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If violence could have a name, it would be Old Pestilence.
As strange as it may seem to you, it's exactly like that!
After the killer debut of “Malleus Maleficarum” (can someone please tell me what “hammer of the witches” means?), the magnificent Italian-Dutch group tries again in 1989 with this “Consuming Impulse”, which is dangerously climbing up the rankings of my most violent records (along with Cannibal Corpse, Morbid Angel, Suffocation, and the like, even though they are all bands I started listening to relatively recently, as my battered hearing has only recently adapted to this type of sounds).
Raw, rotten, brutal.
These are the adjectives that best convey the idea of “Consuming Impulse”: original lineup, with Italians Patrick Mameli and Marco Foddis on guitar and drums respectively, a second Dutch guitarist, Patrick Uterwijk, light years away from the performances on “Testimony Of The Ancients” and especially “Spheres”, who in this CD is dealing with slides, single notes, and howls (his solos remind me a lot of the happy Crusader (crooked) combo of Cristo King/Hanneman) and, on vocals and bass, THE legend, Martin von Drunen (later with Asphyx), one of the meanest, darkest, and most bone-crushing growlers Death has ever known, who provides a truly terrifying growl.
“Four children making noise”, one might say: but it's not exactly like that. Indeed, the technical preparation, although far from that seen on the milestones “Testimony Of The Ancients” or “Spheres”, especially regarding the bass-second guitar rhythm section, is truly exceptional for 22-year-olds, who can count, indeed, on Mameli, absolutely exceptional and with impeccable technique, and a drummer out of the ordinary, Foddis, who shows surprising adaptability and equally valid creativity, especially in transitions.
Nothing too original (the influence of Morbid Angel but especially Slayer and Obituary is really felt), but in any case, a work truly worthy of note if you consider that this is the stepping stone to pivotal albums like the next two CDs, truly way too good.
The work is a mix of pure and very fast Thrash (“Dehydrated”, ”The Process Of Suffocation”) to typically Death parts (“The Trauma”, ”Chronic Infection”, ”Echoes Of Death”) to unexpected melodic openings, which refer and recall with the unmistakable Pestilence style to the next two masterpieces. Additionally, and this is perhaps the most important thing to note, the lyrics are not what one might expect, i.e., in the style of “Cut in half/Feel the warm blood trickling from your mouth” (Obituary) or “Swimming in guts” (early Death), but much more intelligent: ranging from the inevitable text dedicated to infectious diseases (“Chronic Infection”) to much more beautiful, engaged, and expressive texts, very close to the Death conception of “Human”, ”Individual”, ”Symbolic” and “TSOP”, like “The Process Of Suffocation”, which violently accuses the pollution that the human race produces (Smoke’s penetrating the atmosphere/Environment pollution, damage unmeasurable/Choking in the gas we self-produced/The more we breathe, the sooner we die/Why give a child his birth/When we are poisoning our Heart…Truly exceptional!!!!!!!).
In short, a very mature work for its genre, and musically very aggressive: it might not be appreciated, but the CD is a transition, a temporary exploration in the most extreme meanders that would soon lead to masterpieces (perhaps also due to von Drunen's departure and the entry of some of the most respected bassists on the Globe) like the highly acclaimed “Testimony Of The Ancients” and the fundamental, impeccable, and magnificent masterpiece “Spheres”.
In short, a fundamental step to understand the incredible musical-lyrical evolution accomplished by a band that, day after day, gets closer and closer to Death with the intention of contending for the throne of my favorite band.
Tracklist Lyrics Samples and Videos
01 Dehydrated (03:07)
[Music: Mameli] [Lyrics: Foddis] Lost in the desert for reasons unknown An extensive barren plain before you A gruesome affliction; the heat of the sun Don't really know in what direction to go Make your way in the loose sand No protecting shade in this hostile land It's not the hunger but it's the thirst The awful suffering which vexes you worst Hallucinations; thirst drives you insane The shrinking of your skin, bursting lips your body-fluid is floating away The claws of death got you in their grip 'Water' is your last word As your internal organs decay Dehydrated, emaciated Your life slowly fades away Vultures circling in the sky peeling the flesh from a corpse Blankened bones are all that`s left Dehydration as the death the cause Another cadaver in the loose sand Not the last victim of this hostile land Without any water you won`t last Die in the desert, death comes fast
02 The Process of Suffocation (02:41)
Music:Mameli, Uterwijk
Lyrics:v. Drunen
Smoke`s penatrating the atmosphere
It comes forth from heavy industry
The layers of air sorrounding us,
are venomed by large factory chimneys
Environment pollution
Damage unmesurable
Nitrogen concentrations
Drive away the oxygen
Choking in the gas we self produced
The death of mother earth I introduce
Chemical rain drips from the sky
The more we breathe, the sooner we die
Climates change, oceans vaporize
Woods becomes deserts;no vegetation
Species of animals exterminated
The earth makes its last rotation
The process of suffocation
Coming genocide
Biocircle`s disturbed
Humanity`s suicide
Why give a child its birth
When we are poisoning our earth
The heritage of this generation
is a planet threatened with destruction
03 Suspended Animation (03:28)
[Music: Mameli, Uterwijk]
[Lyrics: V. Drunen]
Suffering from a disease
The morbid symptoms aren`t identifiable
Physicians; they disagree
Fighting is thus impossible
Vainly you wait for a cure
But there's pain you have to endure
You don't have to add you to dead
Leave your faith in science`s hands
Research might lead to your salvation
while you're in a state of suspended animation
After the aneasthesia
comes pure nitrogen
In many degrees below zero
An ice-bound human being
Can they disabuse him of
his as yet unknow disease?
