PUSTILENCE – Beliefs Of Dead Stargazers And Soothsayers / VINYL LP

The gods order it be, the gods forbid it. — Ripped open with a loud slice, a shout and a great parting shove the sacrificial abdomen is split before our belomancer as he begins shaking the teraphim, three rune-carved arrows, back-and-forth in quiver as the steaming intrigue of the exposed viscera settles. All future-sight drawn from the bulging release of spotted, diseased entrails spells out doom per the superstitions of the onlookers but our seer-visitor knowingly punches straight for the liver, gripping it and yanking as he would gold (were he a thief and not a sophist). The collective will of their mysterious cult is placated as the arrow of denial is chosen at random, a condemnation which excites their cult of death into rapturous feast. The ‘old school’ death metal fandom at large will recognize familiar shapes, cruelest strikes of horrifying detail in bursts within the spiral of guts and grime-stricken high-rate riffcraft as the a mysterious haze of Brisbane, Australia-based quartet Pustilence generates their hellish whorl. ‘Beliefs of Dead Stargazers and Soothsayers‘ offers a blunt merger between the best traditions and their own curvaceous line drawn outside the box. Relying upon hideously distorted visions of the past to inform their esoteric choices today these fellowes present the apex standard of classic death metal one step beyond its commercial peak, the mid-1990’s, as this impressive debut full-length manages not only elite-level craft but continues to build atop an unsettling lore, an estranged realm of brutality all their own.