On the one hand I lament the beautiful melodic solos, the overwhelming joy of playing and the unique atmosphere of Testimony Of The Ancients (the most manifold and best album of the Dutch) on Resurrection Macabre. But on the other hand it becomes clear to the fan that PESTILENCE in the year 2009 have given up the narcissistic exhibition of their technical skills of the Spheres era, which in the end was the band’s undoing due to missing success – and that does not mean that Patrick Mameli and his unbeatable team (the marvelous Darkane drummer Peter Wildoer was recruited besides the bass virtuoso Tony Choy who is known from the Testimony Of The Ancients line up) have weakened in the technically, far from it. But the mastery of instruments is always subordinated to the song itself. And the guys missed exactly this mature perception on Spheres.
The already in advance released opening duo Devouring Frenzy and Horror Detox clearly show the new direction of the Dutch: Patrick elicits staccato-like, impulsive riffs out of his guitar, Jack of all trades Peter ecstasises once more with his inimitable technique between blast beats and slowly groovy mid tempo and comes up with these crazy fill ins over the complete set of toms and cymbals just like that, most drummers are envious about (superb: the band uploaded a video clip of the drum recording of Hangman on their website some weeks ago – I can’t tell you how often my jaw dropped open…). Well, and Tony Choy is a bassist right out of the textbook. He fills each imaginable free space in the sound wall, mightily powerful produced by Jacob Hansen, with smashing bass lines (which can be heard in Hate Suicide, Synthetic Grotesque or the title-track). So far, so good…
Patrick was an excellent shouter on Testimony Of The Ancients, who shouted the lyrics with fervency and full of energy, whereas the new vocal direction on Resurrection Macabre leaves a slightly bitter aftertaste. The deeper vocals fit snugly to the powerful sound, but I must join the naggers after several runs. Patrick’s vocal performance is comparatively one-dimensional and can’t keep up with the high standard of the performance of the rest of the instruments at all points. Don’t get me wrong, compared to other hyped singers in the Death Metal scene, you hear from the first growl in Devouring Frenzy, that it’s the congenial front man from the Netherlands who sings here and outplays other front men who have gotten long in the tooth with his brutal voice. By international comparison, the vocals on Resurrection Macabre are still among the best – but not as measured by the band’s own discography.
Generally it’s a good idea to rerecord new versions of classics of the band history. In doing so, quite interesting interpretations of Out Of The Body (off the 1989 released classic Consuming Impulse) with some small, fine changes (especially in the drum sector) or Chemo Therapy (off the debut album Malleus Maleficarum released in 1988) were recorded. Solely Lost Souls (off Testimony Of The Ancients released in 1991) gets out of line. The morbid charm of the original version fell prey to Patrick’s newfound liking for catchy riffing and so one has to forgo the great melody line in the verses. Furthermore, the tempo was slowed down for the groove’s sake. Out of the three bonus tracks the only outlier downwards.
Finally, I’d like to state that PESTILENCE made it with Resurrection Macabre to slap out an angry and aggressive bastard, which earns the label “album of the month” in spite of the mentioned weak points and is worth nine fat points for me.