UMUR
"Pathological Rites" is a compilation album release by Finnish death metal act Carnifex. The compilation was released through Xtreem Music in May 2018. Carnifex formed in 1989 and recorded two demos before disbanding in 1993. The second demo ended up shevled though and the material from that demo appear for the first time on "Pathological Rites".
"Pathological Rites" however features more than just the shelved second demo. The compilation also features all material from Carnifex first demo titled "Decadence" which was released in July 1991, the two tracks Carnifex recorded for their 1991 split with Festerday, and "Fresh Flesh", which is a rehearsal recording from 1993. So it´s the full body of work recorded by Carnifex during their releatively short existence.
The material from "Decadence" opens "Pathological Rites" and it´s decent quality old school death metal. Nothing bad, but seldom outstanding. They´ve cleaned up the sound from the original demo and that´s a big plus. The two tracks from the split with Festerday follow and they are both in the same style and roughly features a similar sounding production job as the material from the "Decadence" demo.
Then comes the four tracks from the shelved second demo and lets establish right away that Carnifex weren´t going the death´n´roll way that many of their contemporaries did. Instead the material from the shelved second demo is pretty brutal and sometimes grindcore influenced death metal. Carnifex have however branched out a bit since the "Decadence" demo and the music is a bit more varied and now also features more lead guitar parts and a couple of more mid-paced brutal grooves. The sound production is decent although it´s pretty abrasive and noisy.
The 1993 rehearsal track "Fresh Flesh" closes the compilation and if that track is an indication of anything in terms of the possible direction Carnifex would have moved in, had they not disbanded, I´d say it´s a continuation of their old school death metal style but featuring more tempo changes, more sophisticated melodic guitar work, and more varity in the songwriting. There are no vocals on the track, so it´s hard to know if the band imagined death metal growling or something else, but my guess would be death metal growling.
Carnifex made an impact on the early Finnish death metal scene, and although very few other people than a few Finnish death metal fans from back then probably know anything about them, it´s still a good idea to release some of these early demo recordings in compilation form, to provide the new generation of old school death metal fans with a chance to hear some authentic early 90s death metal. Murky, savage, and a little naive it may be, but it´s authentic and delivered with every ounce of passion possible. a 2.5 - 3 star (55%) rating is warranted.