Warthur Pestilence radically changed up their sound on this release, launching themselves into the deep end of the sort of technical jazz death metal that Cynic and Atheist were also experimenting in at the time. They actually acquit themselves rather well, though I can see how this may be a jarring release for some people - even though the preceding Testimony of the Ancients was quite technical, it was nowhere near as avant-garde as this, and that may put off some listeners. Still, it's entirely worth it to get another entry in this small little jazz-death subgenre, and in retrospect Pestilence should be glad they undertook this experiment.

UMUR "Spheres" is the 4th full-length studio album by Dutch progressive death metal act Pestilence. The album was released through Roadrunner Records in May 1993. "Spheres" was the last album released by Pestilence before they disbanded in 1994. Pestilence had gained quite a positive reputation in death metal circles with their two previous albums "Consuming Impulse (1989)" and "Testimony of the Ancients (1991)", but they took a left-turn with "Spheres" that, at the time of release, didn´t go down well with neither fans nor critics. The generally bad reception of the album was a major contributor to the demise of the band.

It´s interesting how "Spheres" was received back then, because today it´s often referred to as one of the seminal technical/progressive death metal albums of the 90s. It´s an example of an album that was so ahead of it´s time, that it took years before people retrospectively started to hail it´s genius and groundbreaking nature.

Stylistically the music on "Spheres" is a technical form of death metal featuring, intelligible growling vocals, death/thrashy riffing, atmospheric spacey synth guitars (despite what it sounds like, no keyboards were used on this album), busy and quite adventurous bass playing and jazzy guitar solos. A very original combination of musical elements, that at times almost defies catagorization. It´s progressive in the true sense of the word.

"Spheres" is a relatively short album featuring 11 tracks and a full playing time of 33:17 minutes, but as a consequence of the complex and rather challenging combination of ideas and sounds, it´s a perfect length for the album. Out of the 11 tracks on the album, 3 are shorter atmospheric interludes, so there are actually only 8 "regular" length tracks on the album. It´s an album with a great flow though and there isn´t a dull second here. All tracks are worth mentioning, but the atmospheric "Personal Energy", which is placed right in the middle of the album, and the title track, which features multible solos and changes in mood, are among the highlights.

"Spheres" features a sound production, that suits the music but fans of the band´s earlier material shouldn´t expect a powerful death metal sound. This is a bit more sophisticated and relies less on raw power and more on atmosphere and attention to detail.

upon conclusion "Spheres" is strong album release by Pestilence and it should appeal to fans of artists like Atheist, Cynic, Sadist and Gorguts. It´s an album that divide the waters though and more conservative minded death metal fans that enjoyed the band´s earlier material because of it´s death metal brutality and edgy riffing, might not find much to like here. A 4.5 star (90%) rating is deserved.

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.

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.

Isa Another worthy album for fans of the death metal/fusion combination.

This is indeed an interesting and sort of strange album that I had to check out, the fan of unknown "gems" that I am, as many people view this work. It is a mixed bag of death metal and jazz-fusion, in the same vein as Atheist, Cynic, and Watchtower, though the production and composition are a bit less developed than any of those bands. The jazz-fusion refers to musical timbres far more than actual composition, of which there is pretty much no jazz in terms of the improvisational style. What's more, it's more "post jazz" sounding fusion, when many jazz-fusion artists (mostly in the eighties) broke off from the traditional jazz composition and favored an incredibly more electric-based sound, especially Trio of Doom and Chick Corea Electric Band. Basically, you're going to here a lot more influences from Death than you are from Miles Davis, for certain.

At first I was incredibly turned off from this album by the opening track, which featured the not-so-well-produced metal guitar riff that repeated over and over and some less-than-appealing sounding gutteral vocals. But this album grew on me a bit, as most prog does with subsequent; as you get further through the album the fusion element increases, and I would say, so does the level of composition (and not from any bias; I tend to like progressive death metal as much as I like a lot of jazz-fusion). Personal Energy is probably my favorite track, as it seems the most innovative and unique, rivaling even some of Atheist's and Cynic's best tracks. And we're definitely talking about prog-metal here, these guys do some insanely complicated things with rhythms and harmonies. I don't like the keyboard imitation of acoustic instruments, but a band's budget it a band's budget.

In general, this is probably a great album for fans of the already mentioned bands. Objectively, this is a solid album worth buying with great musicianship and deceptively complex composition. If the death metal/fusion combo is your thing (as it is mine) this is a more than worthy album for your collection. There are a lot of really good riffs and interesting bridges of compositional style between death metal and electric fusion, with great musicianship. Some of the chord progressions get really dissonant too, in an impressive way. The second half of the album is probably best. While I do like the album, I find it more "interesting" than good, which is a purely subjective thing. What's more, there's nothing here that Atheist and Cynic don't have superior mastery, even during the earlier years of this album's creation.