It's been quite some time since the last time that we have posted and while our other social media sites have had a little more action on them we've not advertised any new music in a like 5 months. In this time Pestilent Age has been busy finishing up 5 more singles to release as well as dipping our toes into regional touring as an effort to keep moving forward as band. Booking out of state shows has proven difficult but we're excited to announce we are making steady progress in this regard. Our new singles we'll be releasing will (as you'll hear shortly) also be a major step into a slightly more mature song writing direction as we have been able to zoom in to what works best when the 3 of us write music. This blog entry is an effort for us to fill all of our fans in on what exactly Pestilent Age has been up since the release of our last single "Nationalistic Savagery" and what to expect from us in the last half of 2018.
Pestilent Age has been playing shows in Michigan all summer. Expanding our venues and cities we play is important to us and we wanted to do that this year more than ever. We had a very successful show in Saginaw and Kalamazoo that yielded some great connections and new friends. We also were lucky enough to score a gig with Midwest metal heroes The Convalescence in Toledo Ohio and Accursed Creator. Ohio gave this band an extremely warm welcome and we can't wait to come back.
As previously mentioned this band is almost ready to release 5 new singles. On Friday August 24th the first of these 5 songs entitled "Self-Righteous Self-Serving Interest", will go up on all major download and streaming services. Similar to "Nuclear Winter", "Self-Righteous Self-Serving Interest" channels our fondness of black metal into our song writing to sculpt a sonic landscape rich in ambient chord progressions and up-tempo blast beats. "Self-Righteous Self-Serving Interest" will also be our first single to utilize keyboards within the song writing process. The effects of our new instrument choice are subtle, but they have really proven useful when trying to fill out the sound spectrum.
Lyrically "Self-Righteous Self-Serving Interest" pertains to mankind's fascination with short term gains and rewards despite real world long term consequences. Our species role in global warming and the glutinous depletion of natural resources leaves us in an ever-growing threat to societies very wellbeing and existence. The United State's insertion into global conflict to justify the heavily tax subsidized military industrial complex often results in destabilized areas around the world, which in turn hinders a developing nation's ability to use it's resources wisely and more efficiently. Much of the time organizations choose to ignore the grave consequences of their decisions entirely and pass the problem down for future citizens to grapple with. These concepts are more evident today than ever before. The systems we live and work under today, more than ever seem to be called into question time and time again and for that reason we believed this topic deserving of our attention and at the very least a song.
The 4 songs that will follow "Self-Righteous Self-Serving Interest" will feature a more straight forward death metal sound similar to what was written on our debut album Medieval Holocaust. This time around however we display a bit more finesse when it comes to arranging a song. These 4 tracks seem to breathe, building tension then releasing it at the right moment has become our focal point, giving our music a more mature sound.
2 of the 4 singles following "Self-Righteous Self-Serving Interest" adhere to a very old school approach to death metal song structure. Sludgy palm muted riffs blanket a wall of double bass that sit underneath guttural lows. 1 song will have a very modern death metal feel with riffage based off of notes trailing seamless into one another with a plethora of tails to keep things from stagnating. The final song doesn't really have a definitive genre you could catalog it under. I mix of newer and older death metal traits shine through its simple yet catchy phrasings.
While the musical aspect of these singles will highlight an enormous step forward for this band, the clearest of improvements will be heard on Roach's vocals. Both performance and arrangement in the writing process of Pestilent Age will be on clear display through the rest of 2018 and beyond. All 3 members of this band have made a major progress with their roles in Pestilent Age and we're excited to show the world just how far we've come.
Last but not least, we finally have a new short design for you guys based on our artwork for these singles. The Flint logo shirts have been printed and while be released to the public early next week. You can look through all of our music and merch right on our website.