Customer Reviews

Spheres

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I've been pretty obsessed about Pestilence lately and have been feverishly collecting their catalog... "Spheres" is a great, but unfortunate, swansong for them, but it is by no means weak or ill-advised. Very cool free-form jazz mixed with double-kick drums, deathly vocals and swirling synths... Metal purists might hate this, but since these guys had been hinting at this style on both "Consuming Impulse" and "Testimony...", this should come as no surprise to open-minded metal heads. Well worth the price!

after 3 records of typical death metal, Pestilence experimented and came up with one of the best metal albums to ever be released. unique sci-fi guitar sounds and guitar synths make this album a progressive masterpiece. this record is highly underrated and anyone with taste in extreme music should have it by now.

My first CD from Pestilence (long ago) had been "Consuming Impulse" and it was exactly this CD that made me to buy the band's other releases as well. Admittedly, I didn't like "Testimony of the Ancient" very much for Mameli's vocal style, the powerless guitar and the far too loud mixed drums. Also, all the keybord in there kind of disturbed me and that the tracks did not have that brutal tempo and aggressive style anymore. Now, with this background you might think, I should hate Spheres even more. It contains even more "keyboard/synthesizer"-derived synthetic sounds and these sounds are now all over the place. Moreover, this is even more a step away from the aggressiveness of "Consuming Impulse", strangely going more into a progressive Jazz-Death Metal fusion, overall very slow in tempo and very melodic. Interestingly however, I liked Spheres much more than "Testimony of the Ancient", perhaps because I felt that this record was at least consequent and consistent. The band obviously wanted to go into a different direction and technically they do so on a very, very high level. Musically, they sound a little like the late Death to me, particularly the vocals resembling Chuck Schuldiner. There are some songs in here that I think are pretty nice. The reason that I still do not give this CD the highest rating is that I kind of feel that there is no song among this material that REALLY fully convinces me. It sounds all nice, there are no obvious "fillers", but there is not a single really outstanding track to be found here (at least in my view). So, I remain with 3 stars and the suggestion that if you want to hear brutal, aggressive Death Metal, stay away from this record (you may consider getting Pestilence's new release "Ressurrection Macabre", instead), but if you think you might like a (not so heavy) fusion of Death Metal and Jazz or you are interested in how something like that may sound, purchase this CD.

this was a brutal deathmetal band that was really on to something until their demise in 1993. very heavy,progressive like, intelligent music with traces of jazz fusion mixed in. the vocals sounded alot like chuck schuldner's of death but the music just makes up fo it in every way! makes me wonder how far they could've gone had they stayed together all these years.....

This was an album that change forever the way with see the death metal.

This is simple a must have album.

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El Spheres de Pestilence es un album unico, unico en la manera que cambio las cosas en aquel entonces, una maravillosa mezcla del Death Metal con el Jazz, como solo Atheist y Cynic lo han hecho también, el Spheres es un álbum que debe estar en la colección de CD's de cualquier Metalhead que tenga una mente lo suficientemente abierta como para disfrutar de los sonidos surgidos de la propia evolución del genero y mas allá de los patrones de estancamiento que a veces presenta el genero mismo.

Damn good album. You can see where Cynic's bassist really left his mark. He also played on Athiest's last album, Elements. Its definitely a great for those who can appreciate it. If you want something heavier, check out Unquestionable by Athiest. It might lose some of you, but this is the best type of metal in my opinion.

I think every Pestilence album is excellent in it's own right, but this one was a real surprise. When I bought it in 1994, it was exactly what I was looking for at the time. It still sounds like old Pestilence, but they added more ingredents. It has more of the new age, jazzy elements that they were experimenting with on "Testimony..." only now they are using them in full force. The equipment used to record this little gem reads like an entire Musicians Friend inventory. I can only imagine how cluttered the studio was during the recording sessions. So much synthesis and digital processing, but the end result is one astonishingly well written, performed, and produced effort. The sound can be described as "new age jazz for metalheads". My only complaint about the album is that with all of the digital processing and synthesis, the sound is kind of lacking in forcefulness and punch. Guitars and drums that ususally sound "in your face" and "punishing", come across a little flat and lifeless here. I think the emphasis on this album was more on the melody and technicality and less on the brutality of previous albums. The band broke up after this album and I think they all went on to do different kinds of music. This album was a hint of their desires, as you can tell from listening to it that thier interests were starting to broaden and they probably wouldn't be playing metal for too much longer.

Yeah, yeah its technical. TOO BAD THE MUSIC JUST DOES NOT CUT IT. It seems like some metal bands lost their direction beginning around 1994. If you want to hear Pestilence, go listen to Consuming Impulse or Testimony of the Ancients. I understand that a band wants to experiment, but I sure am glad this was their last album if this was the direction they were going. I am being nice giving this album 2 stars.

Personal Energy is one of the worst songs. Take me back Reduced to Ashes !!!!!!!!

Consuming Impulse was one of the best late 80's/early 90's death metal records. Spheres was a later attempt by Pestilence to get "progressive" even with the addition of keyboards. Bleh. It doesn't work.

Consuming Impulse is an absolute classic death metal CD. Get that one instead.