Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Pestilence
Label: Hammerheart Records
Release: 2018
Duration: 39:16
Rating: 3.5/5
Pestilence are yet another pioneering outfit that, around the turn of the eighties into the nineties, switched quite naturally from playing thrash metal to playing something that later became death metal. So, without knowing it, they co-founded a whole new genre, taking the existing musical extreme and, with technically furious complexity, pushing it into a new extreme, after whose birth the metal universe was never the same again. Pestilence kept evolving boldly and with every new album drove their growth up to a new, higher level of quality, and their fresh, defiant style was a huge creative inspiration to other bands too. Those bands followed Pestilence, and death metal went through a radical growth spurt in the nineties. With the exceptional album »Spheres« this rapid evolution of Pestilence suddenly came to an end, and the band went on a longer creative break. Then in 2009, 2011 and 2013 came new albums that boasted sinister brutality, and just as boldly strove for technical complexity, but they were also weighed down by very trendy sonic vocabulary, where Pestilence suddenly started reaching for eight-string axes and a markedly lower tuning, and from there it’s not far to a riff sound that smells of »djent«… So in this respect it turned out that the band that was once a role model for everyone else began drawing inspiration from what bands originally inspired by Pestilence had created. Could it be that Pestilence are evolutionarily too “old school” to mess around with modern sounds and new styles in extreme music? Does that even pay off for them? It’s a fair question, since this is a pioneering band that doesn’t need to imitate anyone else.
With the new album, titled »Hadeon«, the band has flirted with its primal origins. Not full-on thrash, but still, »Hadeon« blasts you right back to the album »Testimony of the Ancients«, and if you’re looking for connections from there onward, you’re better off digging in the direction of »Consuming Impulse« than the other way around, toward »Spheres«.
»Hadeon« is old-school death metal. It doesn’t get more old-school than this. Mameli wanted to get an old-school death metal album out of his system, and that’s exactly what he did. Primordial riffs digging around in thrash metal proto-information. And to be convincing when reheating the old stew, it helps to have a sound wizard at your side who has basically lived through every era of metal, is a perfectionist, and knows exactly how to recreate the old-school sound so it comes across fresh and infectious in 2018. That’s Dan Swano, who handled the final mastering. Nothing can go wrong with him. »Hadeon« boasts distinctly old-school-flavored death metal riffing, and a very important role in bringing the band back to its roots was played by the drumming style of the new member, Romanian musician Septimiu Hărşan, who’s cut from different cloth than his »modern« predecessor David Haley. Mameli’s growl grabs you completely! All the instruments and the vocals are perfectly contrasted and the picture of the sound production is top-notch. »Hadeon« grabs you brilliantly. From the first second to the last. Authentic old-school death metal.
Still, it’s worth taking it all with a pinch of salt. So, “Hadeon” is a very good new album from the band. But it isn’t an old-school death metal blast with technically complex adventurism that would serve up a fresh evolutionary flash from the band, which is what all fans of old Pestilence dream about. It’s actually a concise, thoroughly calculated step back into the past. Toward sacred simplicity rather than experimental wizardry. Within their expressive framework, today’s Pestilence pick the artistic moves they feel most comfortable with and have the best grip on. That doesn’t mean they can’t do it differently and be just as convincing, if not more so, in that difference. Even though the album doesn’t bring any earthquakes in the artistic sense, this comfortable, safe artistic step toward the past is obviously of great importance to the band right now. You know how it goes. Sometimes you have to take a step back so you can take two steps forward. It’s precisely this artistic blast into the golden age, somewhere between the albums »Testimony of The Ancients« and »Consuming Impulse«, that gives the band a solid platform to do with the next album what they did with, say, the unforgettable »Spheres«: challenge not just themselves but the whole metal universe. To open up a gap between »Hadeon« and its successor, a markedly succinct artistic swerve. But the successor has to reach for a much bigger dose of bold experimenting, that is, »progressive«, let’s say experimental adventurism, which will also delight the listener with a larger helping of technically complex unruliness. Now that Pestilence have found the »reset« button in themselves, only one thing remains. Yes, with the follow-up to »Hadeon«, let’s let ourselves be surprised.
One more reflection. If, after the rotation of the album »Obsideo«, you only spun the old Pestilence albums and it never crossed your mind to listen to »Obsideo« again, after »Hadeon« you’ll be able to spin »Hadeon« once more, and if you do keep spinning the old Pestilence albums, it won’t be strange if you switch from them over to the rotation of »Hadeon«.
One more thing. Let’s mention that on the album »Hadeon« our Slovenian musical ace and bassist Tilen Hudrap (Vicious Rumors, Paradox) also plays bass, and he contributed his own composition, Subvisions, to the album. Considering that the author of all the other songs is band boss Mameli, his trust in Tilen’s abilities is further proof of how highly the bassist’s mastery is regarded in the new Pestilence.
Line-up
Patrick Mameli – guitar, vocals
Santiago Dobles – lead guitar
Tilen Hudrap – bass guitar
Septimiu Hărşan – drums
Production
Patrick Mameli
Track list
1. Unholy Transcript (01:54)
2. Non Physical Existent (03:28)
3. Multi Dimensional (03:14)
4. Oversoul (03:21)
5. Materialization (02:54)
6. Astral Projection (03:41)
7. Discarnate Entity (03:33)
8. Subvisions (01:16)
9. Manifestations (03:28)
10. Timeless (02:45)
11. Ultra Demons (03:13)
12. Layers Of Reality (02:39)
13. Electro Magnetic (03:44)
