Here’s another band that’s coming back after over fifteen years of silence. Pestilence has their own share of classic releases and their old school fan base to cater to through Resurrection Macabre. The band made a name for itself with a death-thrash attack and a couple of absolutely killer album in the late 80s, early 90s with Consuming Impulse and Testimony of the Ancients. Their last album, Spheres saw them go off in an uber technical jazz metal route and the album was met with derision from press and public alike and shortly thereafter the band broke up.

Patrick Mameli is the only original member left in the band and he’s joined by Tony Choy on bass and Peter Wildoer (Darkane) on drums. Resurrection Macabre is also the most overtly death metal album from Pestilence and it’s a pretty good come back for the band. The music has changed a bit. The band focuses on lots of death metal riffing that’s pretty groovy. The sound is mostly thick with a heavy bottom end and while Mameli concentrates on belting out some ass kicking riffs, Choy and Wildoer sound like they’re having an absolute blast holding up the rhythm section.

Stand out tracks include album opener Devouring Frenzy with its groovy death metal attack, Synthetic Grotesque which has a repetitive groove and some killer lead playing from Mameli, Neuro Dissonance which is a heavy death metal song and the catchy as fuck Hang Man which reminds me of Mameli and Choy’s C-187 project from 2007.

While the album is pretty good one thing I can’t help complaining about is that some of these riffs sound a bit recycled from Testimony and Spheres and also from C-187 particularly in the last three songs on the album. The biggest mistake the band has made though is in re-recording 3 songs from their classic period with the new line up. These three songs completely blow the preceding eleven new songs out of the water. Just goes to show that while Resurrection Macabre is a pretty good comeback from the band it can’t hold a candle to what the band was doing in its prime. Still, for fans old and new alike, this one is worth checking out and lots of fun. Just don’t expect to get blown away.

Label - Mascot Records
Year of Release - 2009