Pestilent Death are a death metal band from the US and this is their latest EP.
It’s been a while since the putrid death metal assault of 2019’s Chapters of Depravity, but now Pestilent Death have waded into the fray once more. This is primal underground death metal, in all of its disgusting glory.
Pathways to Infinite Malignity contains four tracks of throat-stomping death metal and has a duration of 17 minutes. Two tracks have originally appeared elsewhere in the band’s discography, while the remaining two appear to be new songs.
Yep, this is good stuff, full of merciless brutality and killer riffs, (check out the devastating start of reimagined opening cut Cemeterial Befoulment as a great example). It’s as harsh as getting your face smashed in with a club, something which Pestilent Death do rather well. The aforementioned Cemeterial Befoulment is horrible, in the best of ways. The vocals are sickening, and after the crushing heaviness of the start, it’s brutally severe and feral. There’s a grindcore intensity to aspects of Pestilent Death’s assault, and it’s very effective.
Next up is Preserved in Agony. After a brief sample and tense ambience, it bursts out of the speakers with ferocious aggression. It’s fiercely punishing, attacking with sharpened claws that lacerate and tear flesh from bone. An infectious rumbling riff can’t fail to move you, while the vocals once again take monstrous bites out of your quivering body.
Revulsions of Immaculate Flesh is short and brutal. A manifestation of unfettered deathgrind violence, this is a monument to savagery that cows all around it into submission. There is a murderous rhythm in the middle which is delectable, but otherwise this is a relentless cut that hits hard.
The final song – Putrid Vaticination – is the longest. Last seen in 2021, (backed by an Incantation cover), this song channels the spirit of that legendary band into Pestilent Death’s most malevolent and darkly atmospheric song here. While the other three tracks were exercises in wanton violence, Putrid Vaticination is an exemplar of a more menacing cruelty.
I thoroughly enjoyed Pathways to Infinite Malignity. From start to finish it’s a great example of the sort of quality death metal that you can find in the bowels of the underworld these days, and I heartily recommend it for any connoisseur of the style.
Wonderbox Metal 