METALLIAN - Pestilential Shadows

Embrace After Death (The Fate Of All That Lives II) – 2005 - Asphyxiate
Cursed – 2006 – GoatowaRex
In Memoriam, Ill Omen – 2009 – Pulverised
Depths – 2011 - Seance
Ephemeral – 2014 - Seance
Revenant - 2021 - Seance
Devil's Hammer - 2024 - Northern Silence
Wretch - 2025 - Northern Silence/Brilliant Emperor

Members

Vocals

Secratain, Nazxul, Rift, Zaebros, Drowning The Light>>BALAM [LUKE MILLS]>>Nazxul, Rift, Zaebros, Drowning The Light – Baal Gadrial, Drowning The Light>>Meririm>>Baal Gadrial, Drowning The Light, Eternum, Black Funeral, Reich Of The Black Sun, Harvest, Wolfblood, Ghosts Of Oceania, Forgotten Kingdoms, Strigoii, Varcolaci

Guitar

Anwariad, Kinstrife & Blood, Secratain, Malice, Agailiarept, Nazxul, Rift, Rookwood, Drowning The Light, Varw>>BALAM [LUKE MILLS]>>Agailiarept, Nazxul, Rift, Rookwood, Zaebros, Drowning The Light, Varw – Austere, Ill Omen, Funeral Mourning, Perdition Oracle>>Desolate [Mitchell Keepin]>>Austere, Ill Omen, Funeral Mourning, Perdition Oracle, Temple Nightside, Funerary Torch, Dearthe, Unfelled – Wardaemonic, Advent Sorrow, Woewarden>>Somnus [Hrodrik André Segovia]>>Wardaemonic, Advent Sorrow, Woewarden - Erebus Enthroned>>Decay- Dearthe, Solo>>Krvna Vatra>>Dearthe, Solo - Burden Man>>Mourn [Justin Finch]>>Burden Man - Thraxas!, Deiformity>>DREKAVAC [ALEKS RADMANOVICH]>>Thraxas!, Deiformity

Bass

Nazxul, Ichor, Drowning The Light, Toil, ill Omen>>Wraith [Adrian Henderson]>>Nazxul, Drowning The Light, Frail, Toil, Ill Omen, Ravenous Dusk, Ichor - Gaap - Agailiarept, Rift, Zaebros, Ravenous Dusk, Varw>>Balam [Luke Mills]>>Rift, Ravenous Dusk, Varw - Metal, Lithik, Spherical, Bastardizer, Bane Of Isildur>>LITHUZ [RAY MCGILL]>>Lithik, Spherical, Bane Of Isildur

Drum

Lord, Grey Waters, Black Reign, Battalion, Austere, Simon Polhill, Nazxul>>Sorrow [Tim Yatras]>>Nazxul, Austere, Grey Waters, Germ, Blackened Angel, Autumn's Dawn, Ghost Tree – Autokannon, Nazxul, The Slow Death, Temple Nightside, Rookwood, Damarill, Illimitable Dolor, Backyard Mortuary, Crone, Horrisonous, Burden Man, Blasfemancia, Runespell>>BASILYSK [YONN MCLAUGHLIN]>>Autokannon, Nazxul, The Slow Death, Temple Nightside, Rookwood, Damarill, Illimitable Dolor, Backyard Mortuary, Crone, Horrisonous, Burden Man, Blasfemancia, Runespell

History & Biography

Pestilential Shadows was founded in Australia in 2002. Dark Icon distributed the band’s immediate demo The Fate Of All That Lives. The Putrify EP followed. The EP was featured on the band’s full-length debut, Embrace After Death (The Fate Of All That Lives II). Asphyxiate Recordings was an Australian label. Séance Records issued a split 7” single for the band and Corvus. The band embarked on a few Australian shows in support of Depths. Ephemeral was originally due in 2012. The Fate Of All That Lives: Impaled By The Moon was a 2019 compilation.

Revenant was a new album in late summer of 2021. Balam was also on bass. Devil's Hammer switched over to Northern Silence Productions. The label had signed the band to begin 2024. Guitarists Krvna Vatra and Mourn were new here. Northern Silence and Brilliant Emperor announced the band's new album Wretch for September of 2025. Lithuz had become the dedicated bassist as of 2024. Drekavac had joined on guitar. There was a video for the song Death-Knell. Northern Silence III festival in Germany, which had billed the band for 2025, was cancelled.

The band’s membership is fluid and, aside from Luke, changes monthly, but all members are required, per by-laws of the band, to be current or former members of Nazxul and/or to be active in two-dozen other bands simultaneously. The band is part of something called Order Of The Black Serpent. This band also has a Facebook page.

Reviews

PESTILENTIAL SHADOWS - IN MEMORIAM ILL OMEN - PULVERISED
Certainly the band’s name and the grim cover artwork portends an extreme version of black or death metal for which, of course, Pulverised Records is very well known. This band is indeed intense and nihilistic in approach and philosophy. Pestilential Shadows is a lot more about ambience and harmonies than those early indicators would allow.
Weapon Against The Sun begins the album and is abrasively fast and heavy, but beginning with the next track (Beautiful Demise) and on to songs like With Serpents I Lay, which incidentally has a beautiful bass sound, and Of Loss And Suffering Inherit the band gears to a more cruising version of intensity where the prevalent moods are gripping and pensive rather than crushing the bones in one swift attack. At times, fans of drone and funeral doom would find solace in the music. The odd synthesizer foray is shameful however. Nevertheless, the vocals remain abyssic and most tracks, like the aforementioned Of Loss And Suffering Inherit, typically re-emerge into something vicious and blazing. The band does combine the elements then. Ecclesia Moriendi is an instrumental in the above-described mould.
The band could be considered a mix of Darkthrone, Beherit and Opeth despite its Aussie (best reptiles, scorpions and shampoos in the world - the latter according to TV commercials) origins. - Ali "The Metallian"

Interviews

Pestilential Shadows