Conor Fynes 'Spheres' - Pestilence (9/10)

The early 90's can be seen as the golden era for death metal. Particularly in the south- eastern United States, bands like Death and Atheist were taking the young genre to heights of perfection, fusing classical music and jazz into the gritty, extreme sound. On the other side of the Atlantic ocean is Pestilence, a band that sounds quite a bit like the aforementioned groups. Hailing from the Netherlands, this band takes after the American pioneers, adding on a few elements onto the existing style, and comes out with an absolute masterpiece of progressive death metal. 'Spheres' may not be as widely regarded as the magnum opuses of Pestilence's US counterparts, but it is just as exciting of a listen.

Upon my first listen to this classic, my first intuition was to draw the comparison of Death's 'Symbolic' album, released around the same time as this. The growled vocals seem to be crossbred between Chuck Schuldiner of Death, and Kelly Shaefer of Atheist. With these sorts of comparisons, its a surprise that Pestilence isn't from Florida, as opposed to Holland. On a purely musical level, this band is very closely related to them. The guitarwork is composed of dark, jazzy-infused metal riffs that will get your head banging and thinking at the same time. Also an important aspect of this brand of death metal is the heavy presence of the bass guitar. Thesseling's bass performance is very jazz-influenced and clean, contrasting the guitars, filling the mix, and giving something to listen for on subsequent listens. The album is very short, lasting little over half an hour, but the tracks flow together as if 'Spheres' was a single piece of music. I may have preferred this album to last a little longer, but the brevity is only reason enough to take it for another spin right after.

While Pestilence is very close in sound and style to the Floridan death metal scene, they do bring one very unique element to the table, that being the use of synthesizers. In tandem with the proggy death metal madness, there is a back up of strange synth sounds that gives the music a spacey, sometimes otherworldly feel. 'Spheres' would have turned out to be a very capable death metal album without this addition, but with it, it creates that much more of a distinctive musical experience, and makes me feel like I am part of the album art, lost in space amidst the debris. Pestilence could be called a clone of the American bands, but I do think they bring enough fresh material to the table to be worthy on their own merits. Not only that, but they manage to take the progressive death metal style and make something of it that really amazes me, perhaps even moreso than Death or Atheist ever did. This is a really incredible album.

Conor Fynes 'Doctrine' - Pestilence (4/10)

Perhaps it is because I was first introduced to Pestilence through their most ambitious and excellent record 'Spheres', but everything I have heard from this Dutch death metal band since has underwhelmed and disappointed me. Ironically enough, 'Spheres' was also the album that effectively killed Pestilence for the better part of two decades; the fans generally disapproved of the more jazz-based direction they were headed in, and the commercial flop cost the band its livelihood. The band only recovered from their discouragement recently, releasing the comeback album 'Resurrection Macabre' in 2009. Sadly though, it sounds like the scars of 'Spheres' rejection are still bleeding. Even on Pestilence's latest record 'Doctrine', it is evident that the band has now cornered themselves in a fairly generic and tame death metal sound. Perhaps in an effort to appease their fans and prevent a repeat, Pestilence has become a band that is afraid to stand out.

Based on a somewhat long-winded intro track of a man chanting in Latin, the artwork and album's title, one might get the implication that this is some sort of concept piece about Christianity. Mind you, even that might be reading into what 'Doctrine' has to offer a little too much. Barring the unnecessary dialogue piece, each of these tracks is a self-contained expression of mediocrity. Of the ten death metal tracks here, there is not one that stands out. Pestilence are reborn as a bland technical death metal act, although many of the guitar riffs here lack complexity. The guitar parts are rarely melodic, yet too predictable and cold to be considered heavy or exciting. At moments where there is a clear opportunity for Pestilence to do something really great, they shirk back and go for something expected, another few measures of chugging riffs, perhaps? To band mastermind Patrick Mameli's credit though, his guitar solos sound fantastic, essentially playing jazz in a metal setting. This slight fusion is only evident in the all-too scarce leads on 'Doctrine' though. The rest only seeks to underwhelm.

The vocals of Mameli have not necessarily deteriorated all that much from the band's heyday, but there is far too much of a focus on his growls here. Besides that they are mixed too highly, the guitars seem to roast on the backburner quite a bit of the time while the Schuldiner-esque vocals rasp away. The problem here is that it leads to much of the album's instrumentation building around vocals and providing 'back up', rather than grabbing hold of the reins and consistently impressing me from a technical level. The young blood drummer Yuma Van Eekelen performs very well though, pummeling away at the kit and giving a nice fire under the stale casserolle that Pestilence has become.

2011 certainly has not been the proudest year for death metal, and its sorry to see a band that was once so great, become so frightened to do anything new. The same fans who rejected Pestilence's progressive inclinations will probably find themselves pleased with 'Doctrine', but the new material of this band is unnecessary by any other means. 'Doctrine' has not been the biggest disappointment of its genre this year- after all, who can forget about that tragic Morbid Angel album- but there needs to be the will to do something new in this band before I can find myself interested in anything new they do.

