Attempting to create continuity between older and newer works, Pestilence re-recorded a selection of “greatest hits” that leans hard on the more recent albums, as such compilations always tend to do. This proves an intelligent idea since it creates an album that sounds internally consistent and gives the band a chance to give these songs a more aggressive edge.
Levels of Perception features two songs from Testimony of the Ancients, two from Consvming Impvlse, and the rest from their last few albums. Not surprisingly they leave off Malleus Maleficarum, because on re-recording the Destruction-influenced sound of the new tracks matches the rough direction of that album.
In the end calculus the problem here is that the newer material is all very similar in theme where the older material bends the musical rules, and so despite attempts to conceal the jarring difference in the history of this band, this album simply makes me want to listen to Consvming Impvlse again.
