Thaumaturgy is a curious case, beginning as a minimalistic one-man doom metal project with USBM influences before violently shedding that style in favor of narrative death metal. With two added members on vocals, the band now moves fluidly between various styles within the death metal tradition while maintaining a black metal sense of atmosphere that drifts toward tragedy.
Gone is the slow, reverbed, and bassy production of past album Tenebrous Oblations, replaced instead with a more neutral production that makes the music audible without any particular thrills. The biggest surprise here are the vocals in the style of Martin van Drunen, a desperate howl that, while well performed, often feels completely out of place with the nature of the riffs. During the more emotional climactic parts, however, it fits perfectly, and the interplay with KT’s more traditional growls truly lifts some of these songs, though fortunately the vocals are never the album’s focal point. Of note too is the heavy use of synths that function as palette cleansers between songs and appear prominently in conclusive passages such as “Awaken Ares,” pushing the underlying sentiment to the front and emphasizing the tragic quality of the music.
The album’s greatest strength is how it incorporates different death metal styles into a coherent narrative that feels greater than the sum of its parts and doesn’t lose focus despite how many styles the band explores. “Neuroticism Triumphant” is the perfect microcosm of what makes Pestilential Hymns work, showcasing harsh transitions between death metal traditions, a short breakdown is all that separates an Immolation riff from a section reminiscent of Demigod’s Slumber of Sullen Eyes. One guitar panned right repeats a melody while the left shifts from a chugging Bolt Thrower-esque pattern to a sparse, arpeggiated black metal melody. The band cleverly brings back the right-panned melody during the song’s climax. The repetition of a motif under different forms and the understanding of momentum are death metal’s key components, just as important as the idea of the riff itself, and Thaumaturgy handles both exceptionally well.
All in all, Pestilential Hymns isn’t particularly innovative, but it overcomes this with a solid understanding of what constitutes good metal, using tried and tested ideas in unfamiliar permutations that give these songs their own identity. Unlike the death metal revival bands that sought only to emulate their idols without much thought, thus missing the point and making death metal unexciting, Thaumaturgy remains true to the spirit of death metal by maintaining the energy and, more importantly, transmitting strong emotions.
