Review: Pestilence “Hadeon”

Pestilence Hadeon
Hammerheart Records

We were teased by Pestilence in 2017 via their Facebook posts about their new album. After almost a year’s delay it was on the 26^th of January 2018, Pestilence digitally released their 8^th studio album. Then on the 9^th of March we got their physical issue via label Hammerheart. That means over 12 months of waiting and 2 months of listening time for me. Hadeon has impressed, made me cringe and inspired me along the way.

What should we have reasonably expected from this Dutch DM band? Did I expect anything in particular? From a band that helped form the Death Metal mould back in the day – even helped form my mould, the answer is yes I did expect quite a bit from this band. Now to their delivery…

Hadeon picks a fairly untouched subject to play with; physical and metaphysical planes, ancient knowledge and the like. Most of the time it’s appealing in this sense. Sometimes it’s jarring. You won’t forget it though, that much I’ll assure you of.

With Dan Swanö mastering production of Hadeon, I think twice about stating this but:  it’s fairly typical to modern technique. Following the formula of click tracks + sample + compression = modern metal. Nothing wrong with that but Pestilence have been recording since 1988 or so… I’d have thought that such musicians may have wanted to bring their own production values (not riffs, not structures, not auditory image) to the table. Riff wise, we’re talking the good old days Death Metal. Catchy, thrashy, head-bangin’ stuff. Good stuff. The guitar solos speak for themselves in a way that any Pestilence fan can appreciate.

Released 20 years ago, Hadeon would stand well beside Consuming Impulse. Released this year, it’s going to make you listen to Consuming Impulse again. No bad thing for Pestilence and no bad thing for you.