UMUR
"Pathways To Wholeness" is the debut and sole full-length studio album by US, San Diego, California based progressive metal act Catharsis. The band recorded the "A Cleansing of the Mind" demo in 1993 and short lived Danish metal label Nordic Metal signed an album contract with the band which resulted in the release of "Pathways To Wholeness". The Nordic Metal label only released a few other albums by artists like Lord Bane and The Last Things before being closed. My point with mentioning that is that "Pathways To Wholeness" is a very rare release pressed in a very limited number of copies and you´ll probably have a hard time tracking it down outside Scandinavia.
The music on "Pathways To Wholeness" is technical/progressive metal played by a power-trio which means that the music is rid of polished keyboards. So this is in many ways a 1980s type progressive metal release. The two most prominant influences I can think of is Fates Warning (at their most technical) and Psychotic Waltz. The music is quite challenging and not necessarily instantly catchy. It took me quite a while before I was convinced of Catharsis songwriting abilities. Technical playing sometimes seems to be more important than compositional depth and memorability but the album certainly is a bit of a grower.
The technical playing by the musicians is on a very high level and definitely one of the album´s greatest assets. The rhythm section is tight and at times actually rather funky sounding while guitarist/vocalist Scott Fox handles the vocal duties in typical high pitched singing style. His guitar skills are also considerable and there are some really excellent shredding solos on the album.
The sound production is relatively well sounding considering that it is not a fully professional production (at least to my ears). You don´t always need millions of dollars to produce an album, where music and sound fit each other well.
I´ve had "Pathways To Wholeness" for a long time and it keeps growing on me. It´s a crying shame that Catharsis only made this album because the signs of great things to come are there in abundance. I really enjoy the wild unpolished energy in the music. Something that many other progressive metal bands could learn from. Perfection sometimes kills power. To my ears "Pathways To Wholeness" deserves a 4 star (80%) rating and I really hope more people get the chance to hear this album because it´s definitely highly recommendable to fans of unpolished and adventurous progressive metal.