Quo Vadis - Forever (1996)

By the mid 90s, I was quite burnt out on metal music, having seen the entire genre climax between 1986-1990, and then suddenly, as through some cosmic event, a massive collapse of ideas in the face of the public's shift in interest towards grunge, industrial, 'alternative', hip hop, gothic and indie rock. I'm generalizing of course, and there were still a great number of strides being made in the newly birthed genres of death and (2nd wave) black metal, but apart from a rare gem from an established act, the more traditional sub-genres had dwindled into stardust. How did we go from albums like Master of Puppets, By Inheritance, No More Color and Coma of Souls to a heap of mundane drivel which couldn't even compete with the roots of thrash or speed metal?

It's like there were some giant, contagious lapse in ambition within the minds of even the genre's most seasoned creators, many of whom decided to jump off a bridge with fatal and unnecessary directional shifts in their careers. Though shortened attention spans and the most extreme forms of metal were beginning to take a stand against the more popular music of the period, it wasn't until the dawn of melodic death metal where the energy and momentum of the late 80s would resurface. Most of this developed overseas (later Carcass, At the Gates, In Flames, Arch Enemy, Dark Tranquillity, and so forth), and would usher in the giant wave of miserable clone-core that has yet to subside today. Here in the States, it was pretty much all death metal, or hardcore, or you were in the margins. But to the north, several Canadian bands were rising to the challenge, creating complex hybrids of thrash and death metal with an emphasis on both technical skill and versatility. Among these were Obliveon, Martyr, Neuraxis, and Quo Vadis.

Now, I'll be blunt. I've never really cared for Quo Vadis. Several within my circle of friends had begun to listen to them as early as their debut Forever (apparently one of them happened upon an import CD and the rest was history), and I've never quite understood the hype. To me, they were just another example of what I didn't enjoy about many new 90s artists: dull songs that attempt to impress through a technical edge alone, with very little writing ability. Surely the riffs on this (and subsequent albums) are not nearly as memorable as anything At the Gates did with Slaughter of the Soul, or Carcass did with Heartwork. But recently, as I've been going through so many of my favorite bands' discographies, I figured I'd borrow the discs and give this band another chance. Maybe I'll change my mind, eh?

Well, not with this album at least. Forever is the band's first full-length foray, and known for having a vastly inferior production to followups Day Into Night or Defiant Imagination. We're not talking a shit box recording here, the mix is quite clear (essential as the band are highly melodic and dynamic), but you can tell it's little more than a glorified demo level. As for the band's overall sound, this was ever one of their strongest points. They sound sort of like a mix of the later Death albums (Individual Thought Patterns, Symbolic, etc) mixed with melodic Euro death metal and progressive thrash. The solos are set to shred, the riffs are somewhat complex ("Legions of the Betrayed", "Pantheon of Tears", etc), and the arrangements unconventional. You won't find many standard verse-chorus-verse patterns in their writing, and the band likes to shift through a series of dynamics that keep the listener guessing.

These guys can play. Remy Beauchamp is a fiend on the bass, not to be shown up by the vitriolic axework of Bart Frydychowicz and Arie Itman, nor the seasoned foundation being meted out by Yanic Bercier. And while I wouldn't call them the most indulgent band of wankers this side of the Atlantic, they are certainly going to key you in to their individual. The band also incorporates a little experimentation through spoken word ("Mystery", "Nocturnal Reflections"), and they're fond of breaking for clean guitars, samples and so forth. Unfortunately, this experimentation also evokes some pretty boring breakdowns that feel alien to the band's more rapid paced thrashing, and a slew of vocals that today we'd probably attribute to an American metalcore band. Barks and grunts and screams and whatever it takes to force some emotion and momentum into the fairly forgettable music. One example of this is "Inner Capsule (Elements of the Ensemble Part II)", which opens with a hardcore yell alongside the grunting and sounds pretty terrible, with some scrawny death metal break rhythms that simply cannot save the clamor.

And that's really the biggest issue with Forever..., or Quo Vadis in general. Despite the obvious wealth of proficiency possessed by the band's roster, they simply cannot write a memorable riff here to save themselves. The songs are constantly evolving landscapes, and yet there is never some breathtaking surprise around any corner. You simply know there will be changes, and they will likely involve some wild guitars, furious bass playing and the inevitable eruption of leads. The over-arching note patterns are just not strong enough, and it's not saying much when the instrumental track ("The Day the Universe Changed") is the best on the album. The band also include a demo track from the previous year called "Sans Abris", a gentle, flowing piece with clean guitars and samples of howling winds that is suddenly destroyed by a shrill, inept female vocal near the track's conclusion, which sounds silly alongside the death bark.

I was far from impressed with this album back in the 90s, and it's even less interesting in today's climate. The songs are just as forgettable, and the band seems as if they're trying to pack in too many ideas, without letting any of them fully grasp the listener. The lyrics range from decent to mediocre, thoroughly existential garbage. Though malformed, the music is hardly a clutter, and I will at least laud the band for attempting something different. They sounded unique at the time, and they still seem so, but that's not always a selling point with me. Forever... might have the weakest production of their catalog, but it is the songwriting which really comes up short.

Highlights: Honestly, I cannot think of one. But if it's any consolation, their later albums are better than this.

Verdict: Indifference [5.25/10] (etched in anguish)

http://www.quovadis.qc.ca/

Nails - Unsilent Death (2010)

Plenty of folks have informed me that I should be listening to Nails, a furious three piece outfit from southern California with notable hardcore pedigree.  Featuring members of Terror, Carry On, Internal Affairs, and Snake Eyes, I wasn't too sold on the idea at first.  While I still find time to listen to Hatebreed and attend the odd Gilman Street show, hardcore and I have mostly parted ways.  The cosmos conspired to keep bringing Nails to my attention, and I finally decided to give Unsilent Death a listen.

I was flooded with regret the moment Unsilent Death started up.  Why had I not been listening to this band sooner?  Here at last was something to fill the hole in my blackened heart that Cursed had left with their passing!  A righteously pissed off and dirty mix of sludgy hardcore, grind, and d-beat that I actually skipped out on seeing at the React! Records showcase just days ago.  I am such an idiot.

Fast, pissed, and nearly perfect, this record is completely lacking in compromise.  The production is built on a mountain of low-end and distortion, and is a clear step above 2009's Obscene Humanity.  The style remains as straightforward as a train wreck, a constant assault on the listener in all respects.  Very few bands can pull off this kind of d-beat driven offensive and pair it with the kind of sludgy, murderous breakdowns that inspire genuine fear in the audience. 

