Artwork by PAR OLOFSSON
Ever since Pathology announced the return of legendary vocalist Matti Way (ex-Pathology, Abominable Putridity, Cinerary, Obscured Secretion) and original guitarist Tim Tisczcenko to their ranks, fans were very excited for any new material from the band. I think probably a lot of people also figured that the return of old members might have also meant music in the vein of the bands older material. Well folks, Matti Way is a vocalist. Tim Tisczcenko is a guitarist. This album seems to be getting a lot of flak on the internet. I mean, Pathology’s last two records, “Awaken To The Suffering" and "The Time of Great Purification" were both fairly well received albums. They also marked a turning point for the band. Apparently, they wanted to steer further from their old, straightforward Brutal Death Metal approach to things and delve further into the realms known as Slam or Slam Death Metal. So they lost fans here and gained some there. Both of the aforementioned albums also featured vocalist Jonathan Huber. Huber was formerly of Seattle, WA Deathcore outfit I Declare War, a band that most fans of Pathology had probably never heard of at that time. Despite his seemingly unfitting influences and roots, Huber proved to be a good fit for Pathology's new breed of brutality, and that's when he undoubtedly gained the band loads of new fans. Older fans, however, know that Matti Way brings something else to the table altogether; He is an OG of the Brutal Death Metal scene, a vocalist on most vocalist’s ‘favorites’ or ‘influenced by’ list. If you cannot get as into "Lords of Rephaim" as you were expecting to, you're not alone, but you cannot entirely blame the vocalist switch. Let's discuss what's really going on here.
People are jumping the gun to judge this album just because they liked 2009/2010, Matti Way era Pathology. This is still Pathology and it is still brutal and heavy guttural grossness or whatever you want to call it. This is also Dave Astor's, The bands drummer, first time recording and producing a whole record, or at least a whole Pathology record. Production wise, it may be Pathology's best work yet. Good job Dave. Mixing and Mastering was handled by Danial Castleman, the man behind Lambesis Studios in it's entirety, due the unfortunate current events affecting Tim Lambesis. Production and mastering and how it all sounds, to an extent, is pretty subjective. I mean things are mixed well and everything is clear, but it's definitely missing that raw feeling that the band used to exude. The sometimes enhancing clarity is at other times hindering to the feeling and personality of the riffs. Parts sound a little too robotic and other parts are way more atmospheric than Pathology has ever been. Everything flows on the individual tracks, it's just the album as a whole that struggles to be cohesive.
Overall, with “Lords of Rephaim” you get an album that feels like it is trying to hard to be brutal and, in fact, comes off less brutal than any of the band’s previous releases. There are no more guitar solos. There is a weird atmospheric, Deathcorish, synthed out track. There is a rerecorded version of the song "Code Injection" that doesn't come close to the original. There are guest vocal appearances by Mallika Sundaramurthy of Abnormality and Parasitic Extirpation and Josh Smith of Gutfucked.
Overall, with “Lords of Rephaim” you get an album that feels like it is trying to hard to be brutal and, in fact, comes off less brutal than any of the band’s previous releases. There are no more guitar solos. There is a weird atmospheric, Deathcorish, synthed out track. There is a rerecorded version of the song "Code Injection" that doesn't come close to the original. There are guest vocal appearances by Mallika Sundaramurthy of Abnormality and Parasitic Extirpation and Josh Smith of Gutfucked.
The guys in Pathology are obviously exploring some new ground pertaining to building atmosphere and straying from the straightforward slam-blast-slam formula, I just wish it didn’t sound so forced.
Check it out for yourself!
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