PESTILENCE Members Discuss Forthcoming Album 'Doctrine'; Audio Available

The Metal Register conducted an interview with Patrick Mameli (vocals, guitar) and Patrick Uterwijk (guitar) of resurrected Dutch extreme metallers PESTILENCE on June 8, 2010 in San Francisco, California. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

The Metal Register: Not too many bands take a big fifteen-year break. I mean I know you did the [C-187] thing with [Sean] Reinert and [Tony] Choy back in '07. What you been up to for the past fifteen years?

Mameli: Just actually... just having a regular job, and just like getting away from the scene, getting away from the metal, getting away from the music. You know, trying to get you life in order because, when you are in a band — it doesn't matter if you're a death metal band, any band — when you're in a band, then you're on the road a lot. That is your life, but it kinda wears you out a lot, so we got kinda, ya know, we got burned out. We [were] just burned out on the thing, so it took us like fifteen years at least to, ya know, gain a healthy appetite again for destruction.

The Metal Register: You guys have had a revolutionary sound in metal. In the '90s, especially with "Spheres", it wasn't always as well embraced. But then you look at the scene now. Look at any fuckin' metalcore that's out now, and they're all throwing the "jazz" thing in. How much does the scene owe to you guys for revolutionizing the sound of metal?

Mameli: All of it. All of it. No, no, just kidding. You got legendary bands like ATHEIST, CYNIC that have done, you know, that went before us doing that stuff. We'd just goten — after "Testimony" — really gotten into the jazz thing and trying to incorporate it into our music. But looking back at it, we're so much happier with the way "Resurrection Macabre" turned out, because that's a real PESTILENCE album. That's how a PESTILENCE album should be: a little bit progressive but, like, really, really aggressive. And "Spheres" was — it was way out there. It was like taking it two steps further. But, you know, the new material will have some elements of all the previous albums, also includ[ing] "Spheres".

The Metal Register: What was the recording process like with "Resurrection Macabre"? And the writing process? How was that like, getting back into PESTILENCE?

Mameli: Well after I did the fuck-up with C-187, Yeah, 'cause it only sold 2,000 copies, which I don't understand, because I think it's a great album. Of course, it has nothing to do with death metal. I guess that's my stigma, that I'm like, "That's Patrick Mameli. Has to do death metal. Otherwise, it's not good." Whatever. But I thought that album was great. Then after that, a lot of interviews, everybody keeps talking, asking about PESTILENCE, and I just figured, "Well let's — fuck it — let's just do another PESTILENCE album.” But I wanted to have original band members in the band that were good for the process, ya know? And that's why, ya know, I got in contact with Patrick [Uterwijk] and the rest is history. I need, like, that core, PESTILENCE core — ya know, Jeroen [Paul Thesseling] played on "Spheres", so we have like three-fourths of the original PESTILENCE members here.

The Metal Register: How does this lineup stack up to the 1994 lineup? Like back when you guys broke up. How does this lineup stack up, or does it even compare?

Mameli: It can't be compared because we're — again, we were so much younger and the relationships within the group is different and now it's like a real family. We're all like friends, you know? Whereas, back in the past, it had to be more like struggling this and that, difficult, blah blah blah. We feel like family.

Uterwijk: We were friends, too, back then. But now it's different. It's – it's different.

The Metal Register: How does the [forthcoming PESTILENCE] album, "Doctrine" — it's [called] "Doctrine", right?

Uterwijk and Mameli: Yeah.

The Metal Register: How does that fit into the whole PESTILENCE sound.

Mameli: Well the thing is we always try to come up with another album that is different from the one that we've done previously. We've had "Malleus Maleficarum", which was a little more thrashy. And then we came with "Consuming Impulse", which was a little more death. And then we went over the top with "Testimony of the Ancients" 'cause we incorporated some keyboards there and not too many bands were doing that actually at that time, you know? It was a little bit fresh and trying to get a... You know, because when you start knowing your instrument better you can make better sounds. So that's what we did, make better sounds. Then we started to hang out with the guys from CYNIC a lot and they were into, like, you know, the heavy jazz and shit, fusion. And we got really influenced by that. But looking back to it, we should have maybe kind of... If "Resurrection" would've came after "Testimony" back then, we would have been one of the biggest death metal bands now out there. I'm pretty sure. But we take bold steps. The new album, "Doctrine", is gonna be way different from "Resurrection" again, of course. We wanna fuckin' over-top ourselves and become better and better and better all the time. You know, I think with this steady lineup, we don't have to go so much through the Internet and, you know, send him riffs and then come back. Peter, OK, let's do this and that that. Tony, whatever, you know. Now we're like a Dutch band. Everybody kinda, you know, Amsterdam – I live in Almelo, whatever, you now, we are close and so we can like – there's more interaction right there. And the new album is gonna be like — it's gonna be out of this fuckin' world. When you hear the album...

Uterwijk: It's gonna be surprising...

You can read the entire interview at The Metal Register. The chat is also available for streaming in audio format using the player below.

Quality fan-filmed video footage of PESTILENCE's performance at this year's Neurotic Deathfest — which was held April 30 – May 1, 2010 at 013 in Tilburg, The Netherlands — can be viewed below (courtesy of "letthedeathmetalflow").

PESTILENCE 2010 is:

Patrick Mameli - Guitar/Vocals
Jeroen Paul Thesseling - Bass
Patrick Uterwijk - Guitar
Yuma Van Eekelen - Drums

PESTILENCE interviewed by The Metal Register click on player below to launch audio):