Bow to no man, no pig, no book of myths. 
Tolerate no deception, no ignorance. 
I'm not your fucking servant.

Unsilent Death is fourteen minutes of pure disgust spread across ten tracks.  Standouts here include the quoted "No Servant", the title track, and the thirty second terror "Your God".  "Depths" closes things off with a wickedly simple blackened drum beat mated to wailing, distorted guitar feedback.  I have listened to this record at least ten times, and each time I have to either start all over from the beginning to hear more or take a break and decompress. 

Nails is constantly being compared to the likes of Entombed, Napalm Death, Discharge, and Drop Dead.  Each is an apt comparison in their own way, but I think a visit to the Chris Colohan back catalogue would be a bit more accurate.  Cursed, Left For Dead, and The Swarm have all tread this ground before, but Nails keeps the dream alive and kicking while putting their own brand of hatred at the forefront.  Unsilent Death is not to be missed by fans of heavy music.

Verdict:  9/10 [Epic Win]

Pestilence - Spheres (1993)

Testimony of the Ancients might have taunted the listener with traces of jazz, progressive rock and other outsourced influences. It might have seemed the beginning of a departure from the brute force of the band's roots in death and thrash metal. But though that album might have rode the rocket out through the solar system, stopping somewhere around Jupiter for a coffee and then turning back to our more immediate neighborhood in the void, the band's 4th full-length Spheres abandons our neck of the universe altogether, building enough thrust to carry it into unexplored pastures. Spheres is the band's 'jazz death' album, and yet it has very little in common with similar forays towards the form by a Cynic or Atheist, or the more spastic, later approach of a Dillinger Escape Plan, or the jazzcore/rap of Candiria.

No, this was something unique, and in hoping to give it that rare spin, Mameli and company recorded it with their 4th producer in four albums: Steve Fontano. Fontano is a more seasoned, diverse knob twiddler than Trapp, Johns, or Burns. He's done everything from R&B to Southern rock to ska in his day, but I'm willing to bet Pestilence were most interested in his work with shred and jazz influenced artists like Tony MacAlpine or Greg Howe. He's done an interesting job with this album. I was surprised to find that it's not as polished sounding as Testimony of the Ancients; there's a particular grit to this journey due to its highly synthesized embellishments. Not KEYBOARDs, mind you, as Patrick Mameli was so adamant to inform us all in the liner notes that no keyboards were used on this recording. Those miserable keyboards, always killing the music, right? No. And considering that the album is so full of synth guitar waves, one wonders what is really the difference, and why one might seem opposed to the use of one, but supportive of the other, especially when the band had used the former in the past. The band had also changed bassists once again, replacing Tony Choy with the equally mesmerizing theory of Jeroen Paul Thesseling, and he's a good fit for this particular album, with his honest 4 and 6-string tones anchoring the spatial chaos that erupts.

The guitar synths actually work well in favor of the album, creating all manner of cosmic vibrations through the more metallic segments. A shimmering array of stars here, just at the edge of a groove. A pulsar out beyond Mameli's leering growls. A black hole sucking in all light through a fusion/rock break. It's fascinating, if you've the patience and wherewithal to let the album absorb you into its manic, extraterrestrial dementia. And it begins with one of its more aggressive expeditions, "Mind Reflections", which creates a sense of terror above its hacking, morbid rhythms and waylaid grooves, the coolest happening before the :40 mark. "Multiple Beings" is a more playful romp across a subdued, melodic thrashing, while the bass pumps away in an almost repressed funk and the synthesized strings interact with Mameli's intonations, stopping only for various fusion bridges. This is quite a good song, though I can see how it would turn someone off from the album if they're expecting "The Process of Suffocation Pt. II".

Revelation, of the inner transformation
Betrayer, of your self-creation

"The Level of Perception" continues to formulate this pattern of excess groove, through a very frightening progression of flowing guitars and spooky synth tones that hover just at the edge of the aggression. The title is only too fitting: the more you focus here, the more you'll get out of it. "Aurian Eyes" is a brief, space opera instrumental conducted through the synths, but "Soul Search" returns to the cutting rhythms, slowly building to a great climax groove at 1:50 where a lead erupts. "Personal Energy" is one of the true highlights of the album, a soothing track with clean guitars and synth that arrives at a fantastic bridge, where the vocals lie partially obscured by the glistening, celestial melodies that conspire to consume them. It's nearly hypnotic, as is the following Patrick Uterwijk free form guitar ambient piece "Voices from Within". The title track is probably the closest to the material on Testimony of the Ancients, with another of the band's solid, simple chord patterns leveraged with a few mind-warping, jazzy partitions.

"Changing Perspectives" is a track much like others on the album, cycling about a series of thrash/grooves saturated in the storms of synth and an arabesque, clean guitar. While it's good, the riffs do not immediately leap out to mind like so many that had come before them. "Phileas" is the last of the three brief instrumentals (as opposed to 8 on the previous album), and while soothing, it's the least interesting. The "Demise of Time" offers closure, one of the crueler tracks as far as the mocking rhythm and otherworldly gore-tone of the vocals. The main verse rhythm is great, and the jazzy segue around 1:20, but the rest is not so memorable.

In addition to their most adventurous, this would also be the 'last' album for Pestilence, until Mameli decided to reform the band for Resurrection Macabre, which sounds like a hybrid of their first three records and completely neglects the sound of Spheres. It's a little hard for me to complain about that choice, as I enjoyed this the least of their original full-lengths. Part of me is actually disappointed that I would not hear a follow-up to this, perhaps under another band name. The music is undeniably fascinating, and I'd be very curious to hear what a further mutation might have wrought through these very same musicians. Still, this is strangely the album that most find 'annoying'. It's melodic and catchy, but I can understand how the rhythmic progressions and common forays into the realm of jazz and fusion would turn off many listeners. Hell, this is the last album I recall which my girlfriend actually demanded I take out of my car CD player because she couldn't bear it. Fucking squares, man! They'll never understand us cats.

Very few traces of death metal remained in the band at this point. The most glaring would be the vocals, which have not changed from Testimony of the Ancients. If anything, they've grown even wilder. And then there are a few of the riffs, which are arguably closer to progressive thrash than anything hinging on brutality. But nevertheless, it's the band's most original excursion into aural atmosphere, and one of the few albums of its type that truly holds up through the years (far more than Atheist's Elements of Unquestionable Presence). In fact, the only other jazz/death love-child I adhere to would be Cynic's more recent effort Traced in Air, which we'd might as well just label progressive rock, though its borne of the same spirit. As far as I'm concerned, Pestilence had already conquered thrash and death metal with the first two albums. After recovering from the shock of their split with Martin Van Drunen, I grew to accept that this was not a band inclined to tread their old proving grounds, and Spheres is the logical and successful extension of this modus operandi. Of course, with Resurrection Macabre, they will actually take a piss all over this pattern, and set up camp right back where they started. But that album is such smashing fun that you'll hardly care.