Then maybe in the future
the machines will stop to freeze
The blood is no longer liquid
No palpitations of the heart
Stone cold hardened intestines
There will never be a new start
Ages wait for a cure
No more pain they have to endure
They added themselves to the dead
Left their faith in science`s hands
Forever frozen is their destination
In a state of suspended animation
04 The Trauma (03:20)
[Music: Mameli]
[Lyrics: Foddis]
Years kept passing by
Still my mind hasn`t forgotten
Corpses lying among debris
Unrecognizable, rotten
Suffering from a trauma
it keeps hunting me
Considering me an obsessional
But they will never know
The massacres in former days
Hatred won`t let go
Nightmares controlling my life
In my own world I live
suffer day and night
I face pain I don`t want to see
Makes me realize
it won't leave me
Horrible events pass me by
I wake from my cry
in the midle of the night
I find myself shuddering in sweat
Memories of sorrow and death
Trauma
Trauma
Bodies filled with lead
They all have met an untimely death
Blood was everywhere
They lived in chaos and despair
05 Chronic Infection (03:57)
[Music: Mameli]
[Lyrics: Foddis]
Forced isolation in centuries of disgust
Disease of the soul, living lives which are lost
Muddled identities, living out days
Scaring it`s victims, a formless face
Respiratory skin eruptions
With protrudes eyes they see
How facial features are rotting away
Mutilating, endlessly
Trapped, seperated from humanity
Epidemic, fatal destiny
A foul oudor from gangrenous parts
Incurable sick they`ll be
Pain and suffering will stay
Bodies slowly will decay
Unable to provide curative treatment
Sudden death, morbidity
High, raise plague mortality
Corpses putrify horribly
territories in drearyness
Neglected fields in what you see
people escaped
this unpredictable reality
Loss of men accelerates
laicization of society
Extiraple indiscriminately
Bodies of the dead decayed where they had
breathed last
Filled with fear, death is near
belonging to the past
Thousands of man put away in isolation
Suffered from the chronic infection
06 Out of the Body (04:39)
In the darkness
They crawl on places
Where you can`t see or hear they come
Marching silently
When it`s dawn they will be gone
A swelling on my body
Makes me suffer, live in anxiety
No time to waste
Just open the abcess, will you please help me
The ignorance is dominating
Remedies you try
I can not live this life any longer
What is it and why?
While you`re asleep
They`ll enter your skin
The search for the new place they will dwell
They give their children
A place to be born
You won`t notice except for the smell
Mysteriousness, researches can`t explain
The sorrow of this eternal pain
It`s burning stronger day by day
Cure me, thre must be a way
Desperation, confused mind
Never heard of the disease of this kind
So tell me what can I do
To leave this HELL I`m going through
Human blood
The perfect place
Birth of descendants
Creatures living
In my veins the horror
Frightening, sickening
The pain that I am bearing
Begging, please get them
Out of my body
07 Echoes of Death (04:15)
[Music: Mameli]
[Lyrics: Foddis]
Trapped inside my self-capsule
For a journey into an atmosphere
A darkened space I`m floating in
Although I am not here
I`m caught, a room, it`s coloured black
The trap I haven`t chosen
I cannot think, my limbs
I cannot move, seems like they`re frozen
Peaceful existence in a world
Above earthly life
I`ve been there in this paradise
Where all is calm and nice
Walking in the other side
I can`t tell the difference
Between day and night
Voices I can hear
Hidden somewhere, but they`re near
Out there in this universe
Imaginary world of fantasy
Am I dreaming?
But It seems so real to me
Humanity denies death
Search for immortality
Melancholy desire
Can`t become reality
No reason to fear death
We all will meet it anyway
A promised life in hereafter
As we will pass away
08 Deify Thy Master (04:52)
Music:Mameli,Uterwijk
Lyrics:Foddis
His hands held high
Hypnotyzing eyes, the instruments
of power he has obtained
His spoken words
Standing on the pedestal
He sees his portrait held high
by their hands
Deify thy master, he will be the one
who protects you from all what`s evil
Deify thy master, a devine personality, holiness
Deify thy master, your minds are filled with my
preachified sermons
Deify thy master, follower`s fanaticism leading
to their own destruction
A vociferous crowd
calling aut his name
They will praise and adore hir
On their way to paradise
A sacrifice as homage to their lord
See the misery he causes
for he takes you
to the worst form of reality
Still you are a credit
to your master
As you fight for his symbol of victory
He`s a advocate
of a theory
the one he made himself
His word is law, obey worship
You will live well
He will walk the stairs build of coffins
Ambition has it`s price
Determined to fulfil his desires
Turns promises to lies
Beware
He takes you to a despair
Chaos, violence ,bloodshed
How long will their dream last?
Awake before you`ll die
His atherents exist of thousands of people
Adorers keep their faith
They express their trust by performing their task
Even when it`ll be their fate
He`s majesty we ought to serve
for he praises unity
Disparity he despises, fights
the existence of apostasy
Expel those who resist and those
who will not agree
They`re a danger to his system
And to the thought of solidarity
10 Reduced to Ashes (04:52)
[Music: Mameli]
[Lyrics: V. Drunen]
Dark middleagess centuries of pain
The appearance of the inquisitions
Religion turned out to be insane
In these times of witch prosecutions
Tortured till confession
Await the execution
Moaning and suffering
Tormented till death on the rack
Hundreds of them were sentenced
for perpetraiting heresy
Desperately begging for mercy
But death was only guarantee
Intense excruciation
Unmerciful cremation
Their smouldering bodies
and charred bones are left on the stake
The question of the interrogators
Extorted the false confessions
Broken upon the will they ended
Without even knowing the accusation
Limbs chopped off, viscera torn out
Mutilated venereal organs
Death in the name of the church
Decapitated or quartered
Evil exorcized
Purified flesh
Saved by the stake
Reduced to ashes
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