UMUR "Doctrine" is the 6th full-length studio album by Dutch death metal act Pestilence. The album was released in April 2011 by Mascot Records. "Doctrine" is the 2nd full-length studio album released by Pestilence since their comeback after a 16 year recording break. The first album release after the comeback was "Resurrection Macabre (2009)". "Resurrection Macabre" saw Pestilence return to a more brutal death metal sound but the technical level of playing that the band were known for on the last couple of early nineties album releases, were still present albeit in much smaller doses. Especially the progressive jazzy elements of "Spheres (1993)" weren´t very dominant.

..."Doctrine" is ultimately a very different album from "Resurrection Macabre" though and after listening to only a few tracks it´s obvious that Pestilence have turned up the knob on the progressive/technical tendencies again. We´re presented with fiercely aggressive technical death metal with a lead vocalist in Patrick Mameli who delivers his most intense and caustic performance yet. The playing on the album is really strong too. New drummer Yuma Van Eekelen needs a special mention for his varied and skillfull playing but also the 7-string fretless bass playing by the returning Jeroen Paul Thesseling adds a lot to the soundscape. The jazzy guitar soloing which were about the only progressive feature on "Resurrection Macabre", are also present on "Doctrine". This time they feel a bit more natural and blends in well with the rest of the music. Probably because the rest of the music is generally more progressive too.

The quality of the tracks is high throughout but tracks like "Amgod", "Doctrine", "Deception" and "Sinister" are definitely among the highlights. The lyrics feature some pretty strong anti-religious themes. We´re not talking blasphemous/satanic lyrics but rather critical anti-religious lyrics. I think the lyrical themes work well together with the caustic vocal delivery and it´s one of the great assets on "Doctrine". Of course the well played and quite intricate heavy riffs are also one of the assets. There´s a definite Gorguts, "Obscura (1998)"-era, influence in the most dissonant riffing, but as always Pestilence sound like Pestilence. They are one of the few extreme metal acts that actually has a unique sound and allthough they´ve experimented and developed their core sound throughout the years (with varying degrees of success) all albums they´ve released are unmistakably the sound of Pestilence.

I enjoy just about every aspect of "Doctrine". The sound production is sharp and powerful, the musicianship is excellent and the songwriting clever yet packs punch. "Doctrine" would certainly have made a much more effective comeback album than the more mediocre "Resurrection Macabre". A 4 star rating is deserved.

Time Signature Voices from within...

Genre: jazz death metal (yeah, mama!)

When it came out, "Spheres" took most of the metal community by surprise, because it was so different from anything the band had done before, and, with its outspoken jazz fusion influences, very different from death metal in general. And most people did not respond well to that surprise, reflecting the fact that many humans - even metalheads - by default, cannot handle changes very well.

Eventually, the world started to appreciate the album, and now it is probably among the most revered progressive death metal albums. Sadly, this appreciation came too late, and the album was a huge commercial flop, causing the band to break up. Ironically, "Spheres" ended up the standard by which subsequent Pestilence releases are held - unfairly - up against.

The music blends jazz fusion with death metal, and sounds like nothing before it, or after it. It really is original, but - like all other Pestilence releases - it is based on the use of compact riffs which, however, are pretty spacey and have a sort of fluidity to them. The jazz fusion influences are quite outspoken both in the riffs and in the guitar solos, which generally sound wonderfully weird.

While I am a big fan of the music itself, I am not a big fan of the vocals, but I have gotten used to them, and I cannot imagine how the album would sound with another vocalist. The production also sound a bit flat, and combined, the vocals and the production are the main factors why this album can be difficult to listen to in the beginning, but there is absolutely nothing wrong with the music itself, which is wonderfully mindboggling without actually being overly technical.

An album shunned by many due to its "differentness" in a time when almost all death metal bands sounded the same, "Spheres" belongs up there with the few other outstanding technical death metal classics such as "Symbolic", "Unquestionable Presence" and "Focus". It certainly is one of my favorite death metal releases.

Time Signature Out of the body...

Genre: death metal

A favorite among many death metal fans, "Consuming Impulse" is more of a run-of-the-mill death metal release, but it is not bad, and the Pestilence trademark compact tense riffs are there. There are traces of Pestilence's old thrash metal roots, which are more dominant on "Malleus Maleficarum", and combined with the death metal style, they contribute some energy and intensity to the music, but also document the genre's general transition from thrash metal to death metal.

So, in that historical context, "Consuming Impulse" is a quite interesting death metal album, but in itself, I think it is okay, but nothing special. There are a lot of cool guitar riffs scattered all over the album, which is a sort of sign of things to come, as compact and intense riffs would later become one of the band's fortes.

This album does not feature Patrick Mameli on vocals but rather Martin van Drunen. Interestingly, I am not a big fan of the vocals on this album either, and they actually strike me as being more annoying than on subsequent Pestilence releases. Normally, I get used to the vocals on Pestilence releases after some time, but not on this one, for some reason.

Certainly, it is a classic and belongs in any death metal collection!