The bottom line: if you dig jazz, progressive death metal, progressive guitar rock, or outer space in general, Spheres is worth passing some time with while you chew your biscuit and sip your tea, watching the moons and worlds stream past and the stardust shimmer outside your window on the bridge. Make it so!

Highlights: Mind Reflections, Multiple Beings, The Level of Perception, Personal Energy

Verdict: Win [8.25/10] (a domain of harmony)

http://www.myspace.com/pestilenceofficial

Pestilence - Mind Reflections (1994)

You can just imagine the board meeting for something like this...

Suit 1: Guys, Pestilence haven't really done much to fill out that record contract, we're going to have to either hire a band to pretend they're Pestilence, or put out a bunch of stuff that we've already put out...

Suit 2: Ugh. Not another compilation. The band only has four fucking albums...and anyone who cares already owns them. Just how stupid do you think their fans will be?

Suit 1: Their fans are probably goddamn idiots anyway. I mean, who cares about death metal? Nu-metal's on the way in, and we've got lots of new signs coming up. And judging by these sales records, hardly anyone bought their jazz album Spheres last year. Who wants to listen to a death metal band play Al DiMeola in space?

Suit 2: True. Well, let's give them something. I've got it. We'll pull a track off a compilation or demo, and then fill in the end of the compilation with some random live material.

Suit 1: Neat. Book the cover artist. Now, about Fear Factory and Machine Head...

And lo, it would be. The first official compilation of Pestilence material, culled primarily from their four studio albums on Roadrunner. As if there were that many followers of this band who really wanted to buy it all twice! But of course, if many lesser bands were given the treatment, why not Pestilence? One might argue that Mind Reflections is a worthwhile purchase for the initiate, but then again, for just twice the price, that same initiate could spend his or her money on two of the best death metal albums out there. Either way, in the end, it usually doesn't matter who approves of a compilation like this, because for the most part, it's a damned ripoff and not worth the time or investment. But somewhere amidst its depths, Mind Reflections has an ace up its sleeve, a fat, taunting carrot that almost snaps the stick in two.

Let's first examine the re-released material. From Malleus Maleficarum, they've included both "Parricide" and "Subordinate to the Domination". Both good choices, but ask yourself, would a poor choice even be possible from such an album? Still, "Chemo Therapy" seemed like it was a fairly popular song from the album, so a little surprising that it wasn't included (though a live version is). You can't really go wrong with anything off Consuming Impulse either, with the possible exception of "Proliferous Souls", which is simply because it's an instrumental/intro. They've gone with "Dehydrated", "Out of the Body", and "The Process of Suffocation", all of which are superb. And thus ends the Martin Van Drunen era. "Twisted Truth", "The Secrecies of Horror", and "Land of Tears" are all included from Testimony of the Ancients. Perhaps "The Secrecies of Horror" could have been replaced with another track like "Lost Souls" or "Presence of the Dead", as it's not a great selection, but otherwise, no complaints. Spheres, which only released the year before this compilation, is represented only by the title track "Mind Reflections". Nine tracks does not seem like a very thorough amount to include on a band's compilation, but since this is basically a means to some quick cash, it was unlikely they would extend it to two discs.

However, nestled among the pre-released studio material is a rare track from the Teutonic Invasion II compilation from 1988, titled "Hatred Within", which seems like an outtake for the Malleus Maleficarum recordings. It's a pretty badass tune, with some wicked, Slayer-like riffing molded into a brute death/thrash engine, with messy solos and Martin Van Drunen's killer presence as the master of ceremonies. In particular I enjoyed the brief melodic bridge after 1:00, and the bridge where the track picks up the pace, but the song seems just subpar enough with comparison to the debut album's material that you can ascertain why it wasn't included there, and the compilation came out the same year as the album...so it was unlikely to come with the original CD as a bonus track. As for later pressings...it would have been excellent.

The final six tracks of Mind Reflections are live from the Dynamo Open Air festival in Holland, 1992, with the Testimony of the Ancients studio lineup. So if you hadn't ever had the chance to see the band perform, and had not yet heard Mameli's vocals over the band's earlier material, here was your first chance, and since these still sound better than the live material on the Chronicles of the Scourge compilation, they add a touch of value to this disc. The live tracks are "Dehydrated", "Chemo Therapy", "Presence of the Dead", "Testimony", "Chronic Infection" and "Out of the Body", and it makes for a pretty effective little set, even if the recording is not top notch and Mameli sounds a bit more deep and bloodied than his studio vocals. Which might be a good thing, come to think of it, as it brings him closer to Van Drunen's originals.

There's no real reason to waste any of your pay on Mind Reflections unless you're a collector, or like myself, you were so starved for rare material that "Hatred Within" was all too tempting to pass up. Otherwise, your money is better spent elsewhere, perhaps on the 2-in-1 release of Consuming Impulse/Testimony of the Ancients which is a complete steal at the same relative price. The live tracks are decent, but only because you've got no other alternative. These days there is the Chronicles of the Scourge double-live album, which has old 80s sets with Martin Van Drunen at the microphone. But the sound is just too rough. Nine of these 16 tracks were an immediate throwaway, and the six lives are mediocre quality...that doesn't leave much to sink your teeth into. Pull the fleece from your brain, and buy another death metal album instead, especially a Pestilence.

Verdict: Fail [4/10]

http://www.myspace.com/pestilenceofficial

Pestilence - Testimony of the Ancients (1991)

When news arrived that Pestilence had parted ways with Martin Van Drunen, I admit my heart skipped a few beats. What the hell were they thinking? This was one of my favorite bands! How dare they do this to me? Well, it turned out that I was not the center of the universe after all, and they probably had a pretty good reason for the split, but I was loathe to hear what the band might become sans those bloodied, hostile, unforgettable vocal tones. Patrick Mameli was to replace Van Drunen, manifesting his destiny as the multi-tasking frontman, and Drunen's almost nonexistent bass skills were assumed by Tony Choy of Cynic and Atheist, a rather excellent choice for the progressive direction Mameli had planned to take the band in, with a fusion of jazzy principles and guitar synth. However, this transformation would not be fully manifest in Testimony of the Ancients. Only hinted at. Once I caught an advertisement for the great new cover art and album title, I allowed my hackles the chance to recess back into their lair, still poised to strike out in desperation.

