Boston’s Pathogenic is a new act to me but they have been around a while with a debut album, Cyclopean Imagery way back in 2011, and a self-titled follow-up album in 2019. Neither of which I have heard.

But I was looking for an early 2025 release to review, and the promotional description of ‘progressive death metal’ caught my eye. so I grabbed the band’s third album, which has been released after a 5 year wait.

This is solid stuff. And while Progressive Death Metal is sort of in the right wheelhouse, this has all sorts of influences going on, noticeably New Jersey’s Cognitive. So there’s some sort of technical death metal/deathcore crossover here. Also, I get some skronky The Red Chord hues as well as some djent-y goodness that reminds me of a heavier, more death metal Periphery and After the Burial or the first Veil of Maya album. There are some very light keyboards, but there are almost no clean vocals. (YAY!) Yeah, a lot is going on here, but it’s all very good.

First, the band-managed production and master here is absolutely stellar; heavy, and crystal clear. This means the angular, lurching polyrhythms hit super hard as heard at the end of “Exiled From the Abyss” or the thunderous lope of “Fragments” (the lone song with clean vocals) and the heaving, stammering title track.

Every song delivers the goods and gets the old shoulders bobbing, notably massive numbers like “Mass Grave Memory” and “Drag Your Crosses”, one of the more death metal-y tracks on the album. And the ‘progressive element is by way of those few keyboards or progressive elements like the start of the 8-minute, more controlled standout closer “Silicone Regime”, there isn’t a ballad or interlude here to drag things own into more commercial territory.

I’m digging this album a lot, and certainly a kick-ass start to 2025, and certainly fans of Cognitive recent album should 100% check this out.

[Visit the band's website]

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