Pestilence

   
Artist: Pestilence

   Genre(s): 
Rock
   Rock: Techno
   Metal
   Metal: Thrash
   

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Discography:


   
 Mind Reflections

   Year: 1994   
Tracks: 16


   
 Spheres

   Year: 1993   
Tracks: 11


   
 Testimony Of The Ancients

   Year: 1991   
Tracks: 16


   
 Consuming Impulse

   Year: 1989   
Tracks: 10


   
 Malleus Maleficarum

   Year: 1988   
Tracks: 10

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Holland's Pestilence is in the main regarded as nonpareil of the leadership of the late-'80s/early-'90s dying alloy scene, following closely slow Death as innovators in the genre. Combining elements of Slayer, Celtic Frost, Venom, and the Possessed, Pestilence was an underappreciated and short-lived outfit that, along with peers Sepultura, Atheist, and Morbid Angel, helped broaden and redefine the definition of dying alloy.


Originally consisting of drummer Marco Foddis, bassist/vocalist Martin van Drunen, and guitarists Patrick Mameli and Randy Meinhard, Pestilence formed in the mid-'80s, and cranked out iI overly raw, garage-quality demos, Infected (trey songs, 1986) and Dysentery (four-spot songs, 1987). The group's promising and intemperately Slayer-influenced combination of shifting double time tempos, exact guitar work, and fitly morbid theme matter attracted the attention of Roadrunner Records, which gestural the band and released its first uncut record, Hammer Maleficarum, in 1988. While the record album was essentially a less-refined, all told uglier version of German or Bay Area thrash alloy -- defined by van Drunen's rapid, husky cheering -- it wasn't until 1989's Consuming Impulse that Pestilence base its creative recess. With Meinhard verboten of the faithful and replaced by six-stringer Patrick Uterwijk, the group's increasingly impressive songwriting dynamics became tighter and more focused; piece the band's rapid, exact tempo changes and agile, downright evil-sounding, minor mode guitar work would help pave its ascent into the nether regions of death metallic element, it was van Drunen's freshly developed, deranged, tracheotomy-patient growl that made the raw and highly entertaining criminal record an extraordinary greco-Roman. (Van Drunen would later let in that his sub-par bass acting resulted in Mameli's recording all the bass tracks on Consuming Impulse, although the album's lining notes say otherwise.)


However, mounting inter-band tensions set up van Drunen departing Pestilence prior to the recording of 1991's Testimony of the Ancients, the frontman seemingly not gelling with Mameli and Uterwijk's more than progressive leanings. (Van Drunen would go on to nominal head Dutch band Asphyx for trine records, 1991's The Rack, 1992's Shell the Cenotaph EP, and 1993's Final One on Earth, as intimately as providing vocals for Comecon's Convergence Conspiracies record (1993); he as well fronted English death-grind mavens Bolt Thrower for a short time in the mid-'90s, although he never performed on whatsoever of the outfit's recordings ahead unwellness forced him out of the music business.) Mameli took over vocal duties for Testimony of the Ancients -- produced, notably, by far-famed Florida-based death alloy knob-twiddler Scott Burns -- and the mathematical group recruited highly skilled bassist Tony Choy from Florida prog-deathsters Cynic (he too filled the bass slot for colleague Floridians Atheist for a piece) for the album's recording and subsequent term of enlistment. A matured construct album, Testimony was a more technical, intellectual product than its predecessor, and featured the band's about refined musicianship and production values to date.


Bored by the guttural, blood-and-gore stylings of an increasingly dead death metal scene, Mameli, Uterwijk, and Foddis -- wHO didn't hesitate to part their increasing interestingness in idle words fusion -- set up kO'd a reactionary, uncompromisingly unmatched creation with album phone number quadruplet, 1993's Spheres, which featured new bassist Jeroen Paul Thesseling. Wanting an untypical producer for the genre, the group tracked down Steve Fontano, wHO helmed the board for Cacophany/Megadeth guitar player Marty Friedman's jazz/new years solo corporeal, to co-produce the album. Boasting increasingly foreign arrangements; off-kilter, jazzy rhythmical structures; and an abundance of synth-guitar textures from Mameli and Uterwijk, Spheres left most of Pestilence's fan base cold, and alienated the mathematical group from its label, which reportedly strongly disliked the record.


Federal official up with the closed-minded atmosphere of the shot and industry in general, Mameli demolished Pestilence shortly after the waiver of Spheres. Roadrunner would posthumously passing Mind Reflections in 1994; basically a record company cash, the album was a best-of digest featuring tracks from all four Pestilence platters, a rare compilation song ("Hate Within"), and sestet up to now unreleased live tracks recorded at 1992's Dynamo Open Air Festival in Holland. Dutch label Displeased Records later re-released Malleus Maleficarum (which ne'er sawing machine a proper European release) in 1998 with the Infected and Dysentery demo cuts tacked on as bonus tracks.