Location: San Dona Di Piave (Treviso) / Revolver Club / Italy
Date: Sunday, 11.02.2018
Why was it smart to catch this new Pestilence tour? Simple. Because of the downright old school set list the band is playing on the current “Fight the Plague” run across Europe. And it’s not just that the upcoming new studio album “Hadeon”, which came out digitally at the end of this January, flirts stylistically with the first half of the nineties. The band was reborn two years ago, overhauled the lineup, did a complete “reset” and started more or less from scratch, or in plain words, went back to the cradle that earned it its pedigree as innovators and, in the subgenre of technically complex death metal, even a certain pioneering role.
So the indestructible elder of the Dutch death metal pioneers, Patrick Mameli, has raised Pestilence from the dead for the third time. The new lineup has Romanian drummer Septimiu Hărşan and (no less Romanian) guitarist Calin Paraschiv, who previously played together in Necrovile, while the bass is handled by Slovenian bassist Tilen Hudrap, who is evidently becoming an ever more valued and sought-after name on the international metal scene. Since 2013, Tilen has been a regular member of American old school speed/thrash metal champions Vicious Rumors, he helped out on a few shows for the legendary Testament, where it’s clear that hardly anyone can fill Steve DiGiorgio’s shoes. Tilen can. He also became part of the latest incarnation of the famous, long-lived Teutonic thrash metal legends, the Germans Paradox. So? No need for much philosophizing here, since it quickly becomes clear that our Tilen is an exceptional Slovenian musician and in fact the first Slovenian musician to reach the status of a true professional in metal, one who knows no breaks and, despite his young age, is already a real heavyweight when it comes to racking up the miles. Let’s hope he gets proper recognition from his homeland too, if the rest of the world values and respects him. To be honest, for this reason alone, catching Pestilence in San Dona Di Piave at the local Revolver Club was simply an obligation for me as a Slovenian fan!
But let’s take it from the top. San Dona Di Piave is a town relatively close to Treviso, located in Veneto, and from there it’s not far to Venice either. And once again, a Sunday. A somewhat awkward slot, but this club loves to schedule its shows on Sundays. The next one of interest to us is coming up on one of the March Sundays, when the famous former Motörhead guitarist Phil Campbell plays there with his battalion of sons.
The doors opened at half past seven in the evening, and at the same time the first band started clattering away on stage. Two local acts kicked things off this time. First up was Psychotomy. They’re an Italian death metal quartet with a mixed, male-female lineup. The guys handle the rhythm section, the women the guitars. “Seven-string oars,” low tuning, lower rumbling and roaring. The biggest attraction was the vocalist’s growling, who can boast an expressive, distinctive growl, though the band is currently a bit handicapped, as it mostly focuses on atmosphere alone. No solos, for instance, and no more interesting passages either. The female growl is striking, though, so the band has some potential, but to evolve it would need to write some more interesting original material and bring in at least one technically polished guitarist.
The second act on the bill was actually pointless. Gravestone are a sextet of dolled-up, school-trained musicians playing power metal with growl vocals that lack real punch and come across as rather washed-out and bland. The band also had quite a few sound problems, so the guitars couldn’t be heard clearly, and one of the two guitarists couldn’t quite show off the sonic speed his arpeggios demand. It looked like he hadn’t practiced enough at home. Aside from showing off their technical, textbook drilling and a big desire to integrate classical elements into the arrangements, the guys showed nothing tangibly authentic or special. So the time for a breather came sooner than I’d originally planned.
Things got “serious” when Dutch thrash metal revivalists Distillator took the stage. The lanky Lauren H, lead vocalist and guitarist nicknamed “Desecrator”, remains the driving force and is still as flexible and stretchy as a rubber band on stage. We first saw the band at the end of 2015, when Distillator kept American oddballs Vektor company at Ljubljana’s Orto Bar. The trio has grown even more convincing when it comes to the live show. Lauren H set up no fewer than three mic stands on stage, in the manner of someone like Schmier (Destruction), and moved from stand to stand during the show while handling lead vocals. Given that the man has to solo, having several stands on stage gratefully shortens his way back to the mic when a verse or chorus comes around. In the process he ran back and forth in almost blind fury, and more than once stopped right at the edge of the stage, where he shot off extremely fast solos of “Kerry King-style chaos”. The outfit was old school, in the vein of Destruction or Artillery from the eighties: bullet belts across the chest, high-tops, black spandex… in short, thrash revival. The style has plenty of Slayer tunes in it. The band released its new studio album “Summoning the Malicious” last year and presented it flintily. On stage Distillator are a convincing unit that works extremely tightly and confidently. With all that breakneck speed the odd little mistake happens, which is only logical, but let’s be honest, which show goes by without mistakes? None. What really wins you over is the heart, dedication, fighting spirit, commitment, tenacity, and refusal to give an inch. Maybe just one remark: Distillator remind you a bit too much of their aforementioned role models (Slayer, Destruction, etc.). Otherwise, as far as the live experience goes, extremely venomous and devilish.
