"Pestilence have received a lot of flak for both "Resurrection Macabre" and "Doctrine" from both fans and critics - I think that a lot of the critique has been way too harsh.
"Resurrection Macabre" was perhaps not the glorious comeback that everybody hoped for, but it was a valiant effort, and one that grows on you with time. The problem for many people with "Resurrection Macabre" was that it was not jazzy and experimental like "Spheres" was, but there are two things to keep in mind here: 1) Everybody hated "Spheres" when it came out because of its jazz influences (the world wasn't ready for it it) and 2) the point of "Resurrection Macabre" was primarily to make brutal music, according to and interview with Patrick Mameli, and not necessarily to make the next "Spheres" album.
So, is "Doctrine" the next "Spheres"?
No, it is not.
It is musically different from "Spheres" in several respects, but it does share more features with "Spheres" than any other release by the band. The music is much more experimental than "Resurrection Macabre", and the jazz influences are definitely present in several aspects of the music. First off, there are plenty of jazz-based chords and harmonies, some of which even sound a bit dissonant - which suits the tense music quite well. Secondly, many of the guitar solos have the same weird jazz fusion fusion quality as on "Spheres", Thirdly, Jeroen Thesseling's fretless bass action adds a definite jazz fusion feel to the music on "Doctrine". Personally, I really enjoy this jazzy and progressive aspect of the album. But "Doctrine" is also quite brutal, which is something it has in common with "Resurrection Macabre" and, to some extent, with Pestilence's early releases. The guitars have a dark and brutal sound, and a lot of the tracks involve blast beats and other elements from modern extreme metal. This combination of brutality and jazzy progressiveness works pretty well, I think.
"Doctrine" has received some severe criticism on account of the vocals. I have never been a big fan of Patrick Mameli's vocals, and I feel the same about them on this album as on Pestilence's other releases, but I kind of like all the weird things that Mameli does on this - all the screams, weird sounds and Shakespearean rolling Rs.
I think this is a very good death metal release, and it is clearly a true Pestilence release and features their trademark compact and intensive riff styles. In a way, it draws both on the jazzy progressive death metal of "Spheres" and the more aggressive death metal of releases like "Resurrection Macabre" and "Consuming Impulse", for instance.
The negative critique that this release has received is, I think, undeserved. It is a solid death metal release which stays true to the core of all things Pestilence, but at the same time move the band's style in a new direction.
(review originally posted at metal musicarchives.com)"
"When "Resurrection Macabre" came out, I was very disappointed with it. The big mistake I did was to expect the album to be like "Spheres" or "Testimony of the Ancients", and, of course, it was like neither album, because the band focused on being brutal rather than innovative, drawing more on "Consuming Impulse" in terms of style, but with many modern death metal elements added. Another problem that I had was that a lot of the tracks struck me as being repetitive in the sense that the main approach of many of them was to take a typical Pestilence style compact riff and then just repeat it a crapload of times. I also had problems with the vocals which I, having never been a big fan Pestilence vocals, thought were very annoying.
Now, a couple of years down the line, the album has grown on me, and I actually quite like it. I see now that the repetition of riffs really works well in terms of adding intensity to the music, and I also like the introduction of more modern elements like blastbeats into the Pestilence style. I have gotten used to the vocals, although I probably never will be able to appreciate the death grunts that serve as the introduction to the first track "Devouring Frenzy". Interestingly, that track was my least favorite track off the album, but now it is actually, along with "Fiend", my favorite track on "Resurrection Macabre".
In a way, I can understand where the flak that this album has received came from - it originated in the unfulfilled expectations of this being like "Spheres", but this album deserves to be defined, not in relation to "Spheres" but in its own right as a death metal album, and as a death metal album, it is not brilliant, but it certainly is not bad either.
(review originally posted at metalmusicarchives.com)"
"Up until this album, most of Pestilence's music had been pretty straightforward and aggressive death metal with thrash metal tendencies, but "Testimony of the Ancients" is quite a radical change in style and sound.
