PESTILENCE Obsideo

‘Obsideo’ is the third album release from Dutch death metal veterans Pestilence since the band were reformed in 2008. Their 2011 album, ‘Doctrine’, received mixed critics, some quite poor ones as well and I must admit that I’ve never been very happy about that album myself either. On ‘Obsideo’ things sounds way better, the song material is stronger and so is the vocal performance of Patrick Mameli. It also shows Pestilence from a more brutal side but the technical and jazz/fusion elements are of course still present in the sound. On the negative side I’m not fully convinced by the production even though it is far from poor. There’s something about the rhythm guitars as well that I’m not too happy about. Dropped tunings are ok, but I feel that it has been taken a step too far here and from what I’ve heard the rhythm guitar parts were recorded using eight string guitars. This is of course a matter of taste though. ‘Obsideo’ is a huge step in the right direction compared to ‘Doctrine’, and I’m sure die-hard Pestilence fans will be happy with the result.

Discography:

'Obsideo' 2013

'Doctrine' 2011

'Resurrection Macabre' 2009

'Spheres' 1993

'Testimony Of The Ancients' 1991

'Consuming Impulse' 1989

'Malleus Maleficarum' 1988