Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
a jewel is unearthed..., July 23, 2000
Finally, after I don't know how many years of unavailablity, Pestilence's 2nd senses shattering disc is available for the unaquainted. Not being a huge fan of their debut cd ("Malleus Malficarum"), I bought this on cd format(!), in mid 1990, along with Possessed's "Beyond the Gates" and Exodus' "Bonded By Blood" (the cd frenzy got to me big time as I re-bought everything that was available on cd format). To put it mildly, I was blow away by the band's agressiveness, compostion skills, and by Martin Van Drunen's quite inhuman vocal roar. Other than Death and Obituary, there weren't very many vocalists quite like Martin. His voice was on of a rabid grizzly bear, bellowing and quite nerve wracking, but at the same time his phrasing was excellent and the lyrics (which were way ahead of their time) quite clear. And the songs! "Deify Thy Master", "Chronic Infection", and "Out Of the Body" are tremendous, straight ahead death metal classics, with a dose of technicality and wild, improvisational/jazz-like soloing. Each song hit you like a slab of concrete; hard, fast and with deadly intentions. It's hard to imagine that this monstrous cd is 11 years old now, but like fine wine, this cd just gets better with time. Their follow-up disc was the even better "Testimony of the Ancients", a dizzing array of death metal, fused with jazzy rhythms and containing magnificent musical interludes between each song. A fabulous testament to a very influential and very creative band. Let's see some record company put out re-issues of Exciter, Razor and Purgatory. Long live the underground (and the Great Thrash Movement of the 80's!).
|
|
|
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
I have a consuming impulse to listen to this a lot..., April 8, 2008
Pestilence played blistering, vital death metal for one album only. This is a bracing, poisonous record, mixing the uncontrollable extreme thrash of 'Reign in Blood' with the detuned pummelling of 'Scream Bloody Gore'. Deranged screams of audible agony bellow out macabre portraits of death, whilst maniacal, torturous leads are threaded through punishing hypnotic rhythms.
Foremost, this is an intense, frightening experience to numb the senses, but it also possesses surprising subtlety. 'Consuming Impulse' is actually far more progressive than the overly calculated 'Testimony of the Ancients'. The songs here are dense, complex, and make creative use of keyboards and effects; the break in 'The Trauma' showing a clear precursor to Norwegian Black Metal. Of course, it is also far more entertaining; 'Out of the Body' is utterly incredible. Four and a half minutes of unrestrained chaos, a string of devastating riffs and solos, with lyrics matching the harrowing cover art.
The production is perfect; clear but tough and jagged, perfectly capturing the band's old school thrashing fury inside a barrage of newfound death metal heaviness. This gives it a harsh feel that sets it apart from the muddier sounds of their Florida contemporaries. `Consuming Impulse' is more relentless than 'Leprosy', more intricate than 'Deicide', more consistent than 'Slowly We Rot' and more fun than 'Altars of Madness'. If Pestilence had been from Florida, this would be in your collection already.
|
|
|
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
GET THEM OUT OF MY BODY!, July 18, 2003
Wow, this was more than slightly disturbing on first listen all those years ago! Such was the anguish and pain in Martin Van Drunen's voice as he squeezed out these strangled words; it was almost possible to believe there was a colony of er... cockroaches or maggots living inside him. It put a chill up my spine anyway...In 'Consuming Impulse', Pestilence created their greatest, most complete album, successfully marrying the primitive brutality of their previous effort 'Maleus Maleficarum' with the technicality of their later releases. While this was Pestilence's second album, the band was still constantly learning about dynamics and how to play their instruments. This album predates the blast beat cliché, but Pestilence could hit the turbocharger when needed, judiciously using faster passages, accenting the mid-paced sections. This was incredibly heavy for it's time, as guitarists Patrick Mameli and Patrick Uterwijk (classy first names there!) had developed a technique playing in tandem where they would let a chord ring on at the end of a riff, creating some chunky harmonics as the guitar sounds merged. Not being a musician, I don't know if this is a technically accurate description of what they were doing, but as a Death Metal fan, I do know it makes your hair stand on end! Lyrically, Pestilence showed a good grasp of English for a Dutch band, but a lack of imagination in subject matter. They fell back on the trusty old faithfuls of gore, God, and doing nasty things to people. The previously mentioned "Out Of The Body" and lead off track "Dehydration" are probably the most convincingly executed. The instrumental "Proliferous Souls" is unusual in that it is not the normal acoustic guitar mood piece, instead staying fully electric and conjuring up images of spirits drifting in the wind across the landscape in search of a final resting place. Martin Van Drunen later left the band to front the far less complex Asphyx, while Pestilence took the space cadet/ultra technical jazz/prog direction. This is both Pestilence and Van Drunen at their best.
|
|
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews
|
Interact With Your Music: Discover, listen to, and buy new music, all from the pages of SPIN's digital edition, free to Amazon customers.
by Pestilence 
