PESTILENTIAL SHADOWS — Depths (review)

PESTILENTIAL SHADOWS — Depths album cover Album · 2011 · Black Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
Vehemency
Australian black metal underground has been bustling for the past few years, offering a lot of high quality filthiness in the forms of e.g. Atra, Ill Omen, even the infamous Drowning the Light, Forbidden Citadel of Spirits, and... the list could go on. Pestilential Shadows, on the other hand, has somehow evaded my attention until now that their fourth full-length, Depths, is out, absorbing people’s any possible happy thoughts with its utmost melancholy and madness.

As soon as the first tremolo firings of ”Lost Geists of the Sunlight Sphere” come out, the listener is introduced to the vast soundscape where guitars have the primary role, and hell how massive they do sound. The drums, although somewhat (and only slightly) plastic sounding, keep the pace steadily with blast beats, while guitars retain their ominous melodies. Even though there isn’t an excess of reverb, the sound is abyssal, fittingly. Short passages of acoustic guitars and even choirs (e.g. ”Tribulations of Man”) are also added to the mix, ensuring an endurable whole.

Throughout the 55 minutes, the melodies balance between truly touching sadness and savage evilness: ”Putrid Earth” - having also Azgorh from Drowning the Light handling the vocals - is the most heart-wrenching melancholic piece of the bunch, the latter part of the song strongly reminding me of Drudkh’s Forgotten Legend’s remarkable ”False Dawn”. I could listen to ”Putrid Earth’s” ending chord progression for dozens of minutes. Yeah, it’s that mesmerizing. Then there’s the more aggressive side of the band, visible on e.g. ”Architects of the Spear” and ”Poisoner”, that shows the band’s ability to create utterly sinister melodies with success.

There are times when Depths seems to be a little stagnant, but those moments are few and far between, so for the most part Depths is a really enjoyable experience, and takes its place somewhere among my current top 10 of the year. Fans of the Australian scene should be checking out this album by now, as long as the fairly modern production isn’t a hindrance. At least in this case it shouldn’t hinder anyone, because the compositional work here alone is on such high level.
Share this review
more

Review Comments

Post a public comment below | Send private message to the reviewer
Please login to post a shout
No shouts posted yet. Be the first member to do so above!

Review Index

Member Zone

Username:
Password:
Stay signed in

Metal Subgenres

Artists Alpha-index

MMA TOP 5 Metal ALBUMS

Rating by members, ranked by custom algorithm
Albums with 30 ratings and more
Master of Puppets Thrash Metal
METALLICA
Buy this album from our partners
Paranoid Heavy Metal
BLACK SABBATH
Buy this album from our partners
Moving Pictures Hard Rock
RUSH
Buy this album from our partners
Powerslave NWoBHM
IRON MAIDEN
Buy this album from our partners
Rising Heavy Metal
RAINBOW
Buy this album from our partners

New Metal Artists

New Metal Releases

Rise of the Black Fang Metalcore
KILLGRAVE
Buy this album from MMA partners
Die for Us Technical Death Metal
WEREWOLVES
Buy this album from MMA partners
The Goblin Sessions Heavy Metal
THEM
Buy this album from MMA partners
Tormenta De Arena Metalcore
VORAGO
Buy this album from MMA partners
Infinite Metalcore
FUTURE GHOST
Buy this album from MMA partners
More new releases

New Metal Online Videos

ScapeGoat Official Lyric Video
FIREFLAME
Bosh66· 3 hours ago
FireFlame - The Last Ride (Official Video)
FIREFLAME
Bosh66· 3 hours ago
Fervence - Hezekiah (Official Music Video)
FERVENCE
Bosh66· 3 hours ago
Fervence - The Silent Wall
FERVENCE
Bosh66· 3 hours ago
Fervence - Corrosion (Visualizer)
FERVENCE
Bosh66· 3 hours ago
More videos

New MMA Metal Forum Topics

More in the forums

New Site interactions

More...

Latest Metal News

members-submitted

More in the forums

Social Media

Follow us
Follow us on Twitter Become a Facebook fan RSS Feed