Album In Review: Pathology- Reborn to Kill

by Annie · August 6, 2019

Who is Pathology?

Pathology comes from San Diego, CA an area I know pretty well considering I went to school in the North SD County area. These guys popped up right before I graduated, but I was not in the death metal scene quite yet. I discovered their music years later when they released The Time of Great Purification (2012)

There have been loads of line up changes throughout the years but the music and founding member Dave Astor still remain. They utterly destroy the glass houses of main stream music to bring you the ultimate face-fucking brutal experience that your soul needs to set itself ablaze and reach its melting point.

Not too long ago they wrapped up recording their new album. They teased us with a single drop on July 5th with Hieroglyphs on Cement Walls which stands on its own. Reborn to Kill is set to release on all platforms August 9th. (Pre-orders are still available.)

Knowing that they could not disappoint me I pre-ordered 2 signed copies of the new CD along with more band t shirts …because you really can’t have enough band T-shirts. Getting to take a sneak peak thanks to Pavement Entertainment to review this bad boy …. I have NO REGRETS with ordering multiple copies. It had me Frothing at the Mouth . This thing is PURE BRUTAL FUCKING FIRE!!!!

Members:

Dave Astor – Drums

Obie Flett – Vocals

Ricky Jackson – Bass

Dan Richardson – Guitars

Label: Pavement Entertainment

Produced & Mastered: Zack Ohren at Sharbite Studios

Album Artwork: Pär Olofsson

Genre: Brutal Death Metal

Release Date: 08/09/2019

Available On:All platforms on 08/09/2019

Tracklist for “Reborn to Kill”

01. Hieroglyphs on Cement Walls

02. Forced Regression

03. The Beast Within

04. Frothing At The Mouth

05. Empathy Ends

06. Dragged Into The Cave

07. Pit of Bones

08. The Druids Gavel

09. Crematorium Flames

10. Stone Axe Dismemberment

11. Predation

12. Celestial Condemnation

Last week they officially released the video for Track #3 “The Beast Within” on Slam Worldwide (Video filmed by Jeff Forrest). It has been well received by the masses so far. No fancy gimmicks or story in this video just them doing their thing in the best way possible.

Now lets get down to the nitty gritty….

Into The Pit Ranking –

Writing: 4.0/5.0

You can hear the attention to detail that went into writing of each part to make one thing complimented the other seamlessly while bringing that super heavy raw sound that they are known for. There is definitely something to be said for The Beast Within as a whole and the guitar in particular during Empathy Ends.

I do wish some of the tracks were slightly longer given that only 3 of the tracks pass the 3 minute mark. But that may be my melodic death metal side coming out and spilling over into the brutal slam realm where sub-180 second tracks are the bread and butter of this mostly underground sub-genre of Metal.

Historically the band has stuck to the 180 seconds or less format for majority of their tracks on previous releases. Legacy of the Ancients(2010) had 4 tracks over the 3 minute mark while Age of the Onset (2010) and Awaken To The Suffering (2011) had 5, Ironically the album that first introduced me to the band The Time of Great Purification (2012) ) only has 1 track , while their self titled release Pathology (2017) has a whopping 7 over that threshold. .

Production/Mix/ Master: 4.5/5.0

The vocals were not overly condensed the drums were not over powering the guitar and the guitar was not drowning out the vocals. The bass perfectly complimented each of the other 3 as it is meant to. A lot of albums that I listen to have one thing that could be balanced better but the sound was consistent and not overly layered with backing tracks or polishing effects, maintaining the same raw terrifying brutal feel that you get from them when the play live.

From laptop speakers to head phones to my Bluetooth speakers in my home sound system the quality of sound maintained its integrity. I am looking forward to blasting it in my truck stereo as well. The masses in the traffic of Las Vegas are in for a brutal awakening 😉 .

Overall: 4.25/5.0

Final Thoughts –

While the songs might be shorter than your average power metal melodic ballad, they hit you in the chest like the club of a bridge troll when you fail to sneak your way past without paying the toll. Every song assaults your ears in a different way bringing a variety of grisly guttural growling pleasantries to your brain. Front to back this bludgeoned body of work is glorious.

I can’t even pick a favorite track off this album. As soon as I got a hold of it I was listening to it on a giant loop and I honestly can’t get enough of it. While doing this review I did go back and listen to ALLLL of their previous projects for a comparison and I can honestly say that this is one of the best releases yet from this band. I could listen to Dave and Dan do their drum and string dance all day long… I mean ….I literally just did exactly that. I am looking forward to continuing to see them perform live and follow their music as it continues to evolve and make its blood stained mark on the industry even bigger.