Australia, land of heat, koalas and kangaroos. Surely a place where nothing sounds grim, kvlt or trve. No frostbitten forests, mystical fjords, eerie mists, no place to inspire you for your every day church burning, not to mention the sheer heat can make your corpse paint melt faster than you can say 'land down under'. So it was surprising to get a release that has all the criteria to qualify as rotten, misanthropic and unholy enough to be labeled as a straight form Hell and still sizzling album.
This is In Memoriam, lll Omen, PESTILENTIAL SHADOWS; third release and they play what they call 'Anti-Human Plague Black Metal'. That's a lot to claim, too many cool words put together and I was curious on whether they'd live up to it or listen to yet another 1 hour of crap ambient and elf-prancing low budget keyboard blasts.
Luckily, they deliver. The Aussies are just as trve as the armpit hair of all the IMMORTAL guys put together. If you're a fan of good old fashioned 'let's run around the forest in corpsepainting and wield our swords while screaming words of hate' Black Metal, you're in for a slime-ridden, pestilential and diseased treat.
Don't expect any originality or something new, these guys ain't about it. All songs have great double guitar work, drumming and fitting growls, grunts and snarls (yeah, vocals) besides Ecclesia Moriendi, which is instrumental.  The production is just the way it should be for such a release. Cold, dry, straight to the point sound, without whistles and bells or crystal clear sound, just right.
PESTILENTIAL SHADOWS proves that you can just as well be grim and trve even if you're not surrounded by knee-high snow while watching the mist devouring your favorite frostbitten forest.