Pathetic "Rat King"

    Merciless devastation is what Pathetic unleashes upon the world with their debut full-length album. This pulverizing trio from Calgary does not mess around when delivering their brand of gruesome and savage sounding death metal.

    “Rat King,” is an album that features an unholy onslaught of unforgiving extreme metal music. The band knows how to construct some brutal sounding songs, while also coming up with a variety of unique compositions. You can have a slow gritty juggernaut like riff coming at you one moment which all of a sudden changes making way for an intense tsunami of old school death metal carnage.

    Overall the production and the band’s sound is extremely raw and not overproduced. Unlike most of the modern death metal bands who focus on their image and trying to act like they are guitar virtuosos yet can’t write a memorable song to save their lives, Pathetic seems to have their songs nailed down. The band also effectively utilizes audio clips during their songs, which I think adds to the band’s vicious vision throughout the release.

    If you want to open an album with an impact, you need to take note at what Pathetic does with the first song off the album, “Natural Born Loser.” The music slowly builds up with some dark sounding audio clips and eventually singer and bassist AJ Kovar unleashes a monstrous growl. As the song progresses the band keeps hammering out a terrorizing main riff and drummer Duncan Chisholm pummels the hell out of his kit. Song number two, “Hamatsa,” is gory cut of metal music where guitarist Spencer Kraft throws down a fierce sounding guitar solo that really compliments the song's cannibalistic theme.

    Track number three, “The Fatal Charade,” is an ear piercing attack of adrenaline pumping instrumental entropy. AJ’s vocals provide such a sinister and aggressive tone to compliment the song’s overall sound. Tracks four and five, “Going Postal,” and “Rat King,” are putrid sounding tunes of corpse grinding death metal. I think track number seven, “Frozen to Death (The Starlight Tours),” is probably the heaviest song off of the album and the main riff conveys a very death doom like vibe. You feel as though you are slowly suffering from frost bite and the world around you shakes as the drums and bass lay down these seismic strikes to your ears.

    The last three songs, “Slob,” “Defecating Upon the Grave of the Grand Wizard,” and “Empty Threat,” do a great job wrapping up the album. I mean, “Defecating Upon the Grave of the Grand Wizard,” takes listeners on this feverish journey of old school gore grinding madness. The band seems to have a knack for writing solid riffs that flow with sheer brutal blood thirsty force.

    What I take away from Pathetic’s, “Rat King,” is that true unforgiving sounding death metal is definitely alive and kicking, especially in a world where quality seems to be going away due to a lot of bands not thinking about production before they release an album. Pathetic proves that three guys can obliterate the musical landscape with strong songwriting skills, killer riffs and true extreme music making passion. I don’t know what it is about Canada and trios, but I guess you don’t need a band with four or five members to make an impact.


Pathetic Facebook Page:
https://www.facebook.com/patheticband666/

Pathetic Bandcamp:
https://pathetic666.bandcamp.com/