By: Dr Matt Warnock
Resurrection Macabre is an in your face, thrash-metal album by the Netherland based, death-metal group Pestilence. After taking a sixteen year break between albums, the band went on more or less permanent hiatus in 1993, Pestilence has returned with a vengeance. Featuring a slightly altered line-up from the bands late ’80s, early ’90s heyday, the group still brings their trademark rhythmic intensity, rapid fire double-kick drum beats, guttural vocals and shred metal guitar solos to every track on the record. Resurrection Macabre is as heavy as it gets, with enough face melting guitar work to satisfy even the most dedicated fans of the death metal genre.
Splitting the guitar work on the album is the speed-picking duo of Patrick Mameli and Patrick Uterwijk. Though fans of main-stream rock may find the album a bit on the heavy side, from a purely technical standpoint these two guitarists take every opportunity they can to showcase their technical prowess and right-hand gymnastics. While the intricacies of the albums guitar work can sometimes get lost in the overall heaviness of the songs, when listening closely, one quickly notices the technical precision each guitarist possesses as they tremolo-strum chords and blaze through riffs, licks and solos.
The songs themselves are as heavy as anything being released in the death-metal genre in recent years. Vocalist Mameli delivers the albums macabre-laden lyrics with such a guttural low-end that it almost sounds as if he’s using an octave pedal to reach those low notes, while maintaining such a thick vocal tone. Not to be outdone, drummer Peter Wildoer’s manic beats and double-tapped bass drum bring a high-level of intensity to each track that accentuates the strong rhythmic nature of each guitar riff and bass line.
Though the album is obviously geared toward fans of the death-metal genre, once one gets past the initial shock from the inherit darkness of the music the rhythmic depth that the band inserts into each track breaths forth, and a broader appeal arises from the musical ashes. It’s too bad that bands such as Pestilence are often dismissed because of their lack of “melody,” at least in the pop-rock sense of the term, because a lot of modern rock and pop bands could learn a thing or two about rhythmic complexity, beat superimposition and the benefits of a catchy rhythmic phrase from these four thrash-metal masters.
Resurrection Macabre falls firmly into the realm of modern death-metal, a label that will automatically cause it to be dismissed from rock and guitar fans before the album is given a fair chance. Granted, people who do not like death-metal will probably run screaming from Pestilence’s new album, but those listeners who tend to lean towards the heavy side of metal, or who are fans of thrash-guitar work, will be able to relate to the bands brand of high-energy, dark metal.
Links
Resurrection Macabre on Amazon
