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Pestilence - Resurrection Macabre

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 March 19 2009 at 11:20:24 AM



Redux Detox.

I want to say I’m surprised anyone would even buy this without a Seagrave painting on the front, but I’ve also read people praising Spheres recently so anything’s possible.

Listening to this and the new Séance record I can see we’re really scrapping the bottom of the barrel here and there are going to be some very sad people when there’s no one from the 1990's left to get back in the game. And most of those people have their whole lives ahead of them. For the bands, it looks like some perverse investment scheme: “Contribute now and if we see you again in 10 years you’ll finally see a bit of money and some recognition.” Well, hey, if you can find a way to make it work then more power to you, friend. But don’t spoil the party by actually trying to pass off something so obviously tame and rehashed under your old name. It’s not your fans' fault you didn’t make enough quality albums that could be reissued this year instead, now is it?

Sorry, that was disrespectful. Actually Roadrunner has never passed up a chance to repackage something into one of those god-awful two-disc sets and the fans are the ones who usually ask for it in the first place, so fuck them.

Anyway, at one point in time Pestilence was one such name, and one of the earliest from their native Holland to have an impact on the Death Metal scene with the release of their second album, Consuming Impulse, stitching said band name onto countless jackets ever since.

Something like 16 years after calling it quits to concentrate on playing groovier music, founder/guitarist Patrick Mameli has returned to Pestilence together with former sessions bassist Tony Choy (Cynic, Atheist) for the group's latest album, Resurrection Macabre. So what’s wrong?

Well, if you’re able to make it past the opening two seconds where Mameli grunts “ugh!” three times in succession (increasing the loudness of “UGH!” each time), you realize the album is basically made up of some badly re-written riffs from the band's heyday with a couple of other noisy, quasi-technical numbers that sound like something Luc Lemay would write if he had septic arthritis. The other problem is that besides being recycled, the writing comes off as amateurish. Former Pestilence vocalist Martin Van Drunen, who performed with the band through their best releases, remains out of the picture and busy with his other bands, leaving Mameli to once again handle both guitar and vocals. I don’t know whether it’s for practical reasons, or a lack of ideas, or both, but here is an album’s worth of music almost wholly dictated by the number of syllables in track titles:

“De-vow-or-ing Fren-zee!”

“Hor-or…De-tox!”

“Sin-thet-ick Grow-tesk!”

“Hate…Su-e-side!”

“Neur-o…Diss-o-nance!”

“De-hi-dray-ted!”

"Sep-tick Arth-ry-tis"

Etc.

A good Thrash band can get away with this kind of thing on sheer feeling and verve alone. In fact, Chuck Schuldiner, who basically provided the blueprint for Pestilence’s early releases, made an entire career of it, but the fact is, the results here are about as exciting as watching chops thaw. The comparatively heavier, terribly up-to-date, and weirdly bloated (sounds like air) production by Jacob Hansen (Destruction) doesn’t make things feel like any less of a chore.

The only thing worse than sounding like just another band would be sounding like just another band, but sucking more. That’s Resurrection Macabre. I’m sure some will want to try and scratch that itch to see Pestilence on tour and playing the old songs again, but after listening to such bland and uninspiring material you’ll know in your hearts they were better off dead.

[Todd DePalma]

Pestilence
Resurrection Macabre
2009
Mascot Records
type: reviews    keywords: death metal, lhp024, reunion, better off dead,   

Comments (1)

  • 7 comments
    AVERSIONLINE
    1:19 PM on Mar 19, 2009 // reply »
    Dude, "Spheres" is a great album. Always loved that one. Seriously.

    Haven't heard this new one, though. I'm curious, though... not gonna lie.
 

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