AD: So how's it all going?

Patrick: It's been fucking amazing man! The crowds on the tour have been big and huge. We've done like three shows so far, and it's been fully packed! I've been seeing a bunch of people wearing our T-shirts, and it's amazing that people are still into us after fifteen years.

AD: So what's the buzz like being back out on the road again?

Patrick: It's been amazing. I didn't know that us coming back would be that big. I'm so happy with it man! Pestilence has been so good to me so it's good to see!

AD: You must look back at the four albums that you released during the late eighties/early nineties with a lot of pride? There's a lot of variety there!

Patrick: We're really proud about the first three albums! But the thing that gets into my mind is that I feel really bad about “Spheres” (Pestilence's fourth album – which received a mixed reception). I think that “Spheres” was a good album, but people did not pick up on it at the time, but now it's becoming a bit of a cult album as well. We really like to play a lot of the older stuff, and back then Pestilence was one of the forefathers of death metal and on top of the game you know?

AD: Do you think Spheres was maybe a little too experimental for that time when death metal was saturated with old school death? Do you think it would have probably been better received in today’s era of metal?

Patrick: Definitely yeah! The new album “Resurrection Macabre” should have been the album that we did right after Testimony of the Ancients, but we kind of fucked up on that one you know!! People didn't really like Spheres, so when we were writing for the new album, we were like, we got to write something that is appealing to the fans.

AD: Has the reformation of Pestilence something that has been a recent idea or has it always been playing on your mind?

Patrick: It has been something that has always been on my mind. I did the C-187 project. I thought that was going to be big, but that was bashed by the fans. People kept on asking me about Pestilence, so I was like, this is a big thing you know, so you have to work with that. I'm stigmatized with Pestilence. It's in my blood, you know!!! I can only write Pestilence riffs. Even with the C-187 project, some of the riffs coming out there were all Pestilence. So, I decided to try to come back with a vengeance.

AD: What's it like having Patrick (other guitarist and present on three of their four previous albums) back in the band, and is he going to be full time after the tour?

Patrick: He's definitely going to be a permanent member, but as far as the process of writing, it's always been me, and I'm always going to continue doing it like that. But I want him to be part of the game. Always.

AD: I think that one of the strengths were the duelling solos between you two guys.

Patrick: His solo playing is so melancholic. It's just so full of melody. This guy is just full of talent. For the next album, I'm just going to let him go ahead and do his leads and all that because he's just a fucking god!

AD: It must have been good getting Peter on board in the drum position as well?

Patrick: Peter is something else! He will be the next Sean Reinert. The only person around in death metal that can be as good as Sean Reinert is Peter. He will be up there with the best. He is definitely the main man. He will be on the next album for sure.

AD: What was the inspiration for getting the band back together and also for the music on the new album?

Patrick: Well. Not being into the scene for about fifteen years made me feel like... well I haven't been doing this shit for quite a while, I feel like “I've got to do this shit again because it's in my blood!”. I felt the desire to do this again, and I started writing riffs and talking to people and it was like “Let's make this happen!” I knew that I was going to get Peter on drums and Patrick on guitar. So, I knew that I had to get somebody good on bass and Tony Choy is the main man. There was the quality right there!! I had a winning team together, so we did it!

AD: How long was the writing process for Resurrection Macabre?

Patrick: It was like a year. I did some riffing and some programming on Cubase, and then tried to put it together to make it work. It sounded just awesome, and it was just trying to get the musicians and the right musicians to do the job. It just all came together perfectly.

AD: Did it help having a break away from the scene? Does it make you fresher?

Patrick: Right, right. That's what happened to us. We were so fed up with the scene at one point. It was like “What the fuck?” Everybody was judging you. We tried to come up with something new in Spheres, and that got the shit bashed out of it. So we were like “Oh my god!” Fifteen years passed and we knew that we had to come up with something good, and that's the new album.

AD: The production on the new album is certainly top quality. It has that typical Pestilence sound.

Patrick: We had our usual style riffing, but I think that we lifted it up to 2009 with Jacob Hansen who did the production. Even better than it was before.

AD: I was going to ask, "Horror Detox” sounds like a follow on from “The Secrecies of Horror”. In fact, the album sounds like an amalgam of Consuming and Testimony.

Patrick: You're the first one to say that shit, but it's true. I kind of grabbed the best of every style and moulded it into a new style. Definitely. And “Horror Detox” is a moulding between Consuming and Testimony, as you said.

AD: Resurrection Macabre has the brutality, but it also has the hooks, which are pretty essential.

Patrick: We've always tried to do that you know? We always try to divide the song into a beginning, a middle section and an ending. That's very important for us. A lot of the newer bands come out with some amazing riffing, but the song has got to have a beginning, middle and an end. You always know in our songs when that chorus is coming up, and it gives a chance for the crowd to get involved and sing along you know? That's what it's all about.

AD: Where to next after the tour of Europe?

Patrick: We got to do some shows in Greece, then the Maryland Deathfest and after that it's onto the major European festivals. It's going to be fucking huge!

AD: How do you rate the scene compared to back in the early nineties?

Patrick: The scene back then was way more true to the style of old school death when compared to now you know? Cos, back then it was all about Florida. Now, anyone can record an album, anywhere, and do their thing, you know? Whether it's on Cubase or pro-logic or whatever. But the thing that I think is, cramming twenty different riffs into one song does not make a good song. It all has to do with the feeling within the song. I think that has been lost a bit. It's much better to have three of four good riffs in a song than twenty different but poor riffs.

AD: Is technology allowing bands to record that maybe shouldn't be?

Patrick: Yeah man! It's taking over! Now you can do this copy and paste thing you know and everybody can do this!

AD: So we can safely say that you're enjoying the tour then?

Patrick: Oh yeah! I love it man! I love it! I love being embraced again by the death metal scene. Since being one of the forefathers along with someone like Chuck Schuldiner. Being there from the beginning, it's just good to be embraced once more!

AD: Can you see the style moving on from Resurrection Macabre?

Patrick: You always want to top the shit that you've done before, so that this stuff that I'm writing right now is even more brutal than the stuff before it. People understand Pestilence as being a brutal band, so it you come up with a “Spheres” album then that's not going to work, so you know, the next one will be more brutal than the rest of the shit!

AD: Well. It's been good talking to you and have a good gig!

Patrick: Cheers man! Enjoy the show!

Check out Pestilence's new album “Resurrection Macabre”. It's a good comeback for them if you like a 2009 version of old school death done well and boy they can play live too!!!

For more on the band check out http://www.pestilence.nl
http://www.myspace.com/pestilence1

Interviewed by Andy Duke

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