PESTILENCE — Doctrine (review)

Album · 2011 · Death Metal

1.5/5 · 2011-07-17
adg211288

Doctrine is the sixth album by big name death metal act Pestilence. It was released in 2011 and is their second release since they reformed. Unlike the actual 2009 comeback album Resurrection Macabre, Doctrine features almost the same line-up as Spheres, the last album the band did before their original split. That means we have Patrick Mameli (vocals, guitar), Patrick Uterwijk (guitar) and Jeroen Paul Thesseling (bass) all in the line-up, which is completed by drummer Yuma Van Eekelen.

Just so this review may be taken in context, I haven’t actually heard Resurrection Macabre and so will not be commenting on it (though I have heard a lot of negativity about it) or how Doctrine compares to it, and I also wouldn’t say that I am a major fan of the band and the only albums that I have heard prior to Doctrine are Testimony of the Ancients (1991) and Spheres (1993). Of the two I definitely would say I’m a fan of Testimony of the Ancients. Doctrine doesn’t exactly sound like either of them, but suffers from the same problem that made it difficult for me to get into the Spheres album: terrible vocals.

Patrick Mameli’s vocals may be fine to more hardcore death metal fans than me, but they sound very much like the weak link in the band to my ears. I had difficulty with them on Spheres, but here they’ve gone completely down the drain. To say that they are an acquired taste would be very fair I think, but since vocals can often by the make or break thing between bands and myself, they leave me feeling very cold after listening to Doctrine. In the guy’s defence his vocals sound absolutely tortured, which I expect will have appeal to said hardcore death metal fans. I however just plain don’t like him on this album, so moving on to more praise-worthy aspects of Doctrine...

This is where we hit a major snag, the musicianship just isn’t that great either, not because the players are unskilled, but because it sounds so uninspired, and the album gets off to one of the worst starts possible with the pointless and overly long intro The Predication along with the following Amgod, which is an all too vivid reminder of just why it took me so long to get into the death metal genre in the first place. Intro aside this is the weakest track on the album. It picks up a bit from there onwards, but the riffs of Maneli and Uterwijk just fail to really capture my attention throughout the album, and it’s only the distinct tones of Thesseling’s fretless bass that save the bulk of the album from being a complete bore, but even these are not enough in many of the tracks, and can barely in heard in some parts. Thesseling saves the album from being completely dismal, but Doctrine still doesn’t have a lot going for it. There are a couple of songs with a bit better flow to them, such as Sinister, but are still forgettable upon finishing the album.

Doctrine numbers among the few weaker releases I’ve heard from 2011, but the year has been otherwise pretty good, with several great death metal releases including two that feature the bass talents of Jeroen Paul Thesseling, those being Obscura and MaYaN. There are also great albums from Beyond Creation, Abysmal Dawn, Septicflesh, and Sectu, so there are plenty of new albums to get a 2011 death metal fix from, and doubtless there’s many more I haven’t heard. Hell, even the new Morbid Angel is better than this! I guess existing fans of Pestilence may enjoy Doctrine, but I for one will be sticking with Testimony of the Ancients when I get the urge to listen to the band.

(Originally written for Heavy Metal Haven, scoring 3.3/10)

more than 2 years ago
Permalink
Report #247361

Share this review

Review Comments

Post a public comment below | Send private message to the reviewer

Please login to post a shout

J-Man wrote:

more than 2 years ago

I'll definitely have to hear this one for myself too.

Xaxaar wrote:

more than 2 years ago

I heard it and I can at least say it's better than Resurrection - much better! The next Spheres? Ehh...don't think so.

adg211288 wrote:

more than 2 years ago

It's probably easier to pick out more of what's going on when you enjoy something. I was sitting there willing this one to end. I did hope it would grow on me after a couple of listens, but I actually ended up liking it less. In contrast to Testimony and Spheres which seem to sound better each time. I disliked Spheres a lot at first as well, but that's a 4 star album for me now. This one though...well, see above. :(

UMUR wrote:

more than 2 years ago

Sounds like a plan to me :-)

Time Signature wrote:

more than 2 years ago

Sounds like I have to check it out myself.

UMUR wrote:

more than 2 years ago

I actually think there are a lot of "Spheres" like moments on the album. Nice time signature changes and jazzy soloing combined with heavy dissonant riffing and more straight forward death metal moments. Are we listening to the same album Adam :-) No, seriously I like to hear another point of view. That´s what this site is all about.

adg211288 wrote:

more than 2 years ago

Not really, the only non-standard thing I find about it is that Jeroen Paul Thesseling uses fretless basses, which have a very distinct sound and is the only thing that really stands out as being different on the album.

Time Signature wrote:

more than 2 years ago

I've never been a fan of his vocals, but I absolutely loves "Spheres" for its jazzy weirdness. Is there any of that on this album?

adg211288 wrote:

more than 2 years ago

We'll have to agree to disagree on this one then.

UMUR wrote:

more than 2 years ago

I´ve actually been listening to Doctrine a lot the last week and I´ve been very pleasantly surprised. I wasn´t too impressed by Ressurection Macabre, but Doctrine is a major step up for the band. I love the vocals. This may be Mameli´s best vocal performance so far. The man really pushes himself to new hights here and challenges himself beyong what I thought he was capable of. This is album is so far an easy 4 star release for me.