Pathology - The Time Of Great Purification

Pathology have been around for 6 years and have released 5 albums in that time, including this weeks release of The Time Of Great Purification, and basic math tells us comes to almost an album a year. These gents are quite busy suffice to say it, and like any well to do metal band they tour pretty non stop. I didn't really start listening to them until last years release Awaken To Suffering, and by listening I should say I gave them a quick listen but have never been truly drawn into them.

Pathology have always been a double edge sword for me. I really dig the instrumentation on their albums, it's heavy as all get out, fast, and pretty often contains some solid guitar solo's. But there's one semi large disconnect for me, which lies in Jon Huber's voice. I should state from the get go that Pig Squeals are no where near my favorite kind of vocal style. I can stand them in small bits and at times they fit the music really well, but when all you do is Pig Squeals and Gurgles, it gets a little on the 'meh' side of things. I said in my review of Becoming The Archetype's new album that the vocalist is the most accessible part of a band for most people and when you can't discern a single complete lyric it definitely makes a disconnect.

Now I will admit to some degree this didn't bother me as much on this new record as it has in their previous work, but I'm going to attest that again to the musicianship of the other band members and the pretty solid instrumentation work found herein. Now this really does just come down to an opinion, and obviously you may love Jon Huber's vocal style, and if you do that's awesome, it's just not really for me. Or maybe you're one of the people who feel the vocalist isn't all that important anyways (Here's looking at you Metalsucks.)

Now that I got that out of the way lets move onto the things that work on this album. The guitar work doesn't stray too far from already established sounds in comparison with the genre of brutal death metal itself, but sticking to the norms of the genre can work out pretty well. There are plenty of epic down tuned chugs to get you into a moshing mood which is to be expected, but there are also some good solo's to be found. Take for instance the very first track 'Imprisoned By Fear' which gets things off to a hell of a start, or 'Cultivating Humanity' or my personal favorite 'A Bleak Future'. The solo's themselves are only hindered by their relatively short lifespan, which is largely accredited to the fact that the album is very quick in itself. Only one song hits three minutes, on the dot at that, and this kind of makes the album blur together a bit.

The song 'Distorted Consciousness' is the only track on the album I felt was truly disappointing. Being that the instruments are my favorite aspect of this album I would have loved for this instrumental track to have been chock full of epic guitar solo's but it's almost two minutes of straight chug riffs that lead you to believe they are working towards a solo, but never get there.

I have respect for how hard Pathology works, I'm glad these guys seem to enjoy what they do, and I can say that instrumentally this album is a fun listen, but I can't honestly say it'll be one of my favorite albums to come out this year. However, if you are a fan of the band or slam/brutal death you should check this album out because it's probably the best work they've made to date. This album does a fantastic job getting you pumped up for a good circle pit and I imagine these guys would put on a hell of a live show.