Pestilential Shadows – In Memoriam, III Omen (2009)

We get a ton of cookie cutter Black Metal bands and their ‘cult’ sounding albums, and this makes for a very tedious job of listening to their albums and producing an objective opinion on them, however there are days when we get lucky and bump into an actual release that represents the earlier days of BM with a bit of a different edge to it. Today we found “In Memoriam, III Omen”, and after doing some research of the band we figured out that the quality of this album made sense since it features several members of the great Nazxul.

This Australian outfit has managed to produce an album that caught my attention after I was losing interest on the first few minutes. The album starts with a very traditional ‘low-fi’ sounding high end production, something that has saved me from the pain of listening to barn shed recorded albums that will make my eardrums bleed. This start is very ‘normal’ and I’ve probably heard it in 20 or so other albums. As the songs progress I started to notice an underlying factor that most shitty bands are not very good at, this is creating haunting melodies that do not sound too alike. Some bands create one good melody and then use it for over 40 minutes, which just kills the effect. But Pestilential Shadows manages to create a wide variety of haunting combinations of either grainy distorted guitars and some underlying solo, or the guitars with some help of synth and piano here and there.

The band’s sound however is not bombastic in nature and it’s more raw and harsh than Nazxul’s work, if you are looking for a comparison, Horna and Azagahl come to mind. The band’s use of basic riffs in combination with other elements create a very raw atmosphere something that is found in many Depressive / Ambient Black Metal bands, but mixing with the old school BM feeling it provides for a very interesting backdrop over which the ‘traditional’ harsh vocals are laid upon. The drumming is very consistent and provides the perfect pace for this music to work; it’s not fast as hell or put-you-to-sleep repetitive.

In general, Pestilential Shadows might not be the most super original band in the world, but they still know how to play their music well and how to keep it interesting for the listener that has heard plenty of BM in his life. As for my self, I will add this album to my constant rotation of BM albums since like the band’s style.

Release: 2009

Country: Australia