Hailing from the ancient and isolated Basque region, returns the cthonic doom occultists of Pestilength returning with their latest full length record Solar Clorex. This is an incredibly powerful and dense album dripping with twisted riffs with a dark psychedelia attached to it. These guys have continued their path down a harsh blended mixture of doom, black metal, and death metal to present us with a dense and punishing album.
A massive dissonant riff screech into existence at the start of the album. Slow and steady, it picks up pace as the introduction crushes everyone beneath. They conjure sonic chaos throughout the rest of the album, pushing forward a very heady sound that is much more present on this release. It’s as though they’re channeling long forgotten bleak elder gods from deep within the cosmos, bringing the dark imagery forward with disgustingly bleak, guttural vocals. There’s plenty of finer details within this album that become more and more apparent the more you listen. Especially within the drumming through out the album, there’s plenty of blast beats to punish the weak, but they change it up with different patterns and styles that flash by quick, which is why it’s very much needed to give this album repeat listen.
They really lean heavy into the doom aspects with this album, really taking their time building up the melodies and having the atmosphere simply drip off the guitars. There’s a brief moment of respite that caught me off guard. On the fourth track Enthronos Wormwomb, they give the listener a moment of reflection and breath, with a clean guitar melody and some steady drumming where the psychedelic aspects of the doom start to creep out. It’s a different change for the band and something interesting to hear, as they flex their skills beyond just the extreme. But it only lasts for a moment as they shove you right back into the chaos.
For me, this album is near perfect and exactly what I expect from this occultists. Dark, bleak, and intense blackened death doom, something not too far from other Spaniard occultists Teitanblood or Proclamation, and even harkening to Antediluvian with their twisted and dissonant sounds. This isn’t an album for the faint of heart. This album was definitely intended for those who can appreciate a more dense and psychedelically stimulating black/doom album. I’ve found my self to follow the cult of Pestilength and certainly will be for however long they stick to this. A must listen.