This is the third album from French death metallers Ad Patres.
I loved 2012’s Scorn Aesthetics, and 2019’s A Brief Introduction to Human Experiments was an enjoyable slab of death metal too. Which brings us to Unbreathable, and the 38 minutes of carnage that it unleashes.
Hmm, it’s not off to a good start. Given my intense dislike of pointless intros and interludes, it doesn’t bode well that Unbreathable contains a track called Intro and one called Interlude…I mean, really? To be fair though, I’ve heard far worse, and Intro at least does add a certain level of atmosphere. Ignoring these then, Unbreathable continues its predecessors trend of drawing out the average song length, allowing the band to explore intricate avenues of brutality alongside their aggressive foundations.
Bringing together old-school ability and modern potency, this is quality stuff. The levels of technicality in the music have been raised, an approach that’s embedded within Ad Patres’ core of brutal heaviness and melodic skill. This gives the impression of a band that sound like the outcome of a fight between Deicide and Psycroptic.
I dunno what Ad Patres have been doing the last few years, but they seem to have been amassing an envious collection riffs. Unbreathable is stuffed with the buggers; it’s like the band have been hoarding them, only now they’ve got too many and they’ve burst forth in the shape of Unbreathable.
If classic, well-crafted death metal brutality is your thing, then this hits the spot. Ad Patres continue to be underrated and overlooked, yet keep delivering the goods.
Wonderbox Metal 