Deep within the south Cali heat of San Diego resides an intense haven for loud music. Vibrant and vast comes the underground metal and hxc scenes that often blur together within that live venue’s. With multiple shows kicking off in the mecca of it all at the Brick by Brick venue that always spill out into the summer heat. SOMA San Diego, the local staple of their metal scene has also seen their fair share of aggressive guitars that have blared away deep into the night. San Diego is a hot spot for all forms of metal and punk and everything extreme. It was here when PATHOLOGY first hit the stage and where it all began. Formed by “Dave Astor”, ex-member and co-founder of THE LOCUST and CATTLE DECAPITATION, back within the year of 2006, where the band took off, releasing “Surgically Hacked” that same year. Since then the band has had a shaky past with multiple record label changes along with several band lineup changes as well. But after several shuffles through his lineup “Dave Astor” has landed on the most stable lineup. Sometimes that's how it works until you find the right members who can convey your artistic expressions adequately, and this line up does just that.

With eighteen years, several full-length album releases, having shared the stage with some amazing and heavy acts such as DEICIDE, NILE and OBITUARY to name a few, PATHOLOGY is back after a few years with vengeance. With their latest full-length album “Unholy Descent” being released under Agonia Records on May 17, 2025 that offers thirteen brutal tracks of pure death that pulverizes you for 38:13 minutes. If you know who these guys are then you know what to expect. This album art is vile, I love the color pallets used. Depiction of hell with a guy tied to some bone pillar being tortured by demons and what looks like Lucifer watching. Mounds of skulls and bone litter the area as winged demons fly within the churning greenish yellow hued sky. The colors blend into deep oranges with shades of black and gray that make up the details. The logo sits above central as the pillar covers a small portion that gives depth. A clean and simple font sits bottom right for the name of the album. An awesome choice of painted looking art for a death metal album. 

An intense synth note blares outwards over a few heavy drum pounds. A classical ensemble picks up, further building the intensity as the opening track and “Intro” sets the tone in a bombastic way. Before you have a chance to realize what happened, “Cult Of The Black Triangle” kicks in with a solid chord progression that coats the heavy slam riffs. The inhuman beast-like vocals puke death as the song progressively gets more heavy with blasting kicks. A solid breakdown hits before the tempo picks up a bit as if the track is on a thick incline of brutality. These vocals just hit differently. “Hermetic Gateways” doesn't stop with the build up. Starting with devastating low tuned slam riffs that pair with bone-shattering blast-beats, and leads that simply howl over putrid vocals. In a truly disgusting display of technical brutal death. “Psychotronic Abominations” carries this putrid technicality of brutal death that leads into an intense solo built around what sounds like palm-muting. The vile aggression doesn't stop.

Each song is well mastered with levels sitting where they need to be in order to really drive home the brutality of the album. Tinged in technicalities and some intricate dynamic aspects that blend over some thick heavy slam riffs and inhuman visceral vocals, this album has all the right elements for technical brutal death metal. Well produced and decently written, each track hits hard and builds the album with intensity. Each track seems to offer little gems of technical prowess that meld perfectly with time switches and slamming brutality. There are even melodic chord progressions that creep in from time to time. This unrelenting brutal onslaught continues on throughout the album and continues into “Apostles of Fire” that lead into an intense solo. These low putrid vocals set the tone over well timed melodics that quickly switch back to technical riffs that tear through you. With an intense and despairing tone, the track sets up the closing track “A world Turned To Ashes” Starting out with a melodic riff that breaks into the thick technical chord progressions before breaking back into more melodics that resonate over the thick and heavy slam riff of rhythms. The dynamic low inhuman visceral growls that seem to coat each track just do such a great job at tying it all together. With that the track ends with a simple classic synth to finish off an amazing album.

From the technical brutality that breaks into well placed melodics and harmonics that meld perfectly. Paired with the brutal tones and heavy drum onslaught of bone-breaking bombardments that pulverize you along with those intense low vocals. “Unholy Descent” has everything you want from a technical brutal death metal band and PATHOLOGY does not disappoint. If you love everything death, and want to keep it brutal, then get yourself a copy of this album for your collection. Thank me later.