These Slovaks must have been huge "Acción mutante" fans when they were making this album. "Mutant Action" is a Spanish dystopian sci-fi movie about rebelling disabled people in world led by beautiful folks. But as it tuned out these days, it's those "beautiful" fish lip babes that look mutant to me... "Stop the madness" and a picture of syringe... Anyway, there's the movie's logo and some samples herein, and of course it worked as a lyrical inspiration; however, this is not a theme album. The band had their finger on many sociological issues, ranging from religions to war.

Pathology Stench are (or were?) a band from the mountainous territory of Banská Bystrica. Their craft isn't epic folk metal, but death metal. Whereas their 1997 debut album 'Gluttony' was rather blunt (not in a bad way) and partly groovy in style, and not goregrind like their name suggests, this sophomore platter is sharper and more about... erm.. action! Hey, guys learned to handle their instruments better in 3 years between these two albums.

This has some punky vibe to the guitars, as they are grinding their way through without that much of palm muting. It brings in this that "spatter" effect, and is a big element of "action" part of this, kind of "fuck you!" attitude. It's not very catchy, this kind of playing, but there's so great riffing in there every now and then, and also a pinch of fretboard acrobatics to boost things up. So generally, the band took many steps closer to grindcore. The guitars do sound nasty, ripping and aggravating. And squealing like a stuck pig. When the solos happen, they are more "Slayer-ish" than melodic. The drums provide skank beats as well as double kick drumming, so they're in both territories there. The bass guitar is rumbling under, but does not get into a spotlight. Mainly, the tempos are fast and the music is always advancing. The vocals are a shout/growl hybrid, somewhat rattling, and definitely effective and with a bit of variety, putting out trivial lyrics. I know they had ideas there, but translating them to another language didn't go too well.

Generally, it all feels like it was raged through. The songs do have their differences, but they also have that "let's fucking storm it" feel to it for a big part. So, mostly is not catchy, but more like a charge. I take this as a crossover album, a deathgrind one, in fact. An outburst of rage. It easily has the best cover artwork from the band, and also is the most aggressive output by them. It's like "grabbing listener by hair and throwing one around, all way through" kind of a platter. Death, grind and explosive energy.

Rating: 7½ (out of 10) ratings explained

Reviewed by Lane
07/02/2023 14:29