The first thing one might notice about this album is that there are 16 tracks. Sixteen whole new songs? Well, not exactly. There are eight new death metal tracks and then eight interludes which alternate between the songs, most labeled with simple titles like "Blood", "Bitterness", "Soulless", "Mindwarp", "Darkening", and so forth. The purpose of these bits and bytes is twofold: to create some poignant scenario that lends additional weight to the real tracks, and to showcase the band in their newfound extravagance. Their 'open minds'. A willingness to temper their masterfully crafted, if brutal metallic core with all manner of experimentation. Surprisingly, many of these work, despite the girth of their variation. For example, "Bitterness" is a scintillating flourish of angelic synth and acoustics that perfectly sets up the hard and slow "Twisted Truth". "Impure" offers morbid smut. "Darkening" creates a chaotic tension. "Soulless" allows Tony Choy to take flight, his hammering finger spasms adjoined to a subtle, well plotted ambiance. Unfortunately, they're not all that great, and many are so short that they might better have been saved for full length songs on a more experimental album, post-Spheres, perhaps. After a few of the better breaks like "Bitterness" and "Impure", the rest seem pretty scattered and distracting.

Another distinction to this album is the production, which sounds quite a lot cleaner than Consuming Impulse or Malleus Maleficarum. This is because the band decided to record the album with Scott Burns in his legendary Morrisound studio. Having already met with two excellent producers in their career, why not a third? Burns was already responsible for work with Atheist, Cancer, Death, Deicide, Cannibal Corpse, and other acts from Florida and beyond, so he seemed a pretty natural choice. As one who preferred the harsh, grinding tones of Consuming Impulse to almost any other metal album ever recorded, I was dismayed by the level of polish on this album. It does make a few of the better songs on this album seem a little sterile, though it's probably a better match for the band's increasing jazz tendencies and Mameli's desire to move outside the 'safer' parameters of brutality that were spawning a thousand new bands into the death metal fold internationally.

Fortunately, this is a Pestilence album, and the band still knows how to write a damn fine song. In fact, almost every one of the full-length tracks on this album is good, even though they might not be nearly at the level of the first two albums. "Secrecies of Horror" has an excellent fade in intro, before the circus-like, clunky rhythm of the verse arrives. Not one of my favorite riffs, but it does transform into a string of serious octave chords, an atmospheric bridge with a synth, and a pretty sick lead segment followed by a more mechanical, thrashing rhythm at about 2:10. "Twisted Truth", on the other hand, is pure fucking greatness, with one of those super simplistic riffs that will have you scratching your head, wondering why it hadn't been done before in quite that way. That the band creates such momentum through such a slower pace is a marvel, and the bass is quite good throughout, in particular as it struts below the proggy sounding solo sequences, of which there are two. "Lost Souls" bristles with a faster beat and thriving energy, replete with escalating, simple chords and further excavations from Choy, resolving in large, atmospheric chords that suffocate the listener like rust-tinged clouds of acid. "Land of Tears" opens with another bouncy, circus-thrash riff, but then breaks into one of the better sheer death metal rhythms on the album, a fairly powerful charge despite the sterility of the studio sound.

Indulge in the tempation
Your mind will show you the way
Ghosts of the damned will guard you
In this journey into decay

The second half of the album took a little more acclimation than the first, for the songs don't feel as immediately memorable. "Prophetic Revelations" starts with a slow, lunging half-groove before it picks into a verse rhythm similar to that of "Lost Souls". Again, there is an extremely polished and almost mechanical subtext to the writing, as if the band were afraid to get their hands dirty beyond the vocals. Ultimately, the song is a winner due to its furious lead break at 2:15, and the return to the sluggish dementia of its intro. "Testimony" is a chugging horror that mutates into a decent floe of progressive thrash metal, with sizzling leads and an excellent, atmospheric bridge. "Presence of the Dead" is one of the better overall songs on the album, with another of the simple sliding octave chord patterns that would reappear often on the band's 2009 reunion effort Resurrection Macabre. However, the true strength is the jazzy bliss of the bridge, the mystique of the leads and the tight, playful thrashing that reminds me of something which might have appeared on Consuming Impulse, albeit in a much cleaner form here. But it is perhaps the final full-length track "Stigmatized" which most closely resembles the band's past albums, at least until the extended fusion of the bridge, which I might add features one of the best lead licks on the album just before 2:30.

One thing I must admit is that, while he's no Van Drunen, Patrick Mameli does manage to somehow pick up the vocal slack and offer a distinct performance here. It's honestly the most brutal element of the album, though it's got a more reserved tone ala Chuck Schuldiner or a less passionate Chris Reifert. I was fully expecting to hate the vocals, and yet I wound up impressed that he could pull it off (turns out he can also pull it off live, as I found out when the band toured North America on this particular album).

In the end, Testimony of the Ancients is just too tidy and 'ambitious' to compete with its predecessors. If you're a sucker for a very sterile, procedural tone to the guitars and mix of your death metal albums, then you'll still be a sucker for this one. And to be totally fair, it's a very interesting record. The cover art is cool, and the 16-track setup intriguing, even if several of its constituent pieces are rusting at the hinges. The actual metal songs here are almost all very good, barring a few lackluster riffs that made me feel like I was at a carnival. While I greatly prefer the spontaneous violence of the band's earlier solos, the leads here at least accessible and catchy. I feel like there is an obvious parallel here to Death. Both bands got their heads out of the graveyard and into the clouds, deciding to expand outwards of their genre without wholly abandoning it. I feel like Testimony of the Ancients was the more successful of the band's first 'breakout' albums, as I believe Human to be a tedious bore with a few pretty solos at best (Remember kids, stoning is illegal here in my country.) At least with this album Pestilence retain a little of their menace.

The lyrics are not as good. The songs...not as good. The production all too underwhelming. But Testimony of the Ancients earns its stripes for the attempted cohesion of so many wandering parts into a streamlined progressive death metal experience, and I still listen to the album rather frequently these days. Far more than I would listen to Human, Atheist's Unquestionable Presence, or Cynic's Focus, at any rate. There was very little chance that Pestilence would surpass the power of their first two albums, which remain flawless to these ears over two decades later, so the forging of this new path was hardly a slap in the face to the fans that so idolized their work.

