Pestilence - Spheres

The Doctor recommends some Death Metal today

Unlike, perhaps, some fellow Vortexers, it took me quite a few years to get serious about music listening. Therefore, choosing an album from the year I was 0 required some research. I found plenty of famous, important albums, but they were unfortunately too well known to spark an interesting discourse. I had to dig deeper.

That’s how I stumbled on Pestilence’s Spheres. I was quite unfamiliar with Pestilence as a whole besides a few spins of Consuming Impulse and its… Charming cover art. Turns out they were quite good at doing German Food (i.e. Meat and potatoes) Death Metal. At least, so far.

The 90s were especially glorious for early technical Death Metal. With Death and Atheist going strong and Cynic just around the corner, 1993 was full of promises. And it fully delivered, from Focus to Elements and Individual Thoughts Patterns, many great albums saw the day.

So perhaps, seeing all of this, Patrizio Marco Giovanni (aka Patrick) Mameli, Pestilence’s frontman and composer, felt inadequate. While Pestilence had already gone towards the proggy with Testimony of the Ancients, he may have felt it wasn’t enough. I don’t know if that’s the actual reason, but that would explain things.

Spheres kicks off with Voivod-esque riffs, accompanied by Patrick’s harsh vocals. 2 minutes into Mind Reflections, dissonant keyboards emerge to complete the basic structure that will be kept throughout the album. In-between songs, we find 3 transition tracks: Aurian Eyes, Voices from Within and Phileas. Aurian eyes greets us with an ominous cello theme overlaid with psychedelic synth, whereas Voices from Within and Phileas would be perfectly at home in a Cynic album with their dreamy, airy sound. In my opinion, the album culminates with the eponymous track and Changing Perspectives, which feel the most well-put together.

Overall, Spheres feels like two different albums mashed together. One with traditional riffing and song structures, and the other being way more experimentally, perhaps to an excess. The collage feels haphazard and detracts from the experience. Despite this, each individual part has its merits and they manage to make the album an enjoyable, if perhaps slightly silly experience.

Spheres will not remain in our memories as one of the best albums of 1993. It is outmatched in its own category by many other albums. Mameli later called it a joke and the band separated afterwards. It will remain however, as a lesson that sometimes, you shouldn’t try too hard.