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.
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