It is much more sophisticated than Pestilence's previous releases and much less brutal. "Testimony of the Ancients" is a really interesting death metal album with progressive inklings here and there - primarily consisting in the unusual use of keyboards which was unusual in death metal at the time (Nocturnus being one of the few other death bands to use keyboards). The keyboards give this album an eerie atmosphere but also serve to really underline the lack of brutality on the album. Moreover, compared to "Consuming Impulse", the music itself is a tad more technical, and the jazz influences that characterize "Spheres" show themselves in some of the guitar solos, which are also very melodic for early 1990s death metal.
Despite the radical differences between this album and previous releases and the increased level of sophistication - and decreased level of brutality - I do think that Pestilence stick to their trademark compact riffs, which is one of the things that ensure that this album, while not brutal is still intense and retains some aggression.
Many of the tracks are short instrumental fillers or transitions between the tracks proper, and while a lot of people seem to really like these filler tracks, I have always found them a tad annoying and unnecessary, because I just want to skip straight to the actual tunes.
Testimony of the ancients certainly is a great album which in many ways contributed importantly to the division of death metal into more melodic and experimental subgenres.
(review originally posted at metalmusicarchives.com)"
"A favorite among many death metal fans, "Consuming Impulse" is more of a run-of-the-mill death metal release, but it is not bad, and the Pestilence trademark compact tense riffs are there. There are traces of Pestilence's old thrash metal roots, which are more dominant on "Malleus Maleficarum", and combined with the death metal style, they contribute some energy and intensity to the music, but also document the genre's general transition from thrash metal to death metal.
So, in that historical context, "Consuming Impulse" is a quite interesting death metal album, but in itself, I think it is okay, but nothing special. There are a lot of cool guitar riffs scattered all over the album, which is a sort of sign of things to come, as compact and intense riffs would later become one of the band's fortes.
This album does not feature Patrick Mameli on vocals but rather Martin van Drunen. Interestingly, I am not a big fan of the vocals on this album either, and they actually strike me as being more annoying than on subsequent Pestilence releases. Normally, I get used to the vocals on Pestilence releases after some time, but not on this one, for some reason.
Certainly, it is a classic and belongs in any death metal collection!
(review also posted on metalmusicarchives.com)"
"When it came out, "Spheres" took most of the metal community by surprise, because it was so different from anything the band had done before, and, with its outspoken jazz fusion influences, very different from death metal in general. And most people did not respond well to that surprise, reflecting the fact that many humans - even metalheads - by default, cannot handle changes very well.
Eventually, the world started to appreciate the album, and now it is probably among the most revered progressive death metal albums. Sadly, this appreciation came too late, and the album was a huge commercial flop, causing the band to break up. Ironically, "Spheres" ended up the standard by which subsequent Pestilence releases are held - unfairly - up against.
The music blends jazz fusion with death metal, and sounds like nothing before it, or after it. It really is original, but - like all other Pestilence releases - it is based on the use of compact riffs which, however, are pretty spacey and have a sort of fluidity to them. The jazz fusion influences are quite outspoken both in the riffs and in the guitar solos, which generally sound wonderfully weird.
While I am a big fan of the music itself, I am not a big fan of the vocals, but I have gotten used to them, and I cannot imagine how the album would sound with another vocalist. The production also sound a bit flat, and combined, the vocals and the production are the main factors why this album can be difficult to listen to in the beginning, but there is absolutely nothing wrong with the music itself, which is wonderfully mindboggling without actually being overly technical.
An album shunned by many due to its "differentness" in a time when almost all death metal bands sounded the same, "Spheres" belongs up there with the few other outstanding technical death metal classics such as "Symbolic", "Unquestionable Presence" and "Focus". It certainly is one of my favorite death metal releases.
(review also posted at metalmusicarchives.com)"
