Pathology - Age of Onset (Comatose Music; 2009)

Pathology is a band that I've known about for a while but never really bothered to check out. Originating in San Diego in 2006, they've quietly released two full lengths before Age of Onset, yet for a band that contained members of the legendary Disgorge I never heard much about them. I was a little skeptical about this album before I heard it because of all the American brutal death scenes California has been in my opinion the most inconsistent. There's some great music coming from there but some really weak material as well.

I'm glad I got over these worries and bought this album however. Age of Onset is basically a return of early Disgorge, right down to the still great Matti Way on vocals, only with better production. If you are a fan of the Californian style of brutal death metal then you will love this. Fast, semi-melodic riffs are contrasted to galloping, pounding grooves. The song structures are such that a large amount of brutality is compressed into a small space. Unlike the TXDM style of blast-slam contrast employed by Devourment and others, Pathology just pack brutal riff after brutal riff. It's not the most memorable, but just like Disgorge's classic debut Cranial Impalement it is very enjoyable while you listen.

Also like Cranial Impalement, the vocals are handled by Matti Way. This is the first Pathology to have Way on it, with the previous albums employing another former Disgorge vocalist Levi Fuselier. Way is one of my favorite vocalists and he is in top form here. His sound is one of the most instantly recognizable and sickest in death metal. His vocal rhythms also complement the style of groove employed by Pathology very well.

This album is not a complete Disgorge clone however, as there are a couple well done melodic sections (the song Gestation Begins is a good example). These are nice breaks from the dense nature of the rest of the album but thankfully are kept to reasonable minimum.

Disgorge and CADM lovers take note, this is probably one of the better albums to come out of the scene in recent memory. For those of you like me who have mixed feelings about the scene pick this up. It's basically a reimagining of California's best material from the late 1990s/early 2000s with one or two unique twists.