Pathology - Incisions of Perverse Debauchery

Having been in the brutal metal mood for the past week, I think it’s time to get some more underground brutal death album reviews out there. Pathology is currently one of the biggest brutal death bands out there that have still stuck with the underground brutal slamming style (the biggest probably being either Dying Fetus or Devourment). Pathology has also continued to be one of the most influential “slamming death” bands out there. I’m one of those people that strongly enjoy all of Pathology’s records, but I think that none are as good as Incisions of Perverse Debauchery. With the very successful release of Surgically Hacked under my favorite brutal death label, Amputated Vein, Pathology started getting offers from bigger labels that wanted to take the band to the next level. After a bit of touring here and there without many updates on the status of a sophomore record, Pathology threw out Incisions of Perverse Debauchery out into the public. The funny thing is that word about this album took longer to spread than Surgically Hacked, but after word about this brutal record finally did get around, Pathology’s fan base exploded.

Usually, a band’s breakthrough record gets close to immediate positive feedback. But with Pathology, it wasn’t really this particular album that is responsible for their “breakthrough” because that didn’t happen until several months after the album’s release. After Incisions was released, Pathology has released an album each year. This is probably made possible because they don’t really tour a lot.

For those of you that absolutely cannot stand inhaled vocals, go away, this isn’t for you. For those of you that can either tolerate or already enjoy inhaled growls, the vocals on this album have a very moist and sickening sound (that being a positive description) that matches the sickening brutality of the music and artwork. Out of all the vocalists that this band has had (it seems like a different vocalist on each album), this is by far my favorite because his growls have grit and juiciness at the same time. You can hear the guttural, moist sound; and you can also hear a lot of roughness in his growls. Sort of like putting small gravel rocks on a REALLY thick, bloody, juicy steak.

I can’t seem to decide if I like the guitar distortion or the vocals more. Probably the vocals because that’s not as easily changeable as the guitar distortion; but the guitars sound extremely crunchy like a handsaw cutting through metal. It’s more than possible to have guitars be TOO crunchy, because the gritty treble can overpower the rest of the sound, making it annoying. But in this case, you can hear the presence of the powerful crunch in the guitars, but it seems that they turned the treble way down so that you can actually hear what the guitars are playing. This is exactly what I like to hear in this kind of music. The drums are fantastic and I couldn’t ask for anything different other than that they could be turned down at some parts because they drown out the vocals in some of the songs. The drummer specifically isn’t any better than your average brutal death drummer. But regardless, the drummer still fits the bill to make this album awesome.

Incisions of Perverse Debauchery is my favorite Pathology record. I wouldn’t recommend this to people not already familiar with the brutal death scene because although this album is great, it’s not what I would consider to be the best first impression. I would give this album 17/20.