Highlights: Twisted Truth, Land of Tears, Lost Souls, Presence of the Dead, Testimony

Verdict: Win [8.75/10] (a language unheard before)

http://www.myspace.com/pestilenceofficial

Pestilence - Consuming Impulse (1989)

Ah, the spoils of youth. Friday nights as a teen. The unceremonious dumping at the local mall by my family, to walk around in endless loops and socialize with about half my high school, who were there at any given time. When lucky, I was able to bring a friend, or join him when his own family performed a similar ritual. Most of the metal heads were in attendance on the weekend, so it was hardly a death sentence, and there was almost always someone to talk to, but the real attraction was a chance to spend some of that paper route profit, or weekly allowance, on a new metal album. My friend and I would scan the shelves and bins intently, awaiting any new arrival.

The format of choice: cassette. CDs were a blip on our radar that had not yet overtaken our lives, and vinyl was simply a liability for afternoons of skateboarding or shooting hoops. We discovered a great many gems in those years, but more often we would grab legit albums we had gotten the chance to preview (and record) from the local college metal radio show, or through tape trading with friends at school. We scored and scoured Coroner albums. Deathrow. Sodom and Kreator. Tankard and Destruction. Dark Angel and Heretic. It was like an endless beer-bong of inspiration being fed directly to our throbbing brains, eager to ingest all of the information, process it into headbanging release, and then bring it to school, to enlighten our friends and peers, whose idea of 'underground' at that time was Slayer and Testament. We threw around the 'P' word far too often. We were pricks about it. But everyone was.

One rainy Friday, just after Christmas, I found this cassette on the shelf at Record Town.

Now, death metal was not necessarily a new thing to me. I had owned a few Death cassettes, one of which I completely adored (Leprosy). I had also become familiar with bands like Possessed, Carcass, Sepultura and Autopsy, who more or less filled that mold. Earlier in that very same year, I had purchased Slowly We Rot, which had initially scared the fuck out of me, but I had come to enjoy it. In fact, Pestilence was not a new thing to me, as I had a tape copy of Mallevs Maleficarvm which I had been absorbed in for some time. Needless to say, this was going to be allowance well spent. On the ride home, before I could listen to the album, I perused the liner notes of the cassette.

I wondered at its cover art, which it turns out was never the band's intention, but a rushed record label decision that has become iconic regardless. I still use it as the back patch on my denim jacket, after salvaging it from an old t-shirt that no longer fit. I wondered at the blue staff-line images woven behind the lyrics. The band had a new guitar player, Patrick Uterwijk, which I didn't realize at the time. The band had also gone to Harris Johns to produce this disc. If you don't know Harris Johns, well, the man is amazing. He was responsible for numerous classics by Helloween, Tankard, Voivod, Sodom, Coroner and Kreator. All top shelf bands, and all albums with a timeless, if raw sound to them. Yes, all the cards seemed to stack in the favor of Pestilence, and I couldn't wait to get back to my home stereo.

You can probably guess the rest. Consuming Impulse is my favorite death metal album. Ever. It succeeds where so many have not, in concocting the absolute perfect blend of eerie, morbid atmospheres, brutal and irresistible riffs (still very much cognizant of the band's thrashing foundation), and the most amazing performance by Martin Van Drunen on any album of his career, taking the same tortured path as the debut album but cranking it up so far that it sounds like a man literally ON FIRE or dying by some other means as he is forced to vomit into the studio microphone. Like it's predecessor, Consuming Impulse is a flawless, intelligent exercise that jackhammers straight into the memory. The riffs are more than mere barbarism, more than the dream-stuff of neanderthals, but melodic, twisted expressions that haunt and harrow, fully supportive of the dire and hopeless lyrical passages.

Say what you will about Patrick Mameli and the various statements he has made throughout the years. About his tireless quest to continuously evolve this band, seemingly malcontent with each previous work. What he wrote on this album is true proof of a muse tethered to the man's spine. Not some angelic muse bearing a lyre, but a leering, inhuman fiend with scalpels for fingers and formaldehyde for blood. The RIFFs, for fucks sake.

"Dehydrated" opens in a grinding salvo of brutal vocals and flesh churning guitars, and through the phrasing of the guitars, one can feel those last minute, desperate attempts by the mind to reckon with the body's environment before all moisture is finally drained to leave the barren husk. The bridge is laden with a slow building momentum as Van Drunen's heavy breathing morphs back into his blood-soaked intonations. Congratulations, you have just had your skull kicked in for the first of nine times on this album. "The Process of Suffocation" continues, with yet another variation on how to lose your breath, delivered through seamless, brutal thrash that balances a bevy of bombastic chords with a taunting, two-note melody. The solo here is entirely off the hook, bringing back the best of Slayer's sporadic style, while the grinding bridge and closing thrash hook have more meat to them than a Super Bowl tailgate party. "Suspended Animation" continues, with a glorious, melodic depth to its surging verse, and an amazing breakdown at 1:40 where the guitars retch and writhe like serpentine assassins, and an angelic choir-like synthesizer cuts through the mist of decay, before a thrashing climax ensues with more insane leads carving incisions upon the listener's cerebral cortex.

The blood is no longer liquid
No palpitations of the heart
Stone cold hardened intestines
There will never be a new start

Yeah. It's not through with you yet. "The Trauma" is one of the most terrifying death metal arrangements ever, with carefully affected drum swells behind the sparse verse vocals, soon transforming into a huge groove and continuing to gain momentum until the brilliant chorus, in which a laconic sounding voice is countered by Martin Van Drunen howling 'Trauma', shadowed by the creepy chords. "Chronic Infection" is a raucous display of how a groove in death metal, when properly manifested, can lay waste to entire cities like a nuclear storm. Notice how the vocals are almost 'rap-like' here, and yet incredibly incendiary before the chimes arrive over the very doomed rhythm at 1:05, and Van Drunen's growl echoes into oblivion. There is sick, and then there is SICK. This goes beyond that, to TERMINAL. And then the band brings its mosh favorite, "Out of the Body", with the intense and desperate melodic bridge riffing and the cycling, unforgettable bludgeon of the main verse riff. Just try and sit or stand still to this. And that riff around 1:45? Forget it.

