Pathology - The Time Of Great Purification
The fifth outing for Victory Records' San Diego troopers Pathology is more of the same strangely melodic grindcore. Trading (still) on the names The Locust and the ever awesome Cattle Decapitation - the link being drummer Dave Astor - this lot present the idea of tamed savagery again. It's another album of music that might just fit at one end of the collection of a Dillinger Escape Plan fan.
Lacking the randomness of the former, or the sheer unadulterated brutal, blasted assaults of the later of the aforementioned bands, Pathology instead fuse a lot more sounds from the historical archives of metal. There is everything from Deicide to Obituary to elements of 1990s industrial metal and it shows in the juxtaposition they have between savagery and being (at times) much easier on the ear than a lot of their peers. Take track Distorted Conscious - a sub two minute instrumental interlude on the record – which demonstrates that distinctive Victory tinge of lead-driven metalcore and a multitude of speed changes. That track goes straight into the very old school sounding A Bleak Future - all recycled early 90's Death band 4 note riffs and thrash sensibilities.
The album isn't quite up to the standard of last year's Awaken To The Suffering, simply because that record has a couple more truly memorable tunes on it (nothing on this record is as good as Hostility Towards Conformity), but it benefits from a superior recording quality to anything the band has put out to date. It's not going to surprise anyone that is already a fan of any of the San Diego based family tree of bands, but it is another Pathology album that almost strikes me as Grindcore for those who don't always like Grindcore. Oh - you know what I mean.