With releases like Consuming Impulse, Testimony of the Ancient and Spheres on their résumé I had high hopes for the comeback Resurrection Macabre from Pestilence. I expected a continuation of the jazzy and experimental Spheres, but that is not how it is.

Pestilence in 2009 is a little more straight forward, but there are hints of jazz and fusion in the music. It’s noticeable in “Y2H” among others, but Patrick Mameli & Co don’t experiment all that much on Resurrection Macabre. The music is unmistakenly Pestilence, but we’re closer to Testimony of the Ancient than Spheres. The riffs work is good, but sometimes it feels like the band is doing too much recycling. Mameli’s characteristic vocals have been a big part of later day Pestilence and his growls also add a lot to the music in 2009.

Something that is a bit different on Resurrection Macabre held up against the aforementioned three efforts is the use of blastbeats. The band doesn’t exaggerate the use of those and it does add to the diversity of the music. A few of the songs tend to be somewhat anonymous, but “Horror Detox”, “Resurrection Macabre”, “Hangman” and “Y2H” make up for this.

As a bonus there are re-recordings of the three tracks “Chemo Therapy”, “Out of the Body” and “Lost Souls”. All are good, but I do prefer the earlier versions in particular “Out of the Body”. Resurrection Macabre is a good comeback, but it does not have the same substance and vitality as some of the Dutchmen’s earlier works.