Pathology – Unholy Descent (Review)

Pathology are a death metal band from the US and this is their twelfth album.

2017’s Pathology, 2019’s Reborn to Kill, and 2021’s The Everlasting Plague all hit like trucks, with Pathology displaying an easy mastery of brutal death metal each time they erupted from the shadows to strike. This made me excited to experience the punishment that Unholy Descent had to offer.

It seems like almost every review these days I do I have to complain about a pointless intro, interlude, or outro. The last three Pathology albums were blessedly free of such blemishes, but while at first glance Unholy Descent might cause trepidation with an opening track imaginatively titled Intro, I’m pleased to report that it’s short, bombastic, and paves the way for the proper first song Cult of the Black Triangle, which deals out the good stuff in no uncertain terms. Yep, across its 40 minutes in total, Unholy Descent is very much a firm hit of said good stuff. Pathology assert their dominance with crunchy riffs, bone breaking drums, and relentlessly monstrous growls.

This is brutal death metal, so you know the drill. It crushes, it slams, it devours, and it destroys. Pathology are old hands at the style, and know how to write viciously short songs that pummel the listener in all of the ways that you’d want from this sort of thing. Snatches of melody and even atmosphere broaden the music’s reach, but the bulk of Unholy Descent is barbaric and harsh.

Heavy, aggressive, and nasty, Pathology deliver. Yep, this is a fun listen. Unholy Descent is a confident display of brutal death metal belligerence that’s satisfyingly punishing.