Pest Plagues & Storms

When weeks pass by without a notable find, I expect an album to appear nowhere to sweep me off my feet, or rather smack me in the face. And you don’t see that every day. Neither do you see the album in question. Evilforces is seemingly located in Mexico, a solo project of Pazuzuh, ex-drummer of ex-Isolated, a Mexican death metal band. And his prowess in drums shines throughout.

His debut is titled “Pest Plagues & Storms” and came out in the last days of 2016, on Christmas day to be precise, perhaps aimed as a mockery. Not only “all instruments and vocals”, but also “recording, mixing, mastering, cover art, layout, lyrics” by Pazuzuh, who seems to take the “one man band” thing further. First thing, this is a difficult release to digest. It is packed to the brim with exciting black metal ideas and execution. This might even be its downfall; as he sways through a wide range of musical influences, frequently employing punk / thrash based groove, also serving delightful moments of Nordic / Pagan black metal, doom, DSBM, avant-garde metal etc., the 72-minute journey becomes one commanding much attention and energy. And this is a polite way of saying it tires the fuck out of you. This might be a first album issue and he may find a coherent direction in the future or just stick with the confusion, we’ll hopefully find out in the future.

In the debut though, the pieces are brought together by a careful utilisation of instrumental pieces. The “Prologue” is, as expected, an impressive slow tempo opener, filled with Satanic chanting, which continues to the second track “The Maskim Hul”. As much as it delivers the expected breakdown, the “new black metal” sounding and blast-beat filled song has too many start-stops, lacking the continuity of a typical opener. After the prologue and three rather short and groovy tunes comes “Interlude”, a horror movie unsettler with piano and female singing. You know the ones in an open field, everything seems serene, but you have a deep unnerving feel that pain and death lurks ever closer… and he’s behind you.

As you’d expect, the following songs stretch out more, filled with hypnotic beats and tremolo, Morgul’esque passages and black metal infused psychedelia. All four tracks that follow are magnificent. But nothing can prepare you for the closing 20-minute saga that is “Forever in Possession State (Persecuted)”. Opening with a storm and unsettled herd noises, ever so slowly building up through the rain to blast off in style, what follows is the stuff of nightmares. Here we have a few delicious recurring hypnotic themes and an unlucky lady wailing throughout the song, successfully inflicting an unbelievable amount of anguish to the poor listener. An amazing track worthy of its own release. Actually he could have easily produced 3 separate releases with the material present in the album.

And so far I have said nothing of the sound or the production, which frankly seem nothing like a debut. Double-track tremolo / chord guitars and the bass sound is neat, but the drums deserve the highest praise. So thick and organic and oh those double bass drums… There’s a lack of keyboards but loads of effects and samples. On top of the multi-tracked grim black metal singing we have spoken word, chanting, death metal and clean singing and occasional female chant (as well as torture). The production is as neat as can be, a clean sound with just the right amount of grit. Sounds German rather than Mexican, actually.

A haunting, respect-demanding, exhaustive rollercoaster of a black metal achievement. Demands another listen. And another. And… well you get the point.

winterwhenyoufreeze