have been used as a regular song for the album, but, while it starts off fast, it just becomes another song that is mostly toned down, and ther eare moments where you expect the music to pick up, cause it just sounds right, or you expect some kind of musical change at a certain spot, both they just never come.
|
What this release all boils down to is the actual album. While the Limited Edition has three bonus tracks, which is a nice reason to seek this version out, if you're not the biggest Pestilence fan out there then it's pretty much pointless as the songs are of a lesser quality then the rest of the release and only seem to chug along and leave you wanting the album to end. While the band has done a good job of going back to their Death Metal roots while incorporating some of the important aspects from their other musical ventures. Considering the line-up doesn't have all the crucial past band members, and is a bit of a grab and go concoction, so to speak, this may just be a prelude to test the waters of each member's abilities to work together and could very well lead up to one of the band albums to be release by this band. Until then, Resurrection Macabre is still an important album for Metal freaks worldwide, and should be checked out as soon as possible. Even if you don't like it on your first time through, give it some time and examine the music, as you'll probably hear some things going on in the background you may not have noticed that first time around, or songs you didn't quite get the progression of becoming a little clearer.
|
| - |
|
Digital review copy of this release provided by:
Mascot Records
via Earsplit PR.
| Submit to Social Networks |
|
|
|
|
