PESTILENTIAL SHADOWS
WRETCH (LTD.DIGI)

Northern Silence are proud to present Pestilential Shadows' highly anticipated eighth album, Wretch. One of Australia's longest-running and most respected black metal bands, Pestilential Shadows have been building a towering canon of work since 2003. Whereas many of their native land's extreme metal exports either tend toward the chaotic or too clean, the shadowy collective led by founding vocalist / guitarist Balam consistently create compelling swathes of drama and darkness, all-enveloping emotion and regal-yet-gritty grandeur. Truly, Pestilential Shadows are black metal classicism par excellence. And while the last handful of their albums the past decade-plus have seen sizable gaps between them, Pestilential Shadows strike while the iron's hot with Wretch. Simply and substantially titled, Wretch follows from last year's Devil's Hammer and continues the band's progression / regression toward uglier, gnarlier expanses. Mind you, it's a lateral development rather than a vertical one - the "form" is still BLACK METAL, and its attendant contents are ruminations on death and the beyond - but the fact that Pestilential Shadows can subtly-to-significantly shift their sonic palette whilst conveying their characteristic melancholy and tragedy speaks to the enduring strength of their songwriting. What's more, the album's production is palpably professional, feeling effervescent and crisp even when running through those uglier, gnarlier expanses. If anything, said recording style of Wretch - mastered by Krvna mainman Krvna Vatra, who played on the aforementioned Devil's Hammer, with mixing done by Balam - gives the record a uniquely ethereal aspect, even when the band have kicked into ultraviolent overdrive. Above all, the eight songs that comprise the 49-minute Wretch prove Pestilential Shadows as masters of pacing, doling out the sublime and the profane with equally windswept aplomb.