I admit that I originally found the final 'third' of this album to be less standout than the rest, but time and wisdom have slowly slaked the stupid out of me, and you'll find it is no less impressive. "Echoes of Death" creates an astounding force behind the simple splash of chords across the vocals in the verse, and then the grimy thrashing begins, with another screaming synthesizer line that leads into the next verse. "Deify Thy Master" is nearly as frightening as "The Trauma", with a similar wah wah effect over its bleeding intro chords while the rhythm guitar rolls alongside it like a juggernaut of festered flesh. The breakdown/chorus is once again incredible, and shows us once more just how effective death metal can be when you don't forsake the actual songwriting for brutality alone. Also of note, the killer, clinical slowdown thrash at 1:30. Instrumental "Proliferous Souls" offers you a brief, 2 minute pause to 'relax' while the organs shimmer and the guitars wank off slowly before the final, crushing weight of "Reduced to Ashes" arrives, through some of the most powerfully chugged chords I have ever heard on an album. The rest: pure, forceful heretic incinerating violence.

The question of the interrogators
Extorted the false confessions
Broken upon the will they ended
Without even knowing the accusation

Nostalgia can only partially color my feelings for this album, for it exists on a pedestal of craft and brutality that I simply do not hear anymore. And believe me, I've been listening. I listen to all I can. I've been waiting 20+ years for something to come along and knock this titan off its rocker. I've heard the arguments for Morbid Angel, Death, Autopsy, Immolation, Vader, and countless others, but there are single songs on this album I enjoy more than the sum of certain of those bands' entire careers, and I say that after hearing this a thousand times or more, at a point where I should be far beyond bored with it. Consuming Impulse is by no means the only flawless death metal effort by my own standards of rating albums. I venerate Left Hand Path, Realm of Chaos, Leprosy, and many more. But if it came down to the wire and I was told I could take a single death metal record into the afterlife, or to a desert island somewhere, this would be the one I grab, without hesitation. I probably have not done this album justice. But I'm happy to have tried.

Highlights: The mall where I bought the album closed long ago, first converted into an ice skating rink, and now a new shopping plaza with a Starbucks and Borders. Bright women and caramel macchiatos are a plus, but this album is a ++.

Verdict: Epic Ants Crawling On My Face [10/10] (respiratory ailments, suffering cries)

http://www.myspace.com/pestilenceofficial

Iron Attack - Vampire Concerto (2010)

The life of a Japanese instrumental metal shredder is an interesting one, hovering at the crossroads of a niche of showmanship which honestly died with the peak popularity of 80s shred gods Steve Vai and Joe Satriani, and the fandom of manga, anime and video games that are far more prevalent in today's world, yet only rarely have a taste for such relics. Still, a number of six-string samurais carve forth through the rank and swell of the odds stacked against them and come out on top, letting their imagination spill forward through both their impressive dexterity, virtuosity and compositional skills. Of these, Iron-Chino, or Iron Attack is probably the most consistently entertaining, as he churns out album after album of material that could easily find a home in a video game.

Vampire Concerto is his 14th effort since 2007 with this project, and it's not a lot different than most of the rest, albeit directed towards a more neo-classical, gothic flavor due to its theme of haunted nights, vampires and other cartoon trends that are immensely popular with the fandom of manga and anime (there are a great number of popular titles, including PC dating games, that involve cute and probably underaged bloodsuckers and their idealized adventures). Musically, if you could recruit Yngwie Malmsteen to write the soundtrack for a Castlevania game, this might indeed be the result. Iron-Chino is an immensely talented player able to flutter about his frets with little strain or effort, through nigh endless scales and arpeggios, and he does this repeatedly across solid rhythm guitar tracks, drums and synth-heavy atmospheres.

The true challenge for this sort of release is to keep you interested with the climaxes in the leads and their ability to morph across a shifting rhythm, and Vampire Concerto is largely successful with this, though it's not as if Chino is employing much in the way of novelty or innovation, a practice very much alive when the 80s heroes were releasing this sort of album. The intro to the album is a nice piano/acoustic duet beneath with a synth swells and light drumming commences, but then most of the full songs here employ a very similar atmosphere, with only mild variations in tempo. Some of the more glorious include "Satellite Phantom", "Sign of Wizard's Melancholy", and "Killing Under a Scarlet Moon", but in all honesty, you could consider this a single, 35 minute song and get just as much out of it, since so few of these tracks range outside the box.

As a backdrop for video gaming or even a fast night drive through the city or countryside, Vampire Concerto works almost as well as anything else in Iron Attack's generous back catalog, but I found the lack of variety here a little less compelling than some of his past works like Dead Heat Refrain or Far East Judgment. Still, it's difficult not to be impressed by his playing and ability to churn out so many albums in such order, without any really suffering in quality. Formulaic they may be, but most serve their function rather well. For the dwindling cross section of shred fans, otaku, Japanese horror gamers and visual kei/power metal connoisseurs out there, this is sure to impress for at least a few spins.

Highlights: Satellite Phantom, Sign of Wizard's Melancholy, Killing Under a Scarlet Moon

Verdict: Win [7.5/10]

http://sound.jp/ironchino/attack.html

Begrime Exemious - Impending Funeral of Man (2010)

Last year's Set Ablaze the Kingdom of Abraham EP not only introduced me to the disgusting, primal wall of force that is Begrime Exemious, but also answered the eternal question that had been sloshing around in my wet brain for decades: what would happen if you just took every one of your classic thrash, death, speed, black, grind, and doom influences from the 80s or 90s, threw them into a blender with a few pounds of raw meat and then choked down the results until you were inebriated? That was a fun if short cocktail, with a nifty Autopsy cover tacked on, but if it could be attributed with any crime (beyond the inherent blasphemy of its creation), it would be the pangs of thirst that were left at the back of my throat as I anticipated more...

Well, a little over a year later, the palate can finally be satisfied with the unsavory sounds of the first hellish full-length album from the Canadian butchers, a 44 minute crash course in uncaring, unswerving, beautiful negligence of all the annoying trends and cash-ins that have plagued their chosen art for nigh on decades. Impending Funeral of Man sounds as if a warband of very shaggy men were frozen in their jam space during a blizzard in the 1994-95 season, only to thaw a decade into the 21st century to mete out the bludgeoning atrocities of their influences on an unsuspecting world of Necrophagist wankers and frog-tossing invertebrate Devourment fans. Begrime Exemious essentially have an encyclopedic knowledge of all the good stuff from that bygone era, and they hammer it all together like plates of mismatched armor. You can hear the mix and mess of Order from Chaos, the infernal death siege engine of Incantation, the crash and speed of Slaughter, Bathory, Mayhem, and a hundred other formative thrash, black and death metal artists, plus the subtle undercurrents of death/doom and grind.