Rebaelliun are a Brazilian death metal trio with two eras of activity. In the first, Rebaelliun were active between 1998 and 2003, releasing two studio albums in that time, then reactivated in 2015 and the year before last put out a third one titled “The Hell’s Decrease”. The band confirmed its good form with the EP “Bringer of War (The Last Stand)”, which came out last year and with which Rebaelliun proved they aren’t stopping, but are becoming ever fiercer usurpers of sonic “disgust” and terror. Lyrics in the same spirit. They call for anarchy, disobedience, rebellion, revolution, while at the same time Rebaelliun are big pacifists and constantly warn about the delusions of war. The trio is incredibly convincing on the sound side. A phantom-like, demolishing sound, produced by just three people on stage. Complete with a scandalously piercing growl. The sound was extremely full. On top of all that, the trio also serves up superb technical skill. The drums thundered, and their activity kept the motifs intensely shifting. Complex, with the double bass drum pedal in the highest gear the whole time. With such unbridled playing there’s certainly no time for indifference or a breather, and Rebaelliun managed to create a kind of hypnosis that sucked you into their musical world. So Rebaelliun are special. They’re raw and unpolished, yet they have a bit more musicality than you’d expect from such primal rawness and eruptive delivery. They’re old school, and yes. They’re Brazilian to the core, no doubt about it!
And for the big finale, Pestilence. Ten minutes to eleven at night, the last blast of the evening went off at the Revolver Club! Finally. The front of the stage did thicken up, because the crowd was awfully reserved this evening. You’d expect slaughter and blood in front of the stage, and instead you get a pretty reserved and even somewhat timid crowd. The response was the same. All the way up to Pestilence, when the crowd finally woke up and about five people even found themselves in the mosh pit. The band fired straight and direct! With the first act of the cult first album. Patrick Mameli looked in great shape all night. His growling was more than enviable, and the man has clearly been hitting the gym, because he’s chiseled and dangerous-looking. Especially when you add his experimenting with his hairstyle, which even our Gianni (Noctiferia) would envy. For a 52-year-old, Mameli seems incredibly fresh and rejuvenated, brimming with newfound energy and drive. It is true that Italy is his second home, since his parents come from here, so he effortlessly tossed in a few announcements in Italian. Strapped with a Steinberger guitar, he took care of at least half of all the solos, leaving the more demanding ones to Calin Paraschiv. Pestilence also showed superb chemistry and therefore a high degree of tightness and cohesion. At every moment of the show. And the set list was almost a dream. From the first to the fourth album, that is “Spheres”. Over the course of the show the songs historically approached 1993, though the band still gave a bit more attention to the third studio effort, “Testimony of the Ancient”. While Paraschiv, with his guitar strapped high, was in full battle gear the whole time, showing off all the fine mechanics of fast-fingered soloing, on Mameli’s left side our Tilen Hudrap was bassing wildly, absolutely tearing up the show and digging into his Spector bass with real ferocity!
An hour and a quarter flew by in an instant. The set list brought quite a few surprises. Songs Pestilence have rarely played in their career. It’s true, though, that they had a long break, lasting almost fifteen years, so for many classics there simply wasn’t a real chance to play them live. The first four songs came from the album “Malleus Maleficarum” (Malleus Maleficarum / Antropomorphia, Parricide, Subordinate To the Domination, Commandements). That was followed by “Consuming Impulse” classic Dehydrated, and then Pestilence swung on into the second part of the show with the album “Testimony of the Ancient” (The Secrecies of Horror, Twisted Truth, Land of Tears, Prophetic Revelations, Presence of the Dead). The closing part of the show went to the only “Spheres” track, Mind Reflections. An incredible carousel, or rodeo, of classic after classic. For the encore the band came back and fired off one more “Consuming Impulse” classic, Out of the Body, and the “plague rampage” was over!
With the revamped lineup, Mameli lived up to the high expectations. The new crew works superbly, and the songs played live are no less impressive! The band is still a bit tired, mostly because of the long distances between the venues where they play. To illustrate: right after the show the band hit the road straight for Novi Sad in Serbia (800 km from San Dona DI Piave), and the day after that they had to go on to Romania, toward Bucharest (also around 800 km from Novi Sad). Mameli still took time for the fans after the show, who besieged him for a good hour after the gig, signing a pile of autographs and of course posing for photos with them. The band is red hot, evidently in a new bloom, and there’s no shortage of demand for Pestilence shows in 2018. In the spring they head to South America, in the summer they’re off to the major European festivals, where brutal music of course reigns, and in the fall they’re already planning a new European tour, which will be dedicated to promoting the freshly released new studio album “Hadeon”. Let’s hope they get an invitation from Slovenia then too and visit Ljubljana again.
author: Aleš Podbrežnik
photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
