Pathology - Legacy of the Ancients

I almost saw Pathology the second time I saw Nile. But unfortunately their bus got wrecked and they had no way to move on in the tour due to minor injuries amongst the band members and an immobilized bus. I was pretty disappointed in that because I was looking forward to seeing them. Pathology has become one of the top dogs in the underground brutal metal scene, releasing a new album every year since their sophomore release in 2008. One thing that you may notice is that they’ve had five different vocalists, I haven’t gone into enough research to make this an accurate statement but it seems like they’ve had a different vocalist for each album. And it seems like it because the vocals on each of their albums sound different.

The theme of this album (and of Age of Onset) seems to be post-apocalyptic/zombie style. There are some sci-fi themes expressed in a few of the songs like “Code Injection” and “Saturn Brotherhood”. At least they’ve chosen to strive in the creative direction of things instead of sticking to the overused blood/gore theme. Although something that you should know about me is that I’m not one that particularly pays much attention to the lyrics, it’s actually very difficult for me; my ears get sucked into the music part more than what the vocalist is saying.

The drumming isn’t super impressive; his blast-beats aren’t the best I’ve heard, and the majority of his drumming seems to revolve around the slowish double-kicking and the snare. This band is one of the many bands that have started to incorporate very prominent breakdowns in their music, which is just how I like it. I do though, like how the drums don’t drown out the rest of the band. So thumbs up to the mixer/producer.

There is a lot of bass in this record that gives it that nice n’ juicy sound that us bass junkies love. The guitars are down-tuned and not too high-pitched, the bass guitar is turned up loud and tuned down deep, and this earns the album many points. They actually use that bass boom thing that the drummer hits at the beginning of some of the breakdowns, most notably in “Saturn Brotherhood”.

The vocalist on this album is actually really good. Like I’ve said in my last couple of reviews, the whole inhaled vocals thing is getting kind of old. But these vocals really fit the sound of the album perfectly. Everything is really deep and low-pitched, which is what I love most about this album. So overall, this is a pretty damn tasty record that’s a treat to the ears. I rated this album 16/20.