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Pestilence Empire is the fourth album, and supposedly the best one, released by exmortem since the start in 1992. I haven’t heard the other albums, but I think that the band needs to work a lot more with the production. I can hear that these guys know how to play, and I can almost feel what they intended this album to sound like. But the quality of the music can’t take the band all the way to the top, when it sounds like this. It’s supposed to sound brutal and dirty but instead it’s all messy. I like dirty-sounding albums, don’t get me wrong, but I want to hear details, I want to hear what’s going on, and I’m sure that these guys have all that to work with, they just need someone to push the right buttons in the studio. My first complaint is regarding the drums. Now that’s the hardest bit in the studio. Right now, the only thing that is clear is the ride-cymbal. It’s penetrating, and it’s in your face. Too much in your face. I want to hear more of the snare drum and the bass drum. The bass drum is somewhere in the background like thunder, and I hate that. Because of the drummix the songs lack something to keep them together. The second complaint is that the guitars are a little bit too thin. There’s not enough power in them and maybe that’s because the bass is also mixed somewhere in the back. The vocals are great, and trust me, it’s hard to impress me with vocals, I’m very picky. And the guitarriffs are pretty good. It’s clear, this band knows the basic elements in good death metal, and they also have traces of black metal, which intensifies this experience even further. Unfortunately the production is holding this band back. Nowadays it’s not that hard to make a good recording, there’s so much equipment to choose from, and it doesn’t even have to be that expensive. These guys might just have chosen the wrong person to sit behind the mixer and that is probably the most common mistake. I believe in this band, I really do, but the sound wears my poor ears out. I wish I could raise the grade. But I won’t.
| Tracklist |
| 1. Ghastly Grotesque |
| 2. Funerary Sculpture |
| 3. Pestifier |
| 4. Death Deceiver |
| 5. Malus Invictus |
| 6. Grand Dome Of Destruction |
| 7. Icecold Ugliness |
| 8. Gruesome Icons |
| 9. A Tyrants Hunger |
: 32.18
| Buy other Exmortem albums |
