Rating: 9.0

Country: Netherlands

Release Date: 2005

Record Label: Iron Pegasus

Track list:
1. Into The Fiery Jaws
2. Raise The White Ensign!
3. March Of The Campbletown
4. A Devil’s Shooting Gallery
5. The Utmost Desolation
6. (Storming Through) A Hail Of Steel
7. The Last Fight (ML 306’s Stand)
8. Awaiting The Blast Of Death

Band Website: Pentacle

Pentacle - Under The Black Cross

Wannes Gubbels- Bass/Vocals
Robert Smissaert- Drums
Mike Verhoeven- Guitars
Alex Verhoeven- Guitars

With the ascent of black metal's second wave, it appears that many of metal's foremost cynics have been more than eager to declare death metal's demise, denouncing it as a juvenile fad lacking in substantive musical and ideological value. Of course, when one examines death metal from a strictly superficial, cosmetic level, such claims might indeed hold some weight- saturated with two-bit Suffocation clones, haphazard Carcass/General Surgery mimicry and chops-over-songwriting pseudo-technical post-Cryptopsy-isms, the death metal of today is a far echo from an aeon when Demigod and Asphyx sat high above their long-haired subjects. Yet, for one to gauge death metal's relevance upon such criterion would be fallacious and tragic, for an entire host of bands have been steadily fanning the embers once kindled by the ancient deities, bearing the torch for CULT DEATH METAL and hoisting it into the new epoch.

Of all these bands, arguably none is more convincing and more gutwrenchingly genuine than Holland's Pentacle, who have, across a lengthy but somewhat unprolific career, established themselves at the very forefront of traditional death metal. A project of the irrepressible, inimitable Wannes Gubbels, the last vocalist to feature in the legendary ranks of Asphyx, Pentacle have always proudly upheld tenets cemented by contemporaries like Thanatos, Pestilence, Sinister and God Dethroned, yet for some mystifying reason have failed to reach the stratospheric commercial heights attained by such bands. Instead, their stellar but infrequent output has rendered them an utterly cult proposition, savored exclusively by the most devoted worshippers of death metal. One can only hope that this record will alter that, because FUCK, it absolutely obliterates.

If your conception of death metal involves a flurry of involved fretboard runs, bass solos, continually shifting tempos, triggered blastbeats and progressive song structures, you would be best advised to impale yourself upon a pole at this instant, because you have no business listening to death metal! This is death metal of the very purest strain- bludgeoning, venomous, merciless and most importantly DISCIPLINED. Everything here is fiercely controlled and oppressive, every second is painstakingly orchestrated to yield the maximum pummeling force- kick drums thud like sledgehammers to the cranium, guitars are tense and skinflayingly sharp, Wannes' larynx-shredding vocals erupt with unnerving violence. The focus here is on being as obnoxiously, densely HEAVY as humanly possible, the band acutely conscious of the fact that brutality and speed are not necessarily synonymous with one another. Instead, intensity is amplified through a marauding, mid-paced approach, allowing the band to infuse each note and bar with malicious menace. To listen to Pentacle is akin to having the wind knocked out of you before you are assaulted with successive blows to the head

What one may notice upon first listen is that this record feels much more urgent and insistent than '…Rides The Moonstorm', the band ditching more deliberate Asphyx/Celtic Frost structures for a more straightforward approach. Where earlier works referenced the very roots of death metal, incorporating virulent sludge with 'The Rack' type tendencies, this record is much more aligned with the likes of early Pestilence than anything doomy and foreboding. There also appears to be a nod towards the Morrisound scene in its infancy, as well as a few knowing smirks that smack mischievously of Sunlight's glory days, particularly in many of the barreling, propulsive rhythms and genuinely sinister guitar harmonics. Everything here absolutely reeks of death metal's most glorious era, when double bass was employed sparingly, adding violent dimension to a track instead of clicking incessantly in the background, when riffs were fleshed out instead of being alternated every ten seconds, when songs were SONGS, not a hodge-podge pastiche of cut-and-paste ideas. This is a fucking death metal record, not a progressive rock/fusion jazz record, not a flamenco record, and we can all revel in its naked, honest beauty.

Of course, one invariably will mourn the loss of the Soulburn-oriented Pentacle, who are wholly absent save for a passage that surfaces 2:10 through “A Devil's Shooting Gallery” and shifts into a 'Morbid Tales' worshipping section at the 3 minute mark. Elsewhere, this is an entirely different entity altogether, far more linear and uniform in approach, extrapolating and magnifying the thrashier slant of their earlier work and excluding the doomy breaks altogether. Whether you receive this well or not is largely insignificant, for the material presented within is no less vital, no less genuine. Think of this new chapter of Pentacle's career as one similar to the new direction adopted by Usurper and Cianide, both of whom have moved on from more derivative fare to sculpt something much more distinguished. Where one might have accused Asphyx and Pentacle as being far too similar for comfort, THIS is the record that separates the two legends. This is truly the work of consummate veterans, not some studied gimmicky revivalist stuff like Bloodbath or Chaosbreed, a beautifully bestial burst of bombastic barbarity that surely ranks alongside the new Kaamos and Mortem as the finest death metal you will hear this year.

July 15th, 2005