Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Pathology - Legacy of the Ancients

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Band: Pathology
Album: Legacy of the Ancients
Genre: Brutal Death Metal

Releasing now their fourth full-length album, brutal death metal band Pathology brings some heavy and technical riffs to the table with "Legacy of the Ancients."  But are those riffs good enough to stick out in a sea of brutal death metal bands already going strong?  Here's your answer:

Going into this album, I didn't have very high expectations.  These guys being on Victory Records just kind of rubbed me the wrong way.  Generally, Victory tends to churn out the "metal" bands that have more hardcore influence than legit metal influence.  Don't get me wrong.  I love me some Between The Buried and Me, but that's neither here nor there.  Regardless, my hunch was correct.  Though brutal death metal tends to sound a lot like deathcore at times, this album has some indisputably stupid breakdowns on it accompanied by some misplaced two-steps off of a Killwhitneydead release, which is a disappointment, because it also has some pretty decent slams and technical riffs to it.  Unfortunately, none of these riffs or slams are overly memorable.  A lot of the time you wonder if you are still listening to the same track you were listening to three minutes ago.  Though slam and brutal death metal have a tendency to sound similar from song to song, bands like Vulvectomy do a good job at setting the bar with memorable, responsible slams that let you know you aren't just listening to filler tracks.

Though the tracks themselves are definitely lacking in some fundamental musical structure and writing, I have to say, all the instruments on this album are pretty tight sounding.  The drums have a nice distinguished sound that blend well with the guitars.  All the tones on this album sound heavy, and crisp. But, in honesty, they do lack personality in some respects.  The bass was surprisingly audible, and I really appreciated that factor of the album.  It added an element of heaviness to the album, which in turn added some overall fun to the album.  The number one praise I have for this album is the skills of the front man for the band.  he has some great guttural growls on this album, and it was definitely the most brutal aspect of the album, hands down.

My final gripe about this album is that...the production is too well done.  Brutal death metal should be a gritty, disgusting sounding genre.  There is a reason it gets so much flack, and the true fans of it revel in the fact that it sounds revolting.  The album is simply too polished for a weathered brutal death listener to get into.  So, as this may be looked at as a perk to some who are newer to the genre, the remainder of the listeners will feel somewhat displeased if you enjoy your brutal death in the vain of Devourment.

The only way I would really recommend this album would be to someone who is either new to metal in general (Which I may even hesitate to do), or someone who is new to brutal death metal as a genre.  The contributions that this album makes are very minimal and are so close to being deathcore that is a disappointment.  But, in all fairness, what this album lacks in a lot of spots, makes up for to some degree in energy and a general sense of stupid fun.  So I can't completely dislike it, but I can come damn close.

Score: 6/10

3 comments:

  1. The vocals are the best part because Matti Way is the fucking man.

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  2. Age of Onset is a masterpiece and the old albums are good, but this album is just awful. :[
    They have chose to become a Deathcore band by signing to Victory Records.
    They got it, the music video is ridiculous(suicide silence like), they are wearing like 17 years old wiggers in their new promo pictures, Pathology is officially dead.

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