Wednesday 6 March 2019

PESTA ~ FAITH BATHED IN BLOOD .... REVIEW


It has been three years since Pesta assailed our auditory senses with "Bring Out Your Dead" and in that time the only sign of life, for those of us living outside of their Brazilian homeland, was the release of "Nightmare" a cover song first recorded by their fellow countrymen Sarcófago. Well the wait is finally over and Pesta, Thiago Cruz (vocals), Marcos Resende (rhythm/lead guitars), Daniel Rocha (rhythm guitar), Anderson Vaca (bass) and Flávio Freitas (drums), are back with a brand new album, "Faith Bathed In Blood", and its a beauty!


Having had no dialogue with the band or read any press releases prior to this new release Desert Psychlist cannot confirm, or for that matter deny, if "Faith Bathed In Blood" is based around some form of concept but given its title and its intelligent and well written lyrical references to cultism, religious fervour and paganist rituals it would very much seem that there is a common theme, if not a concept, linking each song to the next.
Musically "Faith Bathed In Blood" comes from the more "proto" end of the doom spectrum but before we start bandying around clichés like"Sabbath-esque" and Iommi worship" lets just say that songs like "Witches' Sabbath" (featuring guitar solo from guest musician Gustavo Bracher),"Hand of God" and "The Prayer" (also featuring Gustavo Bracher on slide) probably come from a place a little closer to the territories of Pentagram, Buffalo and Iron Claw than that of Black Sabbath. Cruz's strong clean and impassioned vocals are also far removed from sounding anywhere near Ozzy-ish and possess a clarity and tone, that in these days of growled bellows and demonic wailing, comes as a pleasant and welcome change. Cruz's impressive voice is framed by some equally impressive guitar work from Rocha and Resende, the pair laying down a blend of thick riffage and searing lead work that is forcefully backed up by Vaca's earthy growling bass and Freitas' solid but fluid percussion, the four instrumentalists combining to create a sound that although a little shy of crushing is nonetheless damn heavy


Desert Psychlist has no idea what Pesta were up to for that three year period spent between albums but if Pesta used that time to write, record and fine tune the eight songs that make up "Faith Bathed In Blood" then that was three years very well spent and worth the lengthy wait.
Check it out ….

© 2019 Frazer Jones

No comments:

Post a Comment