PESTILENCE's PATRICK MAMELI Misses 'The Solidarity And The Brotherhood' Of Late 1980s And Early 1990s Death Metal Scene

In a recent interview with Italy's "Heavy Demons" radio show, guitarist/vocalist Patrizio "Patrick" Mameli of long-running Dutch progressive death metallers PESTILENCE was asked what he misses the most about the death metal scene of the late 1980s and early 1990s. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Well, it's very easy. The solidarity and the brotherhood. I think that nowadays a lot of stuff, and not just in metal or whatever but in general, stuff has been politicized so much to the point that even in metal, you get subgroups and that use politics to ban another group or ban another group of people when they don't think the same."

He continued: "I remember that when metal, when it started, when the first Floridian death metal bands came out and we were tape trading, everybody just recognized another brother and everybody treated each other with respect. But now it's more like if you don't belong to this certain group, then you're like outcasted, and it's because it's politicized."

Three years ago, several months into the coronavirus pandemic and weeks before the 2020 U.S. presidential election, Mameli railed against cancel culture in an interview with Heavy Culture, saying: "The stuff that is happening right now, where the focus is on stuff like 'Black Lives Matter' and Antifa fighting each other, the Trump-Joe Biden rally and all these things that are happening right now, it seems like we know what is happening, but there is nothing we can do about it. And that is the problem — most of the people don't care to get out there anymore and raise their voice because of what other people are gonna say or are gonna do to you. Mankind has become like a political thing. Everything you say can be used against you. So you can't say white person, black person, Hispanic, without people using the racial card. You have to watch out what you say with everything you do, and because the Internet is there, people get banned. I get banned for what I say on Facebook. They take away my pictures, they take away what I say. Some people get scared with this and then they stop protesting what they think is right."

Two months ago, PESTILENCE announced the addition of bassist Roel Käller to the group's ranks. He replaced Joost Van Der Graaf, who played with PESTILENCE from 2019 to 2023, and recorded one album, 2021's "Exitivim". Prior to joining PESTILENCE, Käller was best known for his work with symphonic death metallers MAYAN.

"Exitivm", the ninth studio album from PESTILENCE, landed on several Billboard charts, including the top 200 best-selling albums. The album charted at No. 188 on Billboard 200, No. 23 on Current Hard Music Albums, and No. 37 on New Artist Albums in its first week of release.

In 2023, PESTILENCE reissued its early, classic catalog via Agonia Records. "Malleus Maleficarum" (1988),"Consuming Impulse" (1989),"Testimony Of The Ancients" (1991) and "Spheres" (1993) were remastered from scratch at Satanic Audio (BEHEMOTH, AZARATH) to significantly improve on overall sound quality by engaging present-day studio equipment. The newly remastered albums are available in an ample variety of physical formats and on streaming platforms.

PESTILENCE's 2023 lineup is:

Patrizio Mameli - vocals, lead guitars
Rutger Van Noordenburg - lead guitars
Roel Käller - bass
Michiel Van Der Plicht - drums