Impending Funeral of Man is for the most part a fast and filthy album, a corridor of violent, suffocating aberrations with only occasional alcoves in which to stop and gather your dying breaths. But these pauses are plentiful enough that the album achieves an overall balance of dynamic diabolism which allows you to barrel straight through it like a drunken fiend in a brothel of succubi, satisfied with the rising and falling of tempos. Tracks like "Morbid Invocation" and "Archfiend" (the one track that re-appears from the prior EP) beat upon you relentlessly, but never forget that they're actual decent metal songs, with good if sporadic lead work and a slight touch more atmosphere than you'd initially expect. One of my favorites on the album was "Filthy Sodomites of Christ", which rolls along like a rusted tank with headphones on, listening to a mix tape of Hellhammer, Autopsy and early Morbid Angel. Another is the digestible, violently melodic "Ancient Crypts Asunder", with its winning mile of raw leads and dank, sincere vocals.

"Incipit" took me completely by surprise, an atmospheric instrumental dowsed in acoustic melancholy. Closing track "I, Iconoclast" is also noteworthy as one of the most raging and bombastic pieces here. In fact, I think I enjoyed every track with the possible exception of the "Psalmody of Sacrificial Blaze". It's 9 minutes long and divided into three segments, the first of which ripped my face off. Somewhere around the middle I got lost until the slow leads and doomy tones of the closing moments stirred me, but ultimately even this track is at least good enough. The album is hardly over-saturated with instantly memorable riffing, but that's not really the type of band this is. They succeed through an overall sense of punishment, and a courage to branch out into whatever direction serves the song.

Begrime Exemious is very much an old school band, or rather an amalgamation of old school sounds that probably holds no real interest for the attention starved younger fan of deathcore or technical knob slobbing. But their strength lies in the fact that they emulate not one style or act in particular, but the entire spectrum of extremity that once existed. There is no boring, endless blast work here. No trendy noodling. No cheap breakdowns. Impending Funeral of Man benefits from a grounded, raw mix which would be very easy to reproduce in the live setting, and to that effect, they are one of the most honest sounding bands you'll hear today. I was very surprised that a Nuclear War Now! or Hell's Headbangers had not picked up the band after the previous EP, since Begrime has that center of appeal which could easily transfer to fans of a band like Goatlord, Nunslaughter or Blasphemophager.

Alas, it seems they've got a cool new label to do right by them, and enough diversity in their sound to play alongside nearly any death, black, thrash or death/doom bill, so there's not a lot stopping them. As someone used to hearing only the more tech inspired death approach of a Neuraxis, Cryptopsy or Martyr coming from Canada, it's a massive, refreshing plus to see my northern neighbors throw such a potent incendiary unto the battlefield of revival extremity that has promulgated internationally in these past few years.

Highlights: Archfiend, Incipit, Filth Sodomites of Christ, I, Iconoclast, Ancient Crypts Asunder

Verdict: Win [8.25/10]

http://begrime.orphy.net/

Pestilence - Chronicles of the Scourge (2006)

It's pretty hard to imagine the downside of releasing a Pestilence live album, even if its almost two decades past due, and the live shows in question were recorded in the late 80s. In fact, if I kept a short list of live album demands from any metal acts, this is one that would be close to the top. And since Metal War was likely releasing this album straight to the collectors and old school death metal maniacs who were still lauding and supporting the Dutchmen after all these years (before the 2009 reunion effort Resurrection Macabre), one cannot really fault them for releasing these performances as is, with no modifications.

But sadly, Chronicles of the Scourge turns into a double edged sword with regards to the actual quality of sound. The material here is culled from two live performances: the first (10 tracks) at Holland's 'Kix Festival' back in June, 1989, and the second (8 tracks) from an earlier German performance in November 1988. All the songs are very much identifiable to their source material, with a chunky and dark live tone, but having actually seen the band perform in North America back in the day, I can honestly say that the quality of the recording does not do them justice. For one, Van Drunen's vocals sound rather terrible on both performances, in particular the Dutch show, where he sounds a lot deeper and raspier, almost like another vocalist. His vocals are captured with more clarity on the German performance, but even then they don't sound all that great, and the overall tone of the band feels rather cruddy and blocky. The drums and guitars are audible, and something low that resembles a bass is racing along beneath them, but if I wasn't already intimately familiar with the band's earlier albums I would have a hard time following it all.

Since the band had limited material out in an official form back in these days, their set list was drawn from only the debut Malleus Maleficarum, with a few tracks from Consuming Impulse. This means a little of an overlap in the track listing, with "Parricide", "Chemo Therapy", Subordinate to the Domination", "Cycle of Existence", and "Antropomorphia" all appearing twice. To this extent, the more recent performance in Holland benefits from having some newer material: "Echoes of Death", "Out of the Body", "Suspended Animation" and "The Trauma", but they all sound rather raw and fresh, especially with the off-putting vocals. Though they don't benefit from Martin Van Drunen's presence, the live tracks added to the 1994 Mind Reflections compilation sound better than these in every imaginable way, so we'll have to just appreciate those until the inevitable reunion tour DVD/CD.

However, Metal War were not negligent of this live compilation's rather limited appeal, and decided to include a few rarities that it might be more easily digested. This includes the raw and gritty instrumental "Consuming Impulse", which did not appear on the album, but is quite a tasty, menacing morsel, albeit rough (it seems parts of this track might have been dissected and reconfigured for the Resurrection Macabre album). Beyond this, they included an entire bonus disc called The Consuming Rehearsals from 1989 which is pretty cool, if extremely rugged, with the vocals difficult to make out. Interestingly, "Testimony of the Ancients" appears with the material that would actually appear on Consuming Impulse, as well as the "City of the Living Dead" acoustic intro that appears on one of the live performances.

Chronicles of the Scourge is sadly not the ultimate fan package Pestilence fans of old might have been awaiting, and not even a good one. But the label at least attempted to make it something other than a ripoff. The bonus rehearsal material is nice, the live material not so much, and nothing here would distract you from simply spinning Malleus Maleficarum or Consuming Impulse in its place, but if you're a collector of live or bootleg material from your favorite bands, it might be worth buying only for a sense of completion. Otherwise, just try and see the damn band live, even if YOU are a few decades over due. I hear they are back together...

