Pathogen – Miscreants of Bloodlusting Aberrations
Originally self-released on tape-only in 2009, Phillipino Death Metallers Pathogen’s Miscreants of Bloodlusting Aberrations will give fans of mold-covered Autopsy/Coffins worship dark lullabies to drift off into fitful sleep with. Here we have Death Metal in one of its most raw and potent forms, rife with atonal debauchery, dripping with the dried entrails of a thousand corpses. The DIY attributes serve the punch and thickness guitar-carved here, sounding akin to a deranged butcher’s mix-tape blaring in an abandoned slaughterhouse. The songs stop and start with the gait of clotting blood, ferociously flowing one minute, congealing in putrid deluge the next, but always relinquishing either pace well before the welcome is worn. This tempo-switching, though abrupt in places, sews the song-flesh together without anesthetic, and while rarely expected, remains hail-worthy throughout. The quarter-time break in ‘Abyss of Perpetual Upheaval’ would have Tom Warrior wishing he’d had a V-8, so dulled and unforgiving are the riff-hacks swung here. The warmth of the production complements the dirty ‘old in-out’ of tracks promising to draw lipless grins from the undead hordes that understand what’s being conveyed here, which is thus: Ancient Ways are alive and well, and aside from minor tweaks all their own, that’s all Pathogen will ever need. Even the oddly classic Metal outro on ‘Uranium Messiah’ works, performed as it is with an off-key non-flair that confounds as well as it corrupts.
With barbaric guitar and drum offal tasked with force-feeding the week, Miscreants of Bloodlusting Aberrations channels the bloodlust of first-gen DM with an efficacy that escapes most OSDM practitioners these days. Kudos to Dunkelheit for digging this corpse up and getting it out. -Jim
Dunkelheit Produktionen
Worm Gear 
Wow, Philly guys can make good Death Metal? This release shows the answer to be, YES. I like this a lot.
Cool licks in the Pathogen tune I found online, but I don’t really understand the harmonies of these chords at all–I’m not sure it’s even in tune. The harsh but very enunciated vocals really remind me of Krisiun.
And speaking of whom, I must point out The Extremist by Krisiun as one of the most rockin’ brutal death metal tunes I’ve heard in years. People (like Marty) who have dismissed this band as “all blasts” should check this shit out. It ROCKS.
Hold on to your wah-wahs…