Pestilence 

Resurrection Macabre

Mascot Records 2010

One of the founders of the Dutch death metal scene and makers of such landmark albums as Consuming Impulse and Testimony of of the Ancients have come together once more to unleash a brew of brutal and technical death.  A couple of grunts are steamrolled over by blasting death metal on Devouring Frenzy.  Thick riffs and tight drumming with plenty of tempo shifts are peppered throughout this burly track.  Horror Detox fires its opening salvo of frenzied riffs before settling into a some anxious rhythms.  The following track, Fiend, forms sort of a run-on flow as it blends its way into the previous song.  The fat rhythms and galloping drums have a lot to do with this.  But it is in this instant that we are treated to some tripped out, proggy guitar work and some of Tony Choy's bizarre, yet jazzy bass-lines.  I'll be honest, with Tony Choy on bass I expected his lines to be more prominently featured throughout the album.  Up next is Hate Suicide which is a blunt instrument, pounding you in the face with muscular riffs and explosions of blast beats.  A thrashier style intrudes upon Synthetic Grotesque making it one of the more enjoyable tracks on the album.  The title-track bears a striking resemblance to the fat rhythms of Morbid Angel as it sluggishly ambles along, that is until it bursts into slanted riffs and split-second tempo changes.  As a matter of fact, the whole album is tainted a bit with a fetish for Morbid Angel-esque rhythms.  Hangman is obsessed with blast beats melded to beefy guitar riffs imbuing the song with a stop/start pacing.  Tacked on to the end of the album are three "bonus" tracks which are updated versions of one track off each of the first three albums.  The vocals are dryer on these tracks and remind me of the old singer for Morgoth.  The new Pestilence album does nothing to enhance their legacy but doesn't really do much to detract from it either, especially for fans of the post-Van Drunen era.  It is essentially just a solid album of brutal death metal that blends into the background of today's death metal scene.  Not sure exactly what I expected but perhaps a little more.