Art is a reflection of life. Thus the upswing in Death Metal – a renaissance that is not just a matter of marketing hitting just right. There is a wide breadth of different stylistic turns being taken, rather than just a worldwide tribute to the Tampa of the eighties. As someone who lives in Tampa at present,  this might be the one city without an abundance of the deathly goodness that the rest of the world is nailing right now. 

Pestilength is a duo from Spain whose third full-length Solar Clorex (Debemur Morti Productions) is a grime-guzzling dive into the sewers of your mind, The vocals are growled at a low nasty gurgle, with the lyrics are obscured by the infernal larynx uttering them in a manner that more closely resembles the sound of a demon drowning in your cistern.

The band’s strength lies in the dense riffing that churns through the odd atmosphere draping the other instrumentation. This results in something with a raw and unhinged pulse. At times this comes across as being slow grindcore, the best example of this is the song “Occlusive” which sounds like the band is sinking into hot lava and being burned alive as they continue to play. 

Death by Hot Lava must have released more DMT which would explain the pure weirdness of  “Enthronos Wormwomb” – a song that ends up wandering off into a Jazzy section after being dominated by an oddly timed angular phrasing.  This is also a high mark of the album as you truly begin to hear who these guys are when they peel back the distortion. 

There are moments of murky atmosphere that lead into a more aggressive full-on stomping style of Death Metal. There is the aggressive flood of double-bass that washes you into this tempest in a manner that is in line with the more commonplace Death Metal classics. Even when going for a more straightforward approach they still manage to cover everything in a coat of bizarre. This is perhaps most noted in the song “Oxide Veils” whose verse riff hits a groove not unlike Mr. Bungle’s “My Ass is on Fire”, only there is no hooky melodic singing just blast beats to hurtle you into hyper aggression.

Solar Clorex takes chances – “Choirs of None” is possessed by the kind of chaos that haunts the bulk of this album. Any time a band writes an album that makes you think it is haunted by chaos then you know they are onto something great. 

Could some of these songs be more focused on finding a destination? Yes, but it is done in a manner that balances this out by earning your appreciation for their willingness to take chances. There is only going to be more Death Metal in the months to come, so Pestilength should stand out in a world where too many bands will inevitably pay too much tribute to the Morbid Angel’s and Incantation’s of the past. Solar Clorex finds a sick balance and is worth the time of any forward-thinking death metal fan. 

Buy the album here:
https://pestilength.bandcamp.com/album/solar-clorex

8 / 10
WIL CIFER