Morgengrau – Extrinsic Pathway
Asphyx-worship in the old-school Death Metal scene ranges widely from the many Van Drunen-style roar homages out there to the oft-resurrected, never-replicated Asphyx-Doom riff crawls leading always back toward the harrowing depths of Pure Death. Morgengrau’s hallelujahs to these Danish heroes take the form of the thrash-bedecked riff stylings of Eric Daniels (and later Paul Baayens). Like Last One on Earth before it, Extrinsic Pathway emphasizes the almighty Riff above all, with Guitarist/vocalist Erika Morgengrau’s six-string assaults utterly (and deservedly) dominating the mix, leaving no room for doubt as to where the focus of these Austin, TX deathgrinders doth lie. Morgengrau’s pallette consists solely of what MvD would refer to lovingly as ‘Death…the Brutal Way’, to the downplaying and denouncement of anything else. The key difference between the two groups is buried within the production; Extrinsic Pathway employs frequencies in the higher range, and while sharpening the performance of the riffs, said sound lacks the same thickness of their primary influence – but this choice, along with Erika Morgengrau’s singular, distinguishable bark, only augments the induction of these Texans’ own personality in the recording. And while Morgengrau have planted their flag firmly into the murky muck of Death Metal, the aforementioned thrashiness of their destruction method never lags far behind, and pleasingly bears the brand of Pestilence’s Consuming Impulse across the breadth of the album. It’s only real misstep is a well-played, but incongruous cover of Sepultura’s ‘Inner Self’, which in the context of all the sounds previously discussed, doesn’t make much sense. Morgengrau’s originals remain intriguing enough on Extrinsic Pathway without any crutches, and thus I’d have enjoyed having one more of their own concoctions on this collection. All in all, a Randy Savage (r.i.p)-strong debut, worthy of any who like their DM doused heavily with a Dutch persuasion. -Jim
Blind God Records
Worm Gear 
Hold it right there; Asphyx are NOT danish, but dutch. Pestilence, Sinister, Gorefest, Thanatos and Pentacle for example are as well. Why I make a point of this you’ll ask? I see dutch bands mistaken for german and danish way too often. Also, in american movies when there is some reference to the Netherlands usually it’s about Germany really (yes you, fucking Austin Powers!).
Jim & Marty, I’ve seen this mistake in the list of distributed titles on the Bindrune/Eihwaz site as well. I can’t remember which band(s) now, but if you want I’ll let you know when I see it.
Ok, done ranting now. Hope I’ve not been annoying or offending. Just proud of our dutch (death metal) heritage. We may be just a tiny spot on the map east of Germany but dammit we matter! 😉
Always glad to be corrected, actually. That’s how we learn!
Oh shit… Make that a tiny spot on the map WEST of Germany of course… Brain fart!
Post edited / reference corrected \m/ You PM Marty the distro changes.