Doctrine

Pestilence – Obsideo Review

Pestilence – Obsideo Review

By Steel Druhm on October 24, 2013 in 2013, Candlelight, Death Metal, Dutch Metal, Reviews, Death Metal, 17 comments

“Nothing burns with the same intensity as hate born of a once great love. While I worshipped early Pestilence albums like Consuming Impulse and Testimony of the Ancients, I hated their Doctrine release with the white-hot passion of a scorned fanboy. The dramatic back story to this epic tale of spurned love is a simple one. Pestilence began life as a primitive, old school death outfit and really had a lot going for them, but they rapidly evolved into a weird, proggy entity, freely dabbling in jazz-fusion. I didn’t care for the paradigm shift and neither did many of their original fans. When the band reformed after 16 years in the ground, I hoped they would return to their roots…” Who doesn’t dig a good story about love turned to hate? But can that hate turn back to love? How about love peppered with hate?

Denial Fiend – Horror Holocaust Review

Denial Fiend – Horror Holocaust Review

By Steel Druhm on August 5, 2011 in 1.0, 2011, American Metal, Death Metal, Heavy Metal, Ibex Moon Records, Reviews, Death Metal, 8 comments

Like a swift kick to the frank N’ beans, the new release by this death metal “super group” is shocking and very painful. I really loved Denial Fiend’s quirky 2007 debut They Rise. It merged nasty, old school American death metal and punk rock with a party atmosphere and although very tongue in cheek, it rocked and raged convincingly. To this day it remains in regular rotation at stately Steel Druhm manor. That debut featured some grizzled veterans of the old school scene like bassist Terry Butler (Death, Massacre, Six Feet Under, Obituary) and mega Cookie Monster Kam Lee (Death, Massacre) on vocals. What made They Rise work was the strong similarity to the classic Massacre sound (their From Beyond album is one of the all time best American death metal albums). The songs were savage and raw but also catchy and fun. Basically, it was a damn fine treat for death metal fans. When I heard a new Denial Fiend album was pending, I got giddy like a school girl. When I heard Kam Lee had taken his immense vocal talent elsewhere, I was sad but still hopeful. Well, hope is officially dead. Horror Holocaust features the “vocals” of Blaine Cook (The Accused) and he destroys everything as surely as cops destroy fun and work destroys free time. While there are some decent musical moments, he renders the bulk of the album unlistenable and there’s no denying that it sucks, bigtime.

Pestilence – Doctrine Review

Pestilence – Doctrine Review

By Steel Druhm on May 20, 2011 in 2.0, 2011, Death Metal, Dutch Metal, Mascot Records, Progressive Death, Reviews, Death Metal, Progressive Metal, 3 comments

They say you can’t go home again. If the recent track record of Dutch deathsters Pestilence proves anything, it’s that you may get home again, but you can’t stay there long. Pestilence had a few significant contributions to the death genre in the late 80’s and early 90’s, most notably the excellent Consuming Impulse from ’89 (a nasty, vicious slab of ugliness and a top ten all time death album IMHO) and the very solid Testimony of the Ancient release in ’91. Then they radically shifted styles by incorporating copious progressive jazz fusion elements into the Spheres opus and alienated many fans in the process. That essentially closed the book on Pestilence until their 2009 reunion album Resurrection Macabre, which did indeed go home to their early death metal roots and kicked a fair amount of arse too. Now, we get their second post-reformation platter and much to my chagrin, back comes the progressive jazz-fusion elements to muddy the waters (though not to the extent they did on Spheres). This leaves Doctrine a squirming, writhing mutant offspring, half Consuming Impulse, half Spheres and it feels like an album tearing itself apart with inconsistent, incompatible ideas. Needless to say, I’m not very jazzed about this.