U or V

I'm back- not that I was missed, but I'll get going with a tasty review of one the classic and well respected death metal albums - Consuming Impulse by Pestilence, or Consvming Impvlse as it appears on the cover. Now, when this album came out, it was one that I had been waiting for what seemed like forever. Pestilence hailed from the Netherlands and were looped into the whole death metal craze of the late 80's- always mentioned in the same breath as Death, Morbid Angel, Carcass, Sepultura and Obituary, has respect built in. Pestilence sound was just a tad bit different from the typical death metal set up, they added elements of brutality, technical guitar playing and all around some killer vo-kills. The unique part of Pestilence is that the drumming never really ventured into the blast beat area, which helped to define their sound more than just some noise, but well orchestrated, controlled chaos. Their first album Malleus Maleficarum had some thin production, to me, that took away from the serious brutality that was Pestilence. Then came Consuming Impulse, which answered my prayers. The first time I heard this, it was like, sweet Jesus, this is what death metal is all about. I must have listened to that tape,(yes tape)over and over and over for months. I finally was going to get the chance to see Pestilence in concert, but for some reason they could not get over to the U.S., and alas, I have never seen Pestilence in concert. After the Consuming Impulse tour, the lead singer and bass player, Martin Van Drunen left, and Pestilence took on a more complex, technical, jazz influenced sound. Yes, still good, and here is where the line is drawn among Pestilence fans, it's either the first two or everything after that. Me- I'm with the first two. Tony Choy came into the fold to play bass, the same Tony Choy who was in Cynic and Atheist at the same time.
There are some Pestilence fan sites on Myspace
Consuming Impulse has just been released as the single album on iTunes instead of the Roadrunner Greatest Hits package that included Consuming Impulse and Testimony of the Ancients on the same disc.
Finally, former members of Pestilence, Patrick Mameli and Tony Choy, have teamed up with former Cynic and Death drummer Sean Reinert and Tony Jelencovich to form a new group called C-187. They describe their sound as "difficult to describe the style", which means killer.