Watch Rutger van Noordenbvrg of Dutch death metal legends PESTILENCE play along the band’s song “Deifivs,” taken from the new album Exitivm.
A new album, on a new label armed with a whole new line-up and a new dynamic: no matter what, PESTILENCE — or more specifically their maestro Patrizio Mameli — is like the phoenix, rising from the ashes, over and over again.
Back in 1986, in the small town of Enschede in the Netherlands, nearby the German border, a true metal phenomenon was born. More than three decades later, not only is PESTILENCE alive and well, but about to once again reaffirm their place in the extreme metal pantheon, with their ninth studio album entitled Exitivm, which is Latin for “total destruction.”
As controversial as he can be to some, nobody will ever deny the band’s undisputable driving force, Patrizio Mameli, and his constant ability to reinvent himself. Unlike most of the bands in the scene, PESTILENCE just keeps evolving. From the raging thrash leanings of their cult 1988 debut Malleus Maleficarum to the jazz-infused versatility of 1993’s Spheres or 2009’s Resurrection Macabre frontal assault, not to mention the fans’ favorite and Scott Burns-produced Testimony Of The Ancients from 1991, he never did the same record twice. No matter who plays with him on any PESTILENCE album, Mameli always gets the best out of the musicians he is working with. But first and foremost, the man has a one-of-a-kind vision, instantly recognizable style and yet always stretching musical boundaries. And it’s never more true than on Exitivm.
