From Bandcamp, “PESTNEBEL are back in fire and blood! With “Verfall,” their seventh album, the German Mlack Metal institution proves once again that they are among the most authentic advocates of uncompromising second-wave Black Metal. Or, as band leader Pestmeister puts it: "Raw old school Black Metal - as it has been since our beginnings. No compromises! Pure hate! PESTNEBEL stands for the decay and decline of mankind." The album has eight songs, and “Crypts of Antarctica” is first. The opening notes border on pure chaos, and it’s hard to untangle the web they weaver. The vocals are nothing short of horrid screams, and the riffs are thick and nasty.

“Blutweihe” is another song with the gas pedal held pushed to the ground and the guitars create that “wall of sound” that is infamous with the genre. However, it doesn’t have a lot of variation from the first song. “Night of the Final Damnation” is another aggressive song that literally tears flesh from bone, and the band shows no sign of slowing down. The drums move at an impossibly fast pace and the guitars and vocals leave trail of smoke behind in their wake. “Pestkolonne” is really the first song with a bit of variation. This song is slower, darker, and shorter, but still has a lot of intensity. “Tower of the Necromancer” is another song with a blistering pace, and a lot of thickness at both ends of the spectrum.

“In Feuer und Blut” is another song that burns a hole in your car and your tires melt into the ground below. It’s uncompromising, and contentious. “Summer of Suffering” is the final track, and also the longest. Although the entering riff is more discernable, it falls back into the trap of full steam ahead type of music.  As advertised, this is indeed raw, old school Black Metal. With as many variations of the genre that are present today, I have trouble with bands that want to hold onto the past, and not even gaze into the future. The future is today…now…and if you don’t embrace it, it will leave you behind, as this album does for me.