REVIEWED: Pathology - 'The Everlasting Plague'

Californian bruisers Pathology have been spewing out visceral chunks of slamming death metal at what you could consider a violent pace. ‘The Everlasting Plague’ marks album number eleven in a mere fifteen years, which is a rarely seen volume of output these days.

First seeing the light of the day in 2006 to the masses, Pathology’s modus operandi has wavered barely an inch. Dense and unrelenting brutality has always been the order of the day for them and it has served them well thus far. However on this album there is definitely an effort to layer in more subtleties and nuances. There’s moments of melody and a definite stronger dedication to a slightly more varied palate. Much like Katalepsy last year, this album definitely feels like a band turning a corner. Fans of the band up to this point however need not fret that Pathology have sold out, this is still very much a brutal death metal album, littered with gurn-inducing slams and hideous guttural vocals. The change here is more towards the likes of Cannibal Corpse and Broken Hope than anything drastic and it does very much feel like a beginning point of a metamorphosis rather than a completely new form. In fact, the change is delicate enough that if they decided not to take that route and return to all out slam then it wouldn’t be a jarring move at all.

All in all this is a strong output from a band with a lot to offer without doubt, but it has to be said, as with a lot of brutal death metal, sometimes it can just be a bit much over the course of a full album and the enjoyment of it as a complete piece of work can be very mood dependent. This is not a negative on the band in any shape or form; they achieve their mission statement with gusto and style, and despite this very minor gripe you know damn well that Pathology would be an absolute raging behemoth to watch live. The signs of development and growth within this record suggest that the best is yet to come.

7/10

'The Everlasting Plague' is out now via Nuclear Blast