Verdict: Indifference [5/10]

http://www.myspace.com/pestilenceofficial

Pestilence - Malleus Maleficarum (1988)

I often liken the world of metal music to the Greek pantheon. In it, there are gods, titans, heroes, priests and worshipers. Worshipers do their best to imitate the various gods, patching together their many aspects into something resembling metal music, but rarely worthy of any but the most dim recognition. This is how we got Trivium, for example. Heroes are those bands which rise to the challenge of the gods, upping the ante with faster speeds, technical arrangements, and modern production values that their deities simply never had at their disposal. Priests act as ciphers, directly aping the words and music of their exalted, keeping it alive throughout the decades and causing endless rebirth cycles of their genres, elements, and so forth through the crowds of worshipers. The gods would be the most famous, successful or even notorious bands. The big names: Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath, Metallica, Slayer, Judas Priest, and so forth. Bands so famous that they can launch and sell out world tours, support their great grandchildren through college with ease, and will survive on VH1 'best of' specials until the end of time. But then there are the titans...mighty forces of old who were 'defeated' or cast down by the gods, despite their infinite prowess and crafting of the very foundations of the form.

Within metal music, this translates to those bands who wrote classic, excellent albums that for whatever reason went over the heads or out of reach of the starved masses in the 70s and 80s. There are a great number of these titans, and though their power source may seem long since diminished, some have seen a rebirth in the years of late, through the concentrated worship of an underground of devout cultists that have simply never given them up. For myself, Pestilence would be one such entity, both my favorite Dutch metal artist since the dawn of the power chord, and the band responsible for two of my hands-down, absolute favorite metal albums period, in death, death/thrash or any other sub-genre. But Pestilence are also a band of transitions. No two albums really sound the same, unless you count their latest Resurrection Macabre which seems to be a time capsule back to the pristine dementia of their first two full-length efforts.

By 1988, Pestilence were a band entering a transitional phase that bridged the thrashing roots of their demo days with the surge in extremity many artists were twisting into what we have now long lavished as the death metal genre. Here on their debut Malleus Maleficarum, you can hear both the sire and the child; the former through the crisp, punchy precision and frenzied mosh pit energy that explode at nearly any second on the album; the latter through the hoarse, festering vocals, the cold and clinical lyrics and production, and the muted speed sections which are stupendously good. Martin Van Drunen, at his career best on both the Pestilence records he was involved with, was in my opinion the most distinct and impressive frontman in death metal. Others have been impressive, no doubt: John Tardy, Craig Pillard, Chris Reifert, Jeff Becera, or even Chuck Schuldiner before he decided he was going to become a pseudo-intellectual cosmonaut. But for myself, it was Van Drunen who brought this all together, with a bruising, tortured weight to his vocals that is rarely matched about 20 years and 20,000 death metal bands later. His vocals were a little fainter here than Consuming Impulse, sounding much like a chain-smoking malpractice surgeon serial killer who just escaped hell and wound up at the local emergency ward.

But he's not the only engine that keeps this titan lurching forward. Marco Foddis is a hammer-adept who operates at a high level of precision running either high or low speeds, with a clean polish that seemed rather uncanny compared to many of death metal's other prototype drum mixes. Patrick Mameli, the band's core and general, has written a non-stop, 38 minute barrage of surgical riffing which stands among the best in all of death and thrash metal, with an obvious proficiency above and beyond the average axe-slinger of his day. He performs both bass and guitar here on the album, and while the former is a little subdued in the mix, the rhythm guitars are enforced by Randy Meinhard (on his only Pestilence album, before Patrick Uterwijk would step in) and barely give you the time to notice. Armed with a proper Kalle Trapp knob twiddling (he has also mixed and produced work by Destruction and Blind Guardian, among others), Malleus Maleficarum has a pinpoint, eerie but honest tone to it, which seems strangely haunting even by today's far more advanced parameters.

But really, it's all about the vocals and the riffs. While the album is not necessarily as brutal as its brilliant, crushing successor, it creates a faster paced, technical environment in which the mad doctor flourishes his scalpels and begins a series of careful, taut incisions that maximize the pain and bleeding of the unfortunate patient. Tracks like "Extreme Unction", "Systematic Instruction", "Cycle of Existence" and "Bacterial Surgery" move with some the most violent, breakneck speed thrashing since Slayer's Reign in Blood a few years prior, all the while vomiting forth a series of unforgettable riffs that are both menacing and rather unique for their day. There is far more than just speed to this band, the compositions themselves are impressive, and the album never leaves you hanging on a guitar line even bordering on uninspired, as Van Drunen howls above the seething mass a slew of serious business lyrics that made most thrash and death metal of the 80s seem absolutely infantile by comparison.

Followers of false belief praise idolatry
Worship statues made of stone the adoration
Depiction of the gods in human shapes
Inhuman rituals, biblical transgression
A weapon in your right-hand, in your left a rosary
The polytheistic-monotheistic war
Believers of Almighty prepare to die
Explain to me, what are you fighting for?

For a closer examination, try the bridge riff and terrifying lead at 1:00 of "Subordinate to the Domination", which breaks for a dual speed/chug tag-team like a sped-up "Raining Blood". What of the frolicking, plague-stricken rhythms of "Chemo Therapy", which play out like a cancer ward patient uprising? What of "Commandments", with its creepy acoustic plucking that cedes for an escalation into turbine powered thrashing violence? The wormlike, gnawing death mutes that thread themselves through "Parridice"? The album even offers a few hints at instrumental grace, like the doomed acoustics of "Osculum Infame" placed against a background of swelling synthesizer and screeching, wailing electrics. Or the morbid, brightly blooded chords and dire melodies of the title track, which serves as an intro to the thrashing lead-in to "Antromorphia".

Malleus Malifecarum is unstoppable. It's a beast, superior to more successful thrash albums of 1988 like ...And Justice for All, So Far So Good So What, or The New Order. Yes, it was that good, even among the highly admirable company of that year's many other masterworks, like Death's Leprosy, Coroner's Punishment for Decadence, and Voivod's Dimension Hatross. The album delivers on all fronts: musically and lyrically. I would cite 'emotionally', except that the album is so highly successful at estranging emotions in favor of its volatile, murderous melange. There is not a single note here, even within the lead bursts that I would alter. It's a prime example of almost everything I loved about the late 80s progression of thrash metal from its crude roots of broken glass, street fighting feel-good misanthropy through its bachelor's, master's and finally pHD in artistic expression. Though this isn't my favorite Pestilence album, it's every bit as flawless as Consuming Impulse, disintegrates the vast percentile of other metal albums of the past 22 years until they become dust, and belongs at the forefront of any thrash or death metal collection of taste. No gods, new or old, can keep this titan buried forever.

Highlights: Every second on the slab. This is one operation you will NOT forget, even if anesthetized until even the sheep are counting sheep.

Verdict: Epic Win [10/10] (mutual aversion and disgust)

http://www.myspace.com/pestilenceofficial