Search - Pestilence :: Malleus Maleficarum

Very good debut, however....

09/27/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"....this is very different from their other albums. Where the following albums explored technical death metal and even jazz fusion, this is much more of a thrash/speed metal album. Lyrically, it's pretty similar to the later albums, although it's more scientific and medical oriented. Martin Van Drunen's vocals are delivered in a more shouted style in contrast to the tortured sounding growl on Consuming Impulse. The reason for these differences may be due to the fact that this is the only album with guitarist Randy Meinhard, he was soon replaced after this album by Patrick Uterwijk. These things aside, this is still a great album and is definitely worth checking out for Pestilence fans and fans of extreme metal. It can be hard to find due to the fact that it's out of print(it was originally issued in 1988 on Roadrunner Records). It was reissued by Displeased records in 2000 with the Infected and Dysentery demos added as bonus tracks. It can be found on various underground music distributions sites. Once again, to the other reviewer, this ISN'T death metal, it's thrash/speed metal, and it's possibly their fastest album. Any real metalhead can tell the difference between death and thrash. All metalheads do yourself a favor and track this album down(with bonus tracks if you can), it's a very underrated album that never got the recognition that their other albums did. It's also very well produced for 1988. Many fans overlook and are oblivious to the fact that this band started as a thrash band. By the way, i'm 20, but I just didn't want to register."