Pestilence
| Pestilence | |
|---|---|
 Patrick Mameli and Jeroen Paul Thesseling live in 2011 |
|
| General information | |
| Genre (s) | Death metal |
| founding | 1985, 2008 |
| resolution | 1994 |
| Founding members | |
| Patrick Mameli | |
Electric guitar |
Randy Meinhard (until 1988) |
| Marco Foddis (until 1994) | |
| Current occupation | |
Electric guitar, vocals |
Patrick Mameli |
Drums |
Yuma Van Eekelen (from 2009) |
| Jeroen Paul Thesseling (1992–1994, from 2009) | |
Electric guitar |
Patrick Uterwijk (live line-up ) |
| former members | |
Vocals, bass |
Martin van Drunen (1986-1991) |
Electric bass |
Tony Choy (1991, 2008-2009) |
Drums |
Marco Foddis (1985-1994) |
Pestilence is a Dutch death metal band. The band had since their first album under the label Roadrunner Records under contract. They are considered to be one of the most influential bands in their genre in the late 1980s / 1990s.
Band history
In 1986 the band was founded by Randy Meinhard, Patrick Mameli and Marco Foddis. The first demo recording Dysentery was made with this line-up . After the bassist Martin van Drunen joined , he also took over the vocals and Mameli concentrated on the guitar. With him they recorded the second demo The Penance . With this the band managed to secure a record deal with Roadrunner Records . Together with producer Kalle Trapp , they recorded their debut album Malleus Maleficarum , which was released in 1988. The music was still very much influenced by the German and American Thrash Metal of that time.
Meinhard left the band after the debut album and joined Sacrosanct . Patrick Uterwijk joined as the new guitarist.
The following album Consuming Impulse (1989) shows clear approaches from Grindcore and is much more attached to Death Metal than the debut album. The style is raw and simple, van Drunen's guttural singing was something completely new at the time and was very different from the other representatives of the genre. Mameli played the bass (contrary to the information in the booklet). It was the last studio album with Van Drunen as a singer, who switched to Asphyx . The separation did not go harmoniously, the remaining members of the band described Van Drunen as "alcoholics" and left nothing to be desired with his talent as a musician.
In February 1990 Pestilence played a support tour for Autopsy and Bolt Thrower .
For the next album Mameli took over the vocals again. The album was recorded at the legendary Morrisound Studios in Tampa , Florida , under the direction of Scott Burns . Burns was one of the top producers of death metal at the time and had already recorded with greats like Cannibal Corpse and Morbid Angel . However, he was also known for delivering relatively uniform productions. With Testimony of the Ancients (1991) Pestilence still managed to deliver an independent sound. This progressive sound is mainly due to the help of keyboardist Kent Smith and bassist Tony Choy. The album is now one of the great genre classics and, together with Choy's main band, Cynic , should become the standard for technical death metal.
In 1993 the band released their fourth and last album before the band split up : Spheres . Disappointed by the death metal scene, the band members with new bassist Jeroen Thesseling increasingly turned to jazz and fusion and combined this music with their original style. The album flopped. The European tour with Cynic was very unfortunate for the band as the audience showed more interest in the support than in the main act. In particular, the newly introduced guitar synthesizers and the many technical gadgets disliked the audience. The band continued for a short time, but felt betrayed by fans, record company and metal magazines and separated in 1994. Posthumously, the best-of album Mind Reflections was released .
On January 12th, 2008 the official fan website announced a reunion of Pestilence in the form of a new album. It is called Resurrection Macabre and was published on March 16, 2009. The next album Obsideo followed in November 2013.
Further careers of the members after the first split
Patrick Mameli made several attempts to return to the scene. In 2004 he participated in a Death tribute album with James Murphy . In 2006 he formed the band C-187 together with Tony Choy. Jeroen Thesseling founded the band Ensemble Salazhar after Pestilence ended in 2006 and joined the progressive death metal band Obscura at the end of 2007 .
After his time with Asphyx and Bolt Thrower, van Drunen dedicated himself to the band Death by Dawn until 2007 and worked for Hail of Bullets until 2016 . 2008 Asphyx reform themselves.
Discography
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Chart positions Explanation of the data |
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| Albums | ||||||||||||
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- The Penance (demo, 1986)
- Dysentery (demo, 1987)
- Malleus Maleficarum (1988)
- Consuming Impulse (1989)
- Testimony of the Ancients (1991)
- Spheres (1993)
- Mind Reflections (Best Of, 1994)
- Resurrection Macabre (2009)
- Doctrine (2011)
- Obsideo (2013)
- Hadeon (2018)
- Twisted Truth (Compilation, 2019)
