By Jared Hynes

Being a legendary band in brutal/progressive death metal circles, many eyes and ears were at the ready to see what Pestilence were going to come up with 16 years after their last proper full length release. Would they continue on in the metal/jazz fusion of their 1993 Spheres album, or reach back to their brutal death metal roots and leave the experimentation out. Luckily for many fans, they went the route of the latter. The easiest and most straight forward description of Resurrection Macabre is simply Testimony of the Ancients with inclusion of blast beats and a modern production. The chuggy, almost thrash riffs are accented with Pestilence’s signature angular leads and solos. To say the album sounds only like Testimony would be incorrect, but that is the album it is closest to in the music writing department. The chugging, meat and potatoes death metal of Consuming Impulse is very noticeable throughout as well as the spacey, avant-garde of Spheres in spots.

Patrick Mameli has opted for a more guttural vocal delivery this time around. The drums are handled by Peter Wildoer of Darkane and it’s in this department that the Pestilence sound has improved the most. He’s a much more dynamic and skilled musician than Marco Foddis, with his ability to blast away and add speedy fills throughout each song.

The playing is very tight as is the production which has a dry, compressed sound to it. Resurrection Macabre is a catchy and addictive record from an amazing and legendary genre leader.

http://www.myspace.com/pestilenceofficial

(Mascot Records)