We are off to the Basque Country but don’t go expecting a sunny disposition. Judging by the title of the album this is a sun blinded by pollution. The duo of M (guitars, bass and vocals) and N (drums and keyboards) have been knocking out a slew of releases since forming in 2018. This is their third album and first via Debemur Morti. What drew me to it was the promise of ‘total sonic irradiation’ and the fact that their art is described as “corrosive.” With that in mind I went in expecting my ears to run down the sides of my head like something out of a body-melt movie.
Once the ominous intro piece is dispensed of ‘Neerv’ rattles the ribcage with barrelling percussion and hefty bass filled backbone. It’s the vocals that capture attention though as the low growls move into spewed out gurgles riddled with a catastrophic vomiting discourse. It ain’t pretty in the slightest but amidst the turgid sickness there’s a semblance of dire and morbid melody. The duo are not all about speed and twist into plenty of doomy passages, moving from virally infected charges of fast movement to crawling show-shuffling horror, akin to being stalked by the hellish blind dead of their heartlands. I guess a doom death description would not be out of place here as we tumble into tar-filled pits and get stuck trying to find our way out before being dragged under and slowly suffocating on tracks like ‘Occlusive’. There are plenty of skewed lurches from the guitars as vocals retch up all manner of bile and the up and down scales of ever-intriguing titles such as ‘Enthronos Wormwomb’ almost encourage you to stick your head down the toilet and eject anything solid lingering in the gut. Just as you are about to do that though the track moves into calm melodious acoustic guitar. It’s not all foul and ugly here and as it goes down an almost DSBM route with groans and cries in the background, this is a most unexpected diversion.
Displaced momentarily, the second half of the album descends back into the acetous via brackish guitar parts, chundering bass and more of those sour, gurgling vocal gymnastics. There’s brutal bowel voiding movements aplenty on the likes of ‘Dilution Haep’ and although not entirely dissonant the groove laden tumbling definitely heads in that direction. ‘Oxide Veils’ introduces some stark piercing tones before ploughing away with outright savagery like some kind of musical petro-chemical spillage. Everything is infected and nothing else will ever grow on this now blighted land. By the time we get to the end of this grim and cataclysmic trawl through the duo’s irradiated landscape, you are left feeling suitably corroded. However, the good news here is that Pestilength have done something a bit different and are not going to be tagged in with a heap of carbon copyist death metal acts, even if they have left you feeling more than a little polluted.
(7.5/10 Pete Woods)
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