The Czech band Pandemia has been around for a while, and us old farts would know, seeing as we even reviewed their 1998 demo. Oh, simpler times…
Now, so many years later, Pandemia is back with their sixth album, a decade after their previous effort, ‘At the Gates of Nihilism’. Both the crisp sound and the songwriting have propelled their Death Metal into 2025, so in that regard, Pandemia isn’t a band that’s stuck in the past purely for the sake of sounding Old School.
However, the foundation of Pandemia’s Death Metal undeniably remains rooted in the late ’90s, early 2000s. In terms of riffs and song progression, you’ll hear echoes of Vader, more recent Deicide offerings, Lost Soul’s ‘Übermensch (Death of God)’, and moments of Pestilence from both ‘Testimony of the Ancients’ and their post-reunion material. Mind you, it doesn’t quite have the melodic lines of Pestilence; the first three bands mentioned are still the main blueprint in that department.
‘Darkened Devotion’ is anything but poor and leaves a solid impression.
