Pestilence-Doctrine

Mascot
2011

I loved Pestilence during their first three releases in the late 80's/early 90's. Heack I even liked "Spheres" to some extent although I don't think it was completely well thought out. When the band returned two years ago with "Resurrection Macabre" I was fairly excited beforehand and thought that it was a decent if unoriginal album. It touched on the band's earlier sound and was brutal although it didn't break much new ground. So what direction does "Doctrine" take? Well, they decided to change the vocal approach and the sound includes some off-beat jazz passages tossed in. While that second idea worked for me to some extent on "Spheres" it doesn't help much on this album. They try to be technical, brutal, raw and slightly experimental all at the same time. There are some moments on track like "Confusion" and "Deception", but largely this is a bit of a tedious turd of an album and that surprises me. The music frequently goes for a stripped down approach that just falls flat and left me feeling bored. I guess they thought they were moving forward with a different approach, but unfortunately the ideas are very limited here. And the vocals? They range from rough down to just out of tune like he is reaching for something and missing completely. I liked "Spheres" because it had a sound like they genuinely believed in what they were doing. Here it just sounds forced and lame. A shame because I have liked most of what this band has done in the part, but this album was a real misfire.