Déjà vu all over again… here I am almost 20 years later trying to get people to listen to the likes of Cynic, Believer and Pestilence. Monty Connor you were ahead of your time! So which Pestilence do we get, the brutal, early death metal, the more refined “Testimony Of Ancients” sound or the bizarre, experimento-jazz band? Well, for better or worse the eleven new tracks (plus a trio of re-recorded/updated oldies: ‘Chemo Therapy’, ‘Out Of Body’ and ‘Lost Souls’) stylistically wander between albums #2 and #3 in the Patrick Mameli’s discography, not as unrelenting as the former, nor as technical as the latter.

The disc kicks off with a trio of Tom G. Warrior/Fischer approved death grunts on ‘Devouring Frenzy’, after which the vocals are certainly crude, nearly indecipherable death, but the playing (esp. Darkane’s Peter Wildoer on drums and bassist extraordinaire Tony Choy, ex-Cynic/Atheist) rises above such rudimentary structures. With rapid drums and punishing riffs, the music moves along, then (seemingly) out of nowhere, a wild asymmetrical run. ‘Synthetic Grotesque’ settles into a comfortable proto-thrash rhythm. Of the newbies, most are quick hitters, with ‘Hangman’ and the aforementioned ‘Devouring Frenzy’ failing to crack three minutes as only ‘Hate Suicide’ (4:18) and the distance champ, ‘Y2H’ (5:00) exceed Roger Bannister’s four minute mile.