Pathogenic - Crowned In Corpses

Pathogenic is an extreme metal band from the United States, who formed in 2004.  Their latest album, “Crowned In Corpses,” is their third full-length album; they have also released three EPs.

Their metallum page says they were black/death and now play extreme progressive metal/djent now but I’d say their sound hits a lot of different genres so all that still applies to varying degrees.  The important thing is that “Crowned In Corpses,” is a fantastic album with a lot of well-written songs.  

To be honest, this album is my first experience with them so I don’t have any real basis for comparison.  But that’s ok because they have a sound all their own so the album, while fresh to me for obvious reasons, will still sound uniquely itself to even the most loyal fans.  It’s also catchy with a lot of cool hooks—music this abrasive yet this engaging is always a good thing.  

There is a deathcore influence as well but it works in their favor, especially in terms of the production which, while pretty damn clear, helps capture each hard hitting rhythm.  It isn’t all endless breakdowns either so it embraces the best of the genre without falling into stagnation.    Their vocalist, Jake Burns, is an absolute madman and it seems this album is his return to the band–if so, it is quite the comeback. 

Bassist Dan Leahy, Guitarists Jusin Licht and Chris Gardino offer performances that switch from death meal to djen, and everything extreme in between, at the drop of the hat.  Tyler Montaquila’s drums steer this dynamic ship so well that nothing ever sounds disjointed or out of place—each song is a world unto itself but fits into the great whole. 

With 8 songs, and a runtime of just over 42 minutes, it hits the sweet spot for how long an album of this nature should go on.  There isn’t time for boredom to set in but I also never felt like it went by too fast—it has too much depth for that.

The carnage begins with “Mass Grave Memory,” and tight, brutal rhythms.  Once the vocals hit, the song goes even harder.  I appreciate how much Dan’s bass can be heard because so often music of this style just buries the instrument under everything else.  The chorus is catchy as hell and each time it hits, it is sandwiched between massive earthquakes of rhythm.   The halfway point is frenzied and rabid, a testament to the band’s ability to ramp up the energy from 100 to 100,000 within a second.

“Dead But Not At Rest,” has a surprising opening of clean/acoustic guitars.  The solo is actually quite moving too.  I love how the drums offer a prelude of what’s about to hit—utter madness with spastic vocals and brutal rhythms. A wild streak of what amounts to melody runs through the song, giving away at just the right moments to let the sonic density of the heaviness crush into the senses. 

The halfway point, give or take, is the fantastic “Fragments.”  There is a sense of dread throughout the song that really boosts the atmosphere. It sounds strangely alien in some places, like a sci-fi horror movie.  The tempo is more mid-paced in places but they use the moment to let cleans and bass take over; I like this because it offers a different view of the same place.  The solo is one of the better ones as it compliments the atmosphere while leading the song back around to its own extremity before the last two minutes or so are used for a passage of ambient/sci-fi keys.  

Where that song ends in a dimensional shift, the title track returns the band to more solid footing.  Engrossing, and dangerous, guitars send out waves of djent riffs that rip up the ground.  This is definitely one of the more intense songs on the album—with a good pair of headphones on, you’ll feel like your head is imploding. 

The final song, “Silicon Regime,” is the longest song on the album at just over 8 minutes in length.  It’s a fitting end to the album, spending the first minute building up to fast paced guitar and vicious vocals.  The guitars and bass are at their most dense across the song, with a lot of deep riffs that feel like they might actually pop out of the ears.  

Pathogenic’s “Crowned In Corpses,” won me over very quickly by providing a modern blast of extremity that sounds fresh and exciting as it does unrelenting and terrorizing. 

Rating:  Great