This past year has surely been a busy year for Mr. Patrick Mameli, singer and guitarist for Pestilence.  Their first four albums were remastered and reissued in deluxe formats and I reviewed all four of them here.  Perfect reissues!  Patrick has assembled a brand new Pestilence line-up:  Calin Paraschiv on lead guitar, Tilen Hudrap on bass guitar and I was pretty stoked to see Romania’s Septimu Hărşan, from the killer Necrovile on drums.

With Hadeon being the 8th full-length from Pestilence how does this stack up to the prior albums?? Pretty freaking killer, actually.  After a 2 minute intro, “Non Physical Existent”  comes in with a nice punchy sound, with a bass guitar heavy rhythm section.  Patrick’s vocals are killer and he gets into some lower gutturals and some killer quick blasting interwoven.  If you’ve been a fan of the newer records, which started with Resurrection Macabre, you will certainly enjoy this, very much so, but quite a lot of the sound is focused on more of the technique Pestilence were using with the classic Testimony of the Ancients time era, hence. Therefore, this will bring some of the older fans out of the woodwork a little more.  “Multi Dimensional” is up next and starts slow before erupting into a nice death thrash pace with some extraordinarily fast guitar riffing.  Quite a nice guitar solo afterwards and I enjoy Patrick growling the song title as the chorus.  Simple, yet effective.  “Oversoul” has an awesome beginning with some killer bass guitar lines and the slower, jazz parts are reminding me of the Spheres era, but mix in more of the newer Pestilence sound and punishing production.  This track is killer and Patrick is spitting forth some extra piss ‘n vinegar vocals.  The phase shifter, like vocal effects during the chorus part with the growls going in and out are creative and the guitar solos are ethereal and well done.  This song also has some monster crunch stylized guitar riffing.  Excellent song.

“Manifestations’” opening bass guitar is all over the place and is thumping and I love the bouncy feeling.  The song picks up to a classic death/thrash beat and the rhythm section is ultra-strong during the guitar solos and faster paced parts.  The mid-paced groove is so heavy and punishing.  It’s a real fun song with the bouncy rhythm and I would imagine this would be a real fun song to play live and see the crowd moving like a sea of mangled bodies, entangled with shards of sinewy bone shards exploding all over crowd.  “Discarnate Entity” begins with some spacey guitar soloing and then right into a classic 1991 death metal gallop with Patrick growling out the title track, which is something he has been doing since Resurrection Macabre, and there are some excellent drumming moments when the faster parts slows down to almost some poly-rhythm’s and wonderful usage of cymbals.  “Electro Magnetic” ends the album with an outstanding opening moment which goes into some quick blast beats and the groove swoops in to lop your head off from miles away before Pestilence is off to the races again with the faster section and quick blasting.   The 2.29 part is the Holy Shit section with the guitar solo ripping through your speakers and then the blasts coming in.  Fantastic.  The song trails off and then booya, Hadeon is over.

Hadeon’s production is crisp, clear, heavy and 100% Pestilence.  Patrick and I were in communication not too long ago and he stated the album really brings together elements of their newer records, as well as their past efforts.  The man was spot on.  It’s like 1991 and 2018 collided together to form the awesomeness, which is Hadeon.  A few quick observations.  Some douchebag had leaked the album some time ago and the original Hadeon artwork was scrapped and this is the newer cover, which is the perfect album cover for Hadeon, as it fits the tying in of the older and newer Pestilence.  The musicianship is terrific and Hammerheart are offering up a variety of package deals along with the format of your choice.  Pestilence are back, with hopefully no more hiatuses and this is a no brainer buy or die!

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