Another savage death metal group from San Diego, Today I bring you Pathology and their latest death metal release titled “The Time Of Great Purification”. Having just released an album last year, the guys toured, hit the studio and put out another deadly album! Drummer Dave Astor (Locust, Cattle Decapitation) on drums, Vocalist Jonathan Huber (I Declare War), Guitarist Kevin Schwartz and Bassist Oscar Ramirez combine their murderous mentality and release this non-stop punishing mayhem of an album. Tons of crushing riffs, incredibly fast drumming and sinister vocals on this album to fulfill anyone’s need for a massive death metal release. Pathology’s sense of brutal death metal is actually a really good blend of ultra brutality and grooving slam. With a hint of technicality, the album holds your interests from front to back. High quality music and production makes this a fun album to listen to.
Dave’s drumming is impressive, tons of blasting at various speed and the man sometimes beats the shit out of the snare drum and even that itself will make you want to headbang. Execution, composition and speed makes for some incredible drumming throughout. Johnathan’s vocals are not a massive or wide range. There really are no high’s at all on this record and I’m OK with this. The two or three different low’s he does offers enough of a variety to not get bored while listening to the album and his low’s are remarkably good. Kevin’s riffs are simply just heavy as hell and his technique and style makes this band more so than just some plain old death/slam metal band. He keeps things heavy, has a certain brutal flow to his play style and overall his guitar playing is just respectably awesome. Oscar does the same on that bass, he usually plays along with the guitar because there is no real branching out with his play style. He holds down the rhythm down really well and adds some more power to the mix.
This is a powerhouse of just nothing but carnage. This album just tears you apart and leaves you bleeding on the ground. I found myself headbanging throughout the entire album, nothing got repetitive, annoying, boring or even uninteresting. Each song has a certain groove to it but then again each song also has a different sense of character about it. I’d have to give Kevin credit for this as the guitar riffs on each song are just gnarly and enjoyable. Yes, there are some simple slam parts but his writing style doesn’t allow it to repeat itself. His slight technical death metal side takes over here and there and the combination of the two styles blended in with Dave’s intensity makes for one of the heaviest albums of the year.
I’m completely blown away and I recommend this to anyone who is a fan of crushing death metal.