PESTILENCE – Resurrection Macabre

Pestilence, the Dutch pioneers of Death Metal, has returned with their first new record in over 15 years appropriately entitled “Resurrection Macabre”. Breathing new life into the long dead band, Patrick Mameli (lead guitars/vocals) has written his most brutal and technical album of his career.

In the late 80’s/early 90’s, Pestilence was one of those bands that was not only pushing the boundaries of speed and brutality, but they also managed to combine their adrenaline fueled aggression with laid-back harmony and melody, often incorporating Jazz/Fusion and synth-guitars into their complex orchestrations, a technique that for back then was ahead of it’s time. After 4 successful studio albums, Patrick Mameli felt the band had reached their creative climax and called it quits in 1994 due to irreconcilable differences between band members.

Fortunately the recent trend of old-school Death Metal returning to the forefront of the extreme music scene inspired Patrick Mameli to start writing Death Metal again and “Resurrect” the Pestilence name.  Calling on bassist extraordinaire Tony Choy (featured on their “Testimony Of The Ancients” release) and powerhouse percussionist Peter Wildoer, the 3 musicians set out to create an album that would top anything Pestilence had done in the past, yet retain a lot of the original brutality that had set them apart in the early years. The resulting release, “Resurrection Massacre,” has achieved just that and proves that Pestilence is not only back from the grave, but alive and kicking ass in full force.

“Resurrection Massacre” lyrically is more in the vein of "Consuming Impulse", focusing on real-life topics, while musically the new CD tends to sound more like a progression from “Testimony Of The Ancients”. “Resurrection Macabre” is available in a limited edition first print which includes three bonus tracks of re-recordings of classic Pestilence songs chosen by the fans (“Out Of The Body”, “Chemo Therapy” and “Lost Souls”). Additionally, there’s a track entitled “Dehydrated II” which plays like a re-envisioning of the well known opening track off of “Consuming Impulse”.

This new CD comes highly recommended for old school fans of Pestilence, and is a good place to begin exploring this band’s impressive catalog if you’ve never experienced their brand of brutality before.

Rating: 3 ½ skulls

 Track listing:
1.  Devouring Frenzy

2.  Horror Detox

3.  Fiend

4.  Hate Suicide

5.  Synthetic Grotesque

6.  Neuro Dissonance

7.  Dehydrated II

8.  Resurrection Macabre

9.  Hangman

10. Y2H

11. In Sickness and Death

Bonus tracks:

12. Chemo Therapy

13. Out of the Body

14.  Lost Souls

Sources:
http://www.myspace.com/pestilenceofficial

http://pestilence.nl/

http://www.mascotrecords.com/

GOD DETHRONED "Passiondale"

The Netherlands own GOD DETHRONED has just released their latest full length album entitled “Passiondale”. The new CD is an amalgamation of melodic death metal and balls-out thrash that marks GOD DETHRONED’s return to the more extreme and furious song writing style they had a decade ago .  

 

GOD DETHRONED features originator Henri Sattler on Guitars & Vocals, and veteran bassist Henk Zinger. Returning on the drums is Roel Sanders who had played on the “Grand Grimoire” “Bloody Blasphemy” albums, two of GD’s finest albums. Sanders contributes a lot to the faster and more aggressive sound of the new CD, as can be heard in tracks like “Under A Darkening Sky”, “Drowning In Mud”, and “Fallen Empires” where blast-beats and fast double-bass drumming are prominently featured. Also returning to work on the new CD is keyboardist Danny Servaes, who also played on the “Grand Grimoire” and “Bloody Blasphemy” albums. Servaes adds a dark aura to tracks like “Poison Fog”, “Behind Enemy Lines” and “Artifacts Of The Great War” with his atmospheric elements. And most impressive of all is the opening piece “The Cross Of Sacrifice” in which Danny Servaes creates a feeling of listening to the soundtrack of a war movie with gunfire effects, spoken word narrations, and creepy stereo whispers. New to the GD line-up is female guitarist Susan Gerl (formerly of MURDER SYNDICATE) who rocked the audition held after Isaac Delahaye left the band due to creative differences. Although Gerl does not officially appear on the new “Passiondale” CD, she’s been sharing the stage with the boys of GOD DETHRONED since March 21^st.

