Autopsy – Thrash com H

“‘Consuming Impulse’ made Pestilence Hollands’ leading metal band and one of the prime players in the international death metal scene. A position that was cemented with a European tour with Autopsy and a series of concerts in America with Death. After that last tour Martin van Drunen left the band and joined Asphyx. Undeterred Pestilence returned to the US to record the third album in the famous Morrisound Studio in Tampa, Florida with the almighty Scott Burns himself. Patrick Mameli took over the vocal duties and American Tony Choy – known for his work with Cynic and later Atheist – was recruited for the bass parts. ‘Testimony Of the Ancients’ was another step forward. By adding melodic interludes Patrick Mameli pushed the boundaries of death metal in a way that was rarely heard before.

In May 1992 Pestilence played Europe with support act Monstrosity as part of the ‘Presence Of the Pest’ tour. It was the perfect preparation for what turned out to be the highlight of Pestilence’s existence. The band was asked to perform at the Dynamo Open Air festival in Eindhoven, Holland – at that time the most prestigious metal festival in Europe. It wasn’t an easy ride. Tony Choy wasn’t available due to his commitments back home. He was replaced by session player Jack Dodd. Patrick Mameli was still recovering from a motorcycle accident. And in the day itself Patrick Uterwijk had problems with his guitar and had to play on an instrument borrowed from his Monstrosity tour mates.

‘It was all quite nerve wrecking’, recalls Patrick Mameli. ‘Off course we knew this was going to be the one of the most important gigs of our life. It was pretty unique, a Dutch death metal band on this huge stage – I think we were one of the first. My parents and my sister were there. All the people from the record company. And a crowd of 40,000 metal heads. I remember I had a weird feeling in my stomach all day. Once we hit the stage it took a few songs to get rid of all the nerves. It turned out to be a fantastic gig. We made very little mistakes. Patrick Uterwijk played great on his borrowed guitar and the temporary bass player did and excellent job. The crowd was great that day – although it was hot as hell. I even requested water to be sprayed out over the first rows to cool things down a bit. The way that the crowd roared when we played ‘Out Of the Body’, our final song of that day, is something that I will never forget. As far as I could see people were totally into it. I remember walking off the stage soaking wet and thinking: what could possibly come after this?'”