Band: Pestilential Shadows
Title: In Memoriam, Ill Omen
Label: Pulverised Records
Distribution: Sure Shot Worx
Release date: September 2009
Review: CD

Pestilential Shadows are one of the strongest Australian Black Metal formations from the 21st century with (former) members of e.g. Nazxul. Their previous releases were all of a superb quality, and the same goes for this newest studio recording, which has duration of forty four minutes.
In Memoriam, Ill Omen comes, again, with a cold and grim underground sound. Instruments and vocals are freezing and oppressing, covering the whole in a dense, heavy atmosphere. The almost ‘Nordic’ approach of sound and compositions is rather melodic and might be less ‘intense’ than before, yet at the same time the album sounds darker and more funereal. Most hymns vary from slow to mid-tempo, yet several pieces are thrashing fast. The sulphuric stench is asphyxiating, breathing venom and ashes, opening the gates to the underworld, crushing Heaven’s Seraphim, turning life to death, and death to everlasting painful after-life.
Killer-release for every fan of anti-human and raw mid-tempo underground Black Metal with an old school (read: late eighties / early nineties) attitude.
Recorded and mixed by lead singer Balam (Luke Mills) (he did also take care of the splendid artwork) at Scourge Studio and mastered by D. Backovic.

91/100

Ivan Tibos.