All the lyrics on “Passiondale” are loosely based on the events World War I, where each track is like short journey through time focusing on the grimness of the Great War. Many of the songs refer to the death-ridden town of Passchendaele where close to 900,000 casualties occurred. Songs like “Under A Darkening Sky”, “No Survivors”, and “Fallen Empires” offer no remorse with the lyrical recollection of the atrocities of all out warfare, screaming words like “9 million dead!”  But not all tracks are explosive on the new CD. The title track “Passiondale” for instance is a mid-tempo melodic song that opens with military style drumming and retains is slow and heavy feel throughout. Then there are tracks like “Poison Fog” and “No Survivors” that feature melodic singing in their bridges, a complete polar-opposite to the growls and screams heard through the rest of the CD. The final track, “Artifacts Of The Great War” is mid-tempo instrumental piece that fades in and out like eerie dreamscape, but never really goes anywhere. There are plenty of tracks that have a Slayer-like feel to them with their thrash drumming and dueling guitar solos, but all in all the new CD falls a little short of my high expectations for the return of the “Bloody Blasphemy” line-up. “Passiondale” is a step in the right direction for GOD DETHRONED in 2009, but it’s not enough of that old Dutch black metal feel to please this head banger.

Rating: 2 ½ skulls

TRACKLIST:

1- The Cross Of Sacrifice

2- Under A Darkening Sky

3- No Man’s Land

4- Poison Fog

5- Drowning In Mud

6- Passiondale

7- No Survivors

8- Behind Enemy Lines

9- Fallen Empires

10- Artifacts Of The Great War

Sources:

http://www.myspace.com/villavampiria

http://www.metalblade.com/english/artists/goddethroned/bio.php

Trigger The Bloodshed - The Great Depression

Just when you thought metal couldn’t get any more extreme, TRIGGER THE BLOODSHED comes along and releases a brutally mind-blowing CD entitled “The Great Depression”. Taking speed and aggression to all new levels, “The Great Depression” has already earned TRIGGER THE BLOODSHED a nomination for 'best new band' in this year’s Metal Hammer Golden God Awards!

With a new line-up and a new approach to song writing, TRIGGER THE BLOODSHED has reinvented themselves into a destructive machine of annihilation that produces explosive music with hard hitting lyrics. Their extremely fast guitar riffing coupled with relentless blasting drums and ferocious double vocals have set the bar a little higher for all other technical Death Metal bands out there. And when they’re not playing at 1,000 beats per minute, TRIGGER THE BLOODSHED’s sludge cut-time riffs are heavier than the element Uranium. Although this is only their 2^nd full length release since their inception in 2006, their song writing style and level of musicianship is highly matured to a level seen in few veteran bands in the scene. Their guitars harmonize well, and the guitar solos are melodic and flowing. The drumming is never dull, and the vocals are never boring. The lyrical content of “The Great Depression” centers on the real life tragedies of this wretched world such as War, Famine, and Poverty, adding to the heaviness of the entire package. Running at a little under 35 minutes in length and 11 tracks long, “The Great Depression” is a Great listen from start to finish, and is only Depressing when it’s over.

Rating: 3 1/2 skulls

Track listing:

1. The Great Depression

2. Warbound

3. Sanctuary of the Wretched

4. The Scourging Impurity

5. The Dead World

6. I

7. Contemporary Perception Narcotics

8. Desiccate Earth

9. The Infliction of Tophet

10. Disfigured Anonymity

11. Terminus

Trigger the Bloodshed is:

Jonny Burgan - Vocals

Rob Purnell - Guitar

Martyn Evans - Guitar

Dave Purnell - Bass

Max Blunos – Drums

Source:

http://www.myspace.com/triggerthebloodshed

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdRUByppGzc

http://goldengods.metalhammer.co.uk/