Pestilential Shadows-In memoriam, Ill Omen

Pulverized
2009

This Australian act play a style of melodic black metal. The first thing I noticed about this album was that I really couldn't stomach the production. There is a slick finish to it, but most of the attempted heavier parts are fuzzier than needed and hidden below the surface. I am assuming this was intentional, but as the listener it just caused me to have to strain my ears more which was annoying. As far the music itself, they are certainly doing nothing new. It's coherent enough and the pace moves along alright. Yet I really felt my attention drifting off rather quickly in almost every song. They rarely grabbed my attention and if they did they rarely it. Despite the volume they just didn't possess anything that made an impression on me. I spent more time adjusting the sound on my stereo trying to get a solid grasp on their sound than I should have. It didn't make much difference anyhow as Pestilential Shadows fell flat and once it was over I struggled to remember much of what went on except that they made me very sleepy. Which is of course never a good sign for any style of metal.