The Crowning Horror
2013 Agonia Records
Sweden's Pest have been kicking around for a while now, starting off as a black metal band, and then incorporating a more of a black/death sound with a hint of thrash on their last album, "Rest in Morbid Darkness." It's been quite a few years since that album, and my assumption was that they had called it a day at some point. Usually, as soon as I come to
this conclusion, I am proven wrong. And so it is in the case of Pest. Sure enough, here they are back with a new album after five years. They've changed their sound some, and now resemble what some might term "horror metal," similar to what Denial of God sound like these days. Believe it or not, but I also get the same feeling and vibe from this that the legendary split album between Necromantia and Varathron had, especially on "A Face Obscured by Death." On the other hand, "Devil's Mark" is very strongly in the vein of Sigh's "Scorn Defeat." Maybe the use of these influences was intentional, maybe it wasn't, but the end result is something that I would never have expected to hear from a Swedish band. Whatever the case may be, it's still put "The Crowning Horror" in place as one of my favorites of 2013.
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