PESTILENGTH – Solar Clorex
Release Date: 16th February 2024
Label: Debemur Morti Productions
Bandcamp
Genre: Death Metal, Death/Sludge/Grind.
FFO: Thorn, Undeath, Lurk.
Review By: Andy Spoon
As a fan of the bands that are really blowing up the underground death/doom/sludge scene, I really felt intrigued by the PESTILENGTH single that I heard before the release of the album, Solar Clorex. It’s clear that the same types of atmosphere and sonic nastiness are part of the Spanish duo’s repertoire, bringing them into the fold of bands like Thorn and Lurk, just powerhouses of slow, grinding sludgy death metal with gurgly, meaty vocals that are sure to leave you feeling sticky and a little thirsty at the end. I think that there is a giant space for music like this, as the atmosphere is just so gritty and pervasive. Solar Clorex is out on Debemur Morti Productions on February 16th, 2024.
It’s a shock to no one that I enjoy the dissonant type of filthy death metal that is not short on brutality, but lacks the frilly structure to capture the minds of surface-level death metal fans. In essence, the uglier and more sludge/doom that a death metal band can inject into an album, the more interested I am in trying to get it into my brain. As seen in my previous review of Saevus Finis, I think it’s evident that there is a scene of wild and insane death/doom that is becoming more mainstream all the time. With bands like Blood Incantation, Tomb Mold, Fuming Mouth, and Thorn all taking spots on many top 10 releases, the genre is taking hold on listeners for its genuine putridity and untamed nature.
PESTILENGTH follows up their 2022 release Basom Gryphos with a 9-track LP that enhances the production value, but stays true to the vocal identity. After listening to Bason Gryphos, I was able to get a better idea of exactly who PESTILENGTH wants to be. Essentially, there is a musical flow, a pattern of chaos that the duo has intended from the get-go. The overall tone of the music wants to incorporate the non-harmonious chord scales that give very little mind to tune and tone, but rather create a percussive high-medium-low structure that tends to feel like a sludgy version of black metal chord progressions with grind vocals.
It’s important to look at the artistic intent of the new album versus the 2022 release. The album covers are similar in such a way that they tend to invoke the same type of Jackson Pollock-esque “Chaos on Canvas” aesthetic. I think that it shows a remarkable level of artistic continuity that very few bands or artists tend to want to show across albums. The above graphic depicts how the album art uses the same palette, techniques, and is, perhaps, even by the same artist. The images are just lovely, in that they tend to give a vision of a ghostlike structure in the abyssal realm, like a Lovecraftian demigod in the vastness of the void, or a stellar nebula in which a formidable evil makes its home. Given the actual sound that the listeners get on both albums, it’s extremely-effective and I love it.
From a sound perspective, Solar Clorex is quite a bit more “produced” which is both a positive and a negative for me. Bason Gryphos really leaned-in to the muddy mix sound that lent itself to the heaviness and oppressiveness of the tone. Solar Clorex has much clearer percussion and guitar, giving the listener access to much more of the instrumentation and musical presence. However, it can cause some of the overall presentation to seem like it wants to be something that it isn’t, which is well-polished. I think that PESTILENGTH wants the music to be dirty and oppressive, something that is harder to “read” when the recording quality is as precise as it is. That being said, there is an entirely-unique sound which the band produces that simply can’t be changed as a result of clearer studio work, so hats off to them for that.
Overall, I think that the level of din created by the PESTILENGTH artistic duo deserves to stand in the spotlight for the death metal community to notice. There is a great deal of the sound which runs along the lines of much of the Transcending Obscurity or I, Voidhanger cadre of artists, which is probably one of the reasons why I’ve noticed them, myself. While I think that the album is not something that I would put in the realm of my overall “cup of tea”, I think that it burrows a very nice little den into the genre that is greatly-respective to its preceding offering, making that something that I consider a well-made and artistically-sound record.
(3 / 5)
