When Patrick Mameli resurrected Pestilence with one-time bassist Tony Choy and drummer-for-hire Peter Wildoer, quite a few fans were not really impressed with the rough and gruff Resurrection Macabre.  With guitarist Patrick Uterwijk and bassist Jeroen Paul Thesseling (Obscura) back, Pestilence now has 3/4^ths of the Spheres line-up. And the moaning will again ensue as Doctrine is still not the logical follow-up to Testimony of the Ancients.  But that doesn’t mean Pestilence isn’t still tinkering with their style.

Resurrection Macabre was thick, heavy and dense. So is Doctrine with its 8-string guitar crunch and equally dense production that does still allow plenty of room for Thesseling’s bass hysterics to be heard.  Opener “Amgod” is a vicious salvo of blasts, grinds and grooves. Drummer Yuma Van Eekelen dishes it out while Mameli strains his vocals with growls, screams, snarls and howls.  The title track does an about-face and decides to slow things down to a pummeling, punishing crawl. The track’s eerie chord structures clash with palm muting and bursts of technical flare.  “Salvation” picks up the pace but does find room for some crafty moments in the middle while “Dissolve” finds comfort and commotion in a chugging snail’s pace.

“Absolution” is a rather standard chugging Death Metal track decides to have some brilliant tech-fusion fits whereas “Sinister” puts groove and grind on a collision course and Mameli delivers his most varied vocal performance to date.  Who knew he could hit those notes?  “Divinity” benefits greatly from not solely focusing on the groove, but allows room for brief moments of technical Thrash and even a Fusion freak-out. “Deception” is a massive riff-fest that proves to be the most varied and ultimately best track of the album while “Malignant” continues the focus on chugging groove that dominates the disc. The aptly-titled album-closer “Confusion” gets back to the more technical arena and closes out Doctrine is an abusive, unruly fashion.

Sorry folks, this isn’t Testimony of the Ancients but it is nowhere as spacey as Spheres.  Doctrine builds upon rawness of Resurrection Macabre and flirts with the progressive elements that put this band ahead of even themselves in the 90s.  Doctrine is vicious, atypical and ultimately a bit confusing on the first few listens, but it grows nicely and Mameli’s bombastic vocals do start to fit after the initially shock.  Fans of Meshuggah really need to check out Doctrine while the long-time fans need to relax and embrace the chaos. 

TRACK LISTING

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*Comments:

1.  The Predication (Intro)
2.  Amgod
3.  Doctrine
4.  Salvation
5.  Dissolve
6.  Absolution
7.  Sinister
8.  Divinity
9.  Deception
10.  Malignant
11.  Confusion

Total playing time:  39:22

Release Date: April 24, 2011
Label: Mascot Records

Pestilence - Doctrine

Reviewer: Rottenbucher

June 1, 2011