PESTILENCE

Resurrection Macabre

Macto Records/ CD 2009

The wasteful son is back, welcome him with embracing and loving arms! Some time ago one of the most significant metal guitarist of 80/90, Mr. Patrick Mameli decided to re-form his legendary band PESTILENCE. A bit earlier we had an opportunity to listen to Patrick's supergroup's (C-187) debut album. „Collision” turned out to be the strongest debut release of 2007 in many annual polls. Seemed like after many years of separation with heavy music Mameli didn't forget how to make a world-class metal album. Two years later oficially re-formed PESTILENCE featuring Patric Mameli on guitars, vocals, Patrick Uterwijk on guitars, Tony Choy (ATHEIST, CYNIC, C-187) on bass and Peter Wildoer (DARKANE, ARCH ENEMY and many others) on drums recorded band's long-awaited fifth full lenght album. Ladies and gentlemen- most crushing and devastating record of 2009 came into being. Here comes „Resurrection Macabre”!

A great mixture of uncontrollable death metal brutality, wide-ranging musical imagination and astonishing technical skills makes me sure that PESTILENCE couldn't have recorded a better follow-up to "Spheres". Among 11 songs featured on the regular edition of the album there's only one track that has actually nothing interesting to offer. I mean „Y2H” made up of repeated riffs and monotonous groove. The other 10 tracks are purely amazing. Album opener „Devouring Frenzy” starts with furious blastbeats and later on gets even more powerful and extreme. The second track „Horror Detox” is a classic PESTILENCE song based on fast, neck-breaking tempos, ripping guitars and Patrick's terrifying screaming. Some guitar parts in „Horror Detox” reminds me of „Suspended Animation”- one of the greatest songs from band's second album. „Fiend” is a bit slower but still very intense, double bass driven type of song. By the way, Peter Wildoer did simply a great job on the whole album (Marco Foddis should be proud of his successor). He's a very precise, inventive and extremely fast drummer. OK, what's next? Guitar parts in „Neuro Dissonance” are fast as hell and sharper than a razor. „Dehydrated II” slays our ears with tight, fast riffing and crushing tempos. A little surprise comes with the title track "Resurrection Macabre" which sounds almost like MORBID ANGEL from „Domination” era (listen carefuly to the main riff of the song), very strong, massive and ultra-heavy piece of shit. "HangMan" and "Synthetic Grotesque"- lessons in violence, filled with tought riffing and furious blastbeats. In fact, very aggressive and offensive nature of the album doesn't ruin the rest. Don't get it wrong, „Resurrection Macabre” is not only about making noise. It's a very intelligent, multilayered album and every single note has it's own place in the whole picture. What's notable, almost every song featured on „Resurrection Macabre” features a short, tricky, fusion-jazz oriented guitar passage solo. But unlike „Spheres” (which still seems to be too much complicated and overintellectualized), „Resurrection Macabre” is better shaped and definitely more song-based. I'd say that PESTILENCE A.D. 2009 manage to combine aggression and progression in a perfect way.

The limited edition of the album contains three special bonus tracks. I mean re-arranged, re-freshed and completely re-recorded versions of band's classic songs taken from PESTILENCE first three albums: very powerful version of „Chemo Theraphy” from „Malleus Maleficarum”, even more brutal (can you believe it?!) version of „Out Of The Body” (Consuming Impulse) and „Lost Soul”- famous hit known from „Testimony Of The Ancients” (still remember fantastic videoclip floating around various TV stations, from MTV's Headbanger's Ball to Viva's Metalla). PESTILENCE managed to re-make each of these songs in a powerful style. Believe me or not, I'm not a big fan of re-recordings but when it comes to these three bonus tracks, the results are nothing but great. Let's also mention here about Mameli's vocals. I think that „Resurrection Macabre” contains the strongest vocals Patrick has ever done. First of all, time has slightly lowered his voice and thanx to that his parts sounds a bit heavier now. Secondly, I have a feeling that Patrick growls in a more intense and aggressive way than in the past. There's also much more dynamics in the arrangements which is also a very important factor when it comes to growling parts.

Some journalists say that “Resurrection Macabre” doesn't bring anything new to the table. I can't agree with that opinion completely. This is a very innovative album for many reasons. Listen to the riffs more carefully, analyze the structures. It's not a fucking metalcore bullshit so maybe you should listen to it more than once? PESTILENCE are back and hopefully they will stay with us for a while. Maybe I should keep my enthusiasm for myself, but... fuck the correctness. In my personal and very subjective opinion „Resurrection Macabre” is the strongest candidate for the best album of 